Squandered and Spent

The Phils' four-hour odyssey in St. Louis came to a somewhat merciful end with Jim Edmonds' leadoff homer in the bottom of the 13th giving the Redbirds a 5-4 win. "That's" Amaury Telemaco gave up the funk, but still gets an A for effort; the guy was in his fifth inning of work and his arm was likely about to fall off.

Bullpen goat horns go to Todd Worrell and Roberto Hernandez, who keyed the three-run 8th for St. Louis sandwiched around a big Cormier strikeout of Edmonds to turn a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 hole. With one out, Worrell gave up a single to Renteria, then a double to Pujols. Cormier came on K Edmonds, then intentionally walked Scott Rolen (thus probably sparing Scottso's legions of Philly-based haters potential nightmare material). On comes Hernandez to face certified Phillie-killer Reggie Sanders--who hit a Bondsian 10 homers in 61 at-bats against the Phils from 2001-2003 while playing, I think, for three different teams. Result: three-run triple.

But if Ed Wade's latest vet reliever fetish objects blew it on the field, it was our friend Larry Bowa who set them up to fail. Sitting quiet in the bullpen was Mr. Wagner, who has owned Sanders more entirely than any fantasy player out there: Reggie is 0 for 14 career against Billy Wags. But Wagner pitched in Tuesday night's 7-3 win, and then again in last night's 6-3 victory. What's more important, bringing him in to protect a four-run lead or having him available for bases loaded, stud hitter up, trying to hold onto the one-run edge?

Ledee at least sent a lot of St. Louis fans home pissed off with a game-tying two-run bomb in the ninth. But it would have been nice to break out the brooms in St. Louis. Meanwhile, I forswore lunch in order to listen to this marathon--and, um, do work--so I'm feeling about as tired as Amaury probably is right now.