If this had anything to do with the bullpen stuff, the next words from Dolan to Shapiro should be “You’re fired”.

I was there. Rondon came out and struck out the first 2 he faced in awe inspiring fashion. The third batter was down in the count. He some how got a peice of the ball and rocketed it off Rondon’s glove, which deflected the ball for an infield single. Again, he got the next batter shaking his head but got behind in the count. Then he gave up a two run home run on a predicable fastball count. 5th batter of the inning struck out with very little clue as to where the ball actually was.

Unfortunately, Rondon looked like someone had put a slow leak into him. His velocity just slowly decreased as the game went on. In my humble opinion, he looked like he slowly lost confidence. In retrospect, I don’t know how many fastballs he actually threw. He may have abandoned the pitch. The R-Phils did look like they had the fastball timing down. However, he kept throwing some really nice breaking balls, and even with as many runs as he gave up, he still had hitters looking befuddled and foolish until, all of a sudden, he’s out of the game.

At first, I thought it may have been a ploy since Akron did not have anyone warming up and Rondon was getting into trouble again. While I am sure that type of gamesmanship does go on, the better pitching lesson is to let him work through his bad days. Unless of course, he ego is fragile, but that seems like a ridiculous stretch.

It is hard to look at his line and think much of it. He does have some great talent. I hope he is not hurt.

I don’t have much else to contribute on the other players that hasn’t been said already. Santana is an athlete. He didn’t have a great night at the plate. Behind it, he was impressive. He threw a strike from his knees and got an attempted steal out at second.

Weglarz has legs the size of tree trunks, and I don’t mean the dogwoods in your backyard. However, he should never, ever, ever attempt to steal a base again ever.

Smith looked good. Goedert needs a new picture of himself for the jumbotron. He looked like an 11-year-old. Arnal put down one of the best bunts I have ever seen.

Only thing else I can say is that the R-Phils have a guy by the name of Taylor that will become a big league star as long as he doesn’t get hurt.