Rank Relief: Two bad teams are still bad

Luis Garcia can't even look at the moonshot he just gave up.

Justin De Fratus can’t even look at the moonshot he just gave up.

The Cubs and the Phillies are both bad teams.  One was smart and sold excess assets at the trade deadline for a pile of young players and/or $ relief.  The other one kept all the pieces that could have helped them start to rebuild.  Maybe they are happy finishing 4th for a few more years.  The smart team did not give up a 3 run bomb in the 9th inning.  Tonight’s rank relief was a real tag team effort.  Luis Garcia set ’em up and Justin De Fratus knocked ’em down.  The saving grace here was a pick off throw that prevented a grand slam.  Generally, and let me emphasize, generally it is not a good idea to walk 3 batters in a row in the 9th inning.  If I had to pick one of these teams to be a fan of for the next five years, it would definitely not be the Phillies – who are holding on to Chase Utley and Cliff Lee like they are 3 games out of the wildcard.

RR 8.6 - 2

The combined damage:  3 walks, 1 home run.  the best part was who they gave the home run up to.  D. Murphy.  Daniel?  No.  David?  no.  Donnie.  Donnie Murphy.