The Glorious Return of Joseph Durbin Durbin

Honestly, J.D. Durbin's middle name is Adam. He's technically calling himself "Joseph Durbin Durbin."

After Adam Eaton landed on the 15-day DL for his chronic spasms of Suckitude (the same affliction that also took down Rod Barajas and Freddy Garcia), thus leaving the Phillies with $24.5 million of starting pitcher carcass spoiling in the sun, I did a funny thing.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Eaton's injury meant that "The Real Deal" Durbin, the once and future king of Phillies spot starters, would find his way back into the rotation for today's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. There is just something about Durbin that perfects encapsulates the inspired lunacy that is the 2007 Phillies, and their starting pitching in particular.

He's been an amalgamation of Bill and Ted thus far, a slacker with a heart of gold and a knack for popping up at historically opportune moments despite the fact he has absolutely no business being there. And you know what? He has amazingly done more than enough to keep the back end of the Phils' rotation afloat (no word yet on if he's going to graduate from San Dimas High).

There can be no certifiable explanation for Durbin's success--not for a guy who pitched 8 total innings in the majors with 13 earned runs before joining the Phillies. His ERA was 94.50 (0.2 IP, 7 ER) when they picked him up for crying out loud!

Since then, he's 3-1 with a 4.44 ERA and 10.03 run support in his four starts. He shut out the Padres on the road. He relieved Kyle Lohse in Lohse's injury-marred first Phillies start and wound up with the win. He even got a save against the Teal Bastards in a game the Phillies led 11-1 in the ninth. That is some strange, strange voodoo right there.

Clearly, the boy is blessed with some sort of heightened consciousness during stressful situations, becoming the perfectly adequate tweener pitcher when we need it the most. He's a beautiful disaster, an accident of history like Jeff Weaver in the 2006 playoffs. There's no way that he shouldn't be a huge failure, given what we know about him and the Phillies.

With the high profile (and highly expensive) flops of Eaton, Garcia, and Jon Lieber, youth is being served on the mound in Philadelphia. It has the potential to be a Detroit Tigers Lite rotation, a collection of young, cheap arms willing their team to victory with enthusiasm instead of experience. With Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick, and the soon-to-return Scott Matheison channeling Bonderman, Verlander, and Robertson (sort of), it's not hard to starting thinking about the postseason. But, fittingly, it may all hinge on Durbin, the sink-or-swim Mike Maroth-type of this analogy. It could mean the Series.

It could also mean he's going to lose 20 games.

Which, I wonder, is the real deal?