What happened?

Joe Blanton was spectacular over seven innings to lead the Phils to the win and to 25-19 on the season.

Who did what?

Joe Blanton (3-3) earned his third win of the season on seven shutout innings. He gave up five hits, two walks (one intentional), and struck out a career high 11.

Shane Victorino went 4 for 5 with two doubles (11) and an RBI.

Raul Ibanez 1 for 2 with an RBI and a sacrifice fly.

Pedro Feliz went 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs.

Brad Lidge earned his ninth save of the season by pitching two-thirds of an inning. He walked and struck out one.

Andrew Miller (1-2) took the loss by allowing four runs (two earned) in six innings. He allowed seven hits, four walks, and struck out four.

Jeremy Hermida went 0 for 5 with an RBI.

Dan Uggla went 1 for 3 with a run.

Cody Ross went 3 for 4 with a run.

What does this mean?

Joe Blanton, welcome to 2009. After a handful of starts where he was three parts brilliant, one part trainwreck, Blanton had the best start of any Phils pitcher so far this season by pitching seven shutout innings and striking out a season high 11.

For Blanton, it’s a story of one tough inning. It seems like in every start, he would get knocked around for one frame, while pitching like an ace the rest of the way. It looked like he put it together tonight against a team that knows how to hit. And he did it by pounding the zone with strikes, throwing them for 72 of his 114 pitches . Hopefully, this is going to be the Joe Blanton we see for the rest of the season.

What’s next for our heroes?

In game three of the series, Brett Myers (4-2, 4.34) takes on Burke Badenhop (2-2, 5.75).

Bonus baseball!

-In the May 24 game recap against the Yankees, I mentioned how ESPN’s Rob Neyer disparaged Charlie Manuel for giving the majority of the playing time to Carlos Ruiz instead of Chris Coste and his slightly better offensive production.

I urged the Phillies faithful to kindly drop Mr. Neyer a line and remind him just how much Carlos Ruiz means to the pitchers and the defense.

Well, it seems that Neyer took some of that advice and has since retracted his original stance, and after a look at some statistics, (What a novel idea! Using hard data to judge how good a player is!) he’s ruled that Ruiz is, in fact, the better player.

As much as I like to tear down writers when they crap the bed, I have to give credit to Neyer, who actually took the time to resolve the issue. Kudos to you, Rob Neyer.

-As many of you already read, the initial results for the All Star game have been released, and as often the case, the Phillies have three players in the top five for their respective positions: Chase Utley (of course), Ryan Howard (homers, RBIs, defense. Sure, why not), and Jimmy Rollins (Wait, what?).

As much as I love Jimmy Rollins, and although I firmly believe he is one of the top three shortstops in the National League, he doesn’t deserve (at this point) to be in the top five voting for shortshop. However, the most egregious act of voting has occured in the outfield, as our very own Raul Ibanez is 6th (SIXTH!) in voting. SIXTH. As in, there are five more players ahead of him. Are you serious? Okay, let’s all relax and see who is ahead of him.

Ryan Braun (1,698,217) – .325 average with 8 homers and 31 RBIs. Okay, those are solid numbers. Fair enough

Alfonso Soriano (1,640,575) -.253 average with 12 homers and 25 RBIs. Good power numbers, but that .253 average is palty compared to Nyjer Morgan’s .287.

Carlos Beltran (1,332,581) -.367 average with 6 homer and 31 RBIs. Among the league leaders in average and RBIs to go along with a great glove. He deserves a spot on here.

Manny Ramirez (1,213,423) -.348 average with 6 homers and 20 RBIs in 27 games. Not bad, but considering he is currently serving a 50 game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy, I’d say that he shouldn’t even be on the ballot.

Mike Cameron (916,334) – .285/9/22. Really? Really? Are there that many Milwaukee fans?

Raul Ibanez (865,638) – .345 (6th), 17 (1st) , 43 (1st). Ibanez is pretty much leading the world in offense, but he get’s no love from the voters. This is why the All Star game is a disgrace. YES, a disgrace. Ever since Cap’n Bud made the game meaningful, we’ve had to deal with these ridiculous ballots, which are filled out by the fans, which means the All Star Game is little more than a popularity contest.

Look, it you want the All Star Game to mean something, that’s fine, except that there needs to be a better way to pick the players, so that we are actually fielding the best players. There is no reason that Corey Hart should have made the All Star team last year. None. But for Ibanez to not be in the top three is a shame.

So come on, fans. Get out there and vote the right way. Let’s bring some gravitas back to the All Star Game, and let’s give Ibanez his first ever All Star berth.

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