Vance Worley started the year on the farm, and in the first two months of the season made the trip from Lehigh Valley to Philadelphia countless times. Sent down after allowing 12 hits and 5 earned runs (8 total) in a loss against the Mets on May 29th, Worley has made the most of his June call up, cementing himself into Philadelphia's historic rotation once and for all. The Phils have won the last seven times that he has taken the bump, beginning June 18th, and Worley himself has won five straight decisions, bringing his record to 7-1. Since his latest call up Worley has additionally dropped his ERA from 3.41 to 2.02, only allowing more than one earned run once in seven starts.
Next to Worley's astounding stats there is still no indication of where the right hander is from. Sacramento? Impossible. The 3rd round of the 2008 Amateur Draft? Hardly the story. I want to know where he gets his running fast ball, his veteran control, his militant demeanor, the stuff you just don't get from third round picks out of California's capital. Worley defies everything that is structured about the game of baseball. He baffled the Red Sox in late June, and only yielded three hits to the defending Champion Giants in a complete game win Tuesday night. Everything about Worley is exciting, energizing, refreshing, and in a sea of stars, his "averageness" somehow shines.
At 4:00 pm Tuesday afternoon I catch up with a friend in passerby. At the tail end of the conversation he tells me that he is "going to see Worley tonight." Not Utley, Howard, Rollins, or even the aces that lounge in the dugout, but Vance Worley. Where did this guy come from? It hardly matters, here is here now. Unscathed, undetected, and certainly unreal.
JD
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