June 2009
Tropicana sweetness
That was the case for the Phillies on Tuesday night in Tampa Bay in the first game since beating those same Rays in five games to win the World Series in October.
Chase Utley was 3-for-5 with a two-run home run, a two-run double and four RBI. John Mayberry had a 3-run homer in the six-run first, in all, the Phils collected 10 hits and scored 10 runs. Blew out the Rays, 10-1.
Jamie Moyer was brilliant, Tyler Walker has been a savor (two more scoreless innings for him) and Sergio Escalona was good. The pitching there, the offense was there, and the fielding was there.
Jimmy Rollins made a great defensive grab off the joke of a catwalk at Tropicana.
Here’s a stat to look at: Four runners left on base, .500 average with runners in scoring position.
When the Phils put that many guys on base, and only left four of them on, that’s a great sign. They were 5-10 with runners 180 feet or close from home plate.
That’s a great thing to see from a team that has been struggling at the dish.
May I just add, Mayberry has been looking pretty good. His homer was a shot off the bat. This guy is making a good first impression on the Phils and the fans.
This was exactly what the Phils needed and more importantly, exactly what the Phils’ fans needed (myself included).
The fans are sick of how the team is playing at home this season; I’m sure you’ll hear it when they return home. But the road has been a different story for the Phightens this year.
24-9 is their record away from the Bank, that’s the best road record in the league. They are far and beyond the best road team in the league; the lowest amount of losses by a team on the road his season other than the Phils are the Dodgers (22-14).
Not only is have the Phils haven’t lost 10 games this year on the road, they are remarkably a better offensive team and the pitching is a lot better. That’s surprising because usually the road is where the hard times come. That’s not the case for the Phils.
A contender needs to win its home games, every team needs to win their home games, the Phils haven’t done that often. Their home record is 13-22, I won’t bore you with more complaining how bad the Phillies suck at home this season. I’ll wait until 10 games from now.
In other news about the game, it was the first time the Phillies played against Pat Burrell in a regular season game.
It was great to see him play again, even if he’s only a DH. He was a very underrated defender because he couldn’t get to a lot of balls, but he wasn’t a bad fielder. He was always in the right position and made the catch and he has a decent arm.
Its sad so see Pat in a Rays’ uni and not the Phillies anymore, and it was great to see him up for the first time.
In his first game against his former team, Pat the Bat was 0-for-3 with a strikeout. As you can tell by the photo, that’s his reaction after Moyer got him to strikeout. I wonder what was going through his head.
David Price was awful for the Rays, but the defense didn’t back him up. Tampa committed three errors, but Price was just pitiful. He lasted just 4 1/3 innings, allowing five earned runs – 10 runs in all – on seven hits. He threw more than 35 pitches in the first inning.
Can I just add that Tropicana Field is pathetic. The stadium is a joke, it’s just a horrible place to play. No fans are there, and the ones that are have cow bells. Come on Tampa, cow bells? They are the worst thing since sliced bread (see how I turned that!).
I need to extend a personal thanks to Joel Pineiro and the St. Louis Cardinals. Pineiro tossed a complete game shutout against the New York Mets, helping the Phils.
As I was watching the Phils game, during the around the scoreboard, the broadcasters showed the Toronto-Cincinnati game and that Scott Rolen hit his fifth homer of the year. Rolen has always been one of my favorite players in the game, and always will be.
To see him have success again is just great for me. He’s been my favorite player when he was with the Phils, and even after he left. He’s hitting .332 with five homers and 25 RBIs. Yeah, the power numbers aren’t the same, but the average is there.
And he still plays one hell of a third base.
When it rains, it pours
Right-handed pitcher Clay Condrey will be placed on the 15-day disabled list tomorrow with a strained left oblique.
That’s four pitchers that will be on the disabled list. The Phils are without Brett Myers likely for the rest of the season, Scott Eyre and Brad Lidge are currently on the DL, but Lidge could return this week.
Clay is an important part of the bullpen in my opinion because of what he does. He’s the long-reliever, but this season, he was more than just your average long man.
In his first 31 appearances, Condrey was 4-1 with a very respectable 2.14 ERA. He was kind of a hero for the Phils, last season he was the mop up guy and this year he was helping setup games and used in important games.
But he hit speed bump during the road, a pretty big one. In his last two games, he has allowed six runs in just 1/3 inning, if you do the math, that’s a 162.00 ERA and he’s 0-1.
I believe that a long-man is very important to a bullpen because there will always be games during the marathon of a season that your starter, no matter who he is, will get hit hard and last only two-three innings and you need someone to pick up some innings. In those games, you don’t want to burn through your pen just to get the game over, you’d like to have one guy to just mop up and give you three-four-five innings if needed.
Clay was that guy, but if you take his last two games out, he was more than just a long man. He was a very good pitcher who was finding success that he never had before.
He isn’t one to care about stats, if he were, he would have quit a long time ago. He never had a great ERA, but he played an important part.
That’s the funny thing about middle relievers, they will have a few bad seasons but they make their mark with a great year. Clay was establishing himself as a quality middle reliever instead of a long man this year instead of just a mop up guy.
Hopefully his stay will just be the 15 days that he’ll be on the down low because I think he’s an important part of the pen.
Sergio Escalona will likely take his place, he is 1-0 with a 4.15 ERA in four games this year.
There will always be this…
One of the best things about winning the World Series that I have found out is that you can always watch the final out, the final call, etc when times are low during the next season. For the most part, this year hasn’t been the best of years and I say this with the Phils up two games on the Mets.
But when times are like they are now, you know, going 1-8 on a homestand and getting swept back-to-back series by the Blue Jays (OK, they are very good) and the Orioles (not so much), you need some kind of relief.
Mine just happens to be the final call of the World Series by the late-great Harry Kalas. I have memorized this entire call, it’s my ringtone, it’s pretty much what I live by now.
What makes this call great, at least the video part of it, is Chris Wheeler’s dance. OK, Wheels isn’t the best color guy or whatever he does, but he’s OK and since Mr. Kalas has passed away, I’ve grown to love Wheels instead of wish he wasn’t announcing anymore.
But I have to admit, he was perfect. He let Harry make his call without disturbing him and at the same time, did the best celebration dance of all time.
You gotta love Wheels!
Home, not so sweet home
That was the Phillies record on their 9-game homestand that ended after the Orioles completed the sweep of the Phils as they beat them 2-1.
That’s two straight series where the Phils have been swept and third straight series loss.
But this loss stung a little extra, it did at least for me.
Cole Hamels was exceptional in his 13th start of the season, going 8 strong innings against Baltimore. It was only the third time he went 7 innings this season (May 14 vs LAD, June 4 @ LAD).
Does he love the Dodgers this season…16 innings, 1 earned run, 14 strikeouts in two starts against Los Angeles this season.
Hamels scattered just 2 runs on 9 hits and struck out 10 batters, all of which came in the first six frames.
Nonetheless, Hamels went deep into the game and that was something he was very furious about in his last start. I expected him to go at least 7 innings against the O’s today, an did that and one-up it as well.
But Hamels didn’t do enough apparently since the offense has failed to produce anything once again. The bats have gone silent over the homestand, other than a few high-scoring games, the offense hasn’t been good.
Granted, Jeremy Guthrie was just as good as Cole, but that’s not an excuse to only get 3 hits off hi and score only 1 run. It was a terrific pitching duel.
The only run the pitiful Phils could get today was a 2nd inning solo shot by Greg Dobbs, who started at first base for the second straight game for the sick Ryan Howard. The only good thing you could take away from today’s game is that the Phils cut down on the swing and misses as they only struck out 4 times.
Really, that’s sad if you think about it. Against the Baltimore Orioles, the only good thing was that you only struck out 4 times? That’s how bad its been for the Phightins.
In the series with the O’s, the Phils had only 18 hits in 28 innings and were outscored 15-8, although the starting pitching hasn’t been all that bad. In the series, the starter’s threw 21 innings and had an ERA of 3.43. That’s not bad numbers and all three starter’s kept the team in the game.
The starter’s put the burden on the batter’s, and they failed utterly. They scored more than 3 runs once in the three games, and scored 2 runs twice. And even when they scored 5 runs in their 6-5 loss to the O’s on Saturday, they still didn’t have a good night at the dish.
The Phillies had just 3 hits before the 7th inning of the second game before they exploded for 5 runs. If it wasn’t for that, they wouldn’t have even scored more than 1 run.
Here’s some stats from the series with Baltimore:
- They were 18-for-98 (.184 average) in three games.
- They struck out 15 times compared to just 4 walks
- Chase Utley was 1-for-12 with 3 strikeouts
- Jimmy Rollins was 0-for-10
- The bullpen had a 10.50 ERA
The average isn’t going to get it done, the strikeout to walk ratio is horrible, Utley and Rollins struggled against the O’s and the bullpen numbers wasn’t very good…when it matter most.
The Phils home record is just absolutely sickening.13-22 at home isn’t going to get it done over the full season. They need to start winning games at home.
Sometimes over the past 9 games, I thought that I was watching the Nationals. For the first time this season, the fielding became a problem quite a few times over the stand. The bullpen was overtaxed and didn’t fare too good, and the starting pitching was just OK.
There isn’t much passion from the guys playing the game, it’s getting too much. They have to right the ship now, it’s only June, but they look like they go out there and expect to win at home.
Maybe its the fans fault, we haven’t booed much. I pose a challenge to every Phillies fan out there, take the key out of your mouth and start booing them when they stink they like have, not just after they lose a game.
The good news is that the Phillies start a 9-game road trip and ends interleague play after this week. Hopefully the trend continues on the road, as the Phils are the far and beyond the best road team in the league with a 23-9 record.
Hopefully that continues when they open a three game set with the Rays for the Wold Series rematch.
Boo!
Pathetic
It’s the bottom of the 6th inning with no outs and the Phillies just got their second hit of the game when Paul Bako got his first hit of the season.
Pathetic.
2 hits against a rookie pitcher from the Orioles? No disrespect to the O’s, they have a lot of good young talent and they will be a very good team in the upcoming years, but they are not there yet. This Phillies team is supposed to be a good offensive team and they can manage only two hits against a rookie?
That’s pathetic.
J.A. Happ allowed two runs in six innings of work, he wasn’t great but he kept the team in the game. He did allow 10 hits, and the Phils are being outhit 10-2 through six innings.
Pathetic, I tell you.
UPDATE (9:03 PM)
It’s the seventh inning and back-to-back doubles have the team on the board, its 3-1 with two men on with no outs.
Here we go!
UPDATE (9:15 pm)
Well the bats came alive in the seventh as the Phils scored five runs to take the lead thanks to Howard. Howard’s consecutive streak is still intact (344 games) when he entered as a pinch hitter and hit a 3-run BOMB! The last time he was sick was in 2006 when he had a PH homer and the GW homer against the Reds.
Maybe Ryno should be sick more often!
Howard out, new look lineup
After losing to the O’s last night 7-2, the Phils look to snap their current four game losing skid. Losers of six of their last seven, the Phillies are without power hitter Ryan Howard as he will miss tonight’s game with the flu.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
Howard is struggling big time on the homestand. He is 8-for-31 (.258 average) on the homestand thus far with 2 home runs and 8 RBIs, but he has 15 strikeouts
Those are horrible numbers except for the strikeouts, but the last four games have been bad, real bad.
In his last four games, Ryan his 3-for-14 (.214 average) with 8 strikeouts. He has walked just three times in the past four contests.
Howard’s last four games:
- vs. Toronto – 1-for-5, 3 Ks
- vs. Toronto – 1-for-2, 1 K
- vs. Toronto – 1-for-5, 3 Ks
- vs. Baltimore – 0-for-3, 1 K
He’s just part of a Phillies team that has 75 strikeouts on their homestand as a team.
The Phillies are not playing great baseball and that needs to change. It’s unacceptable how they are playing and even though I accepted last night’s loss because the Phils desperately needed to give the bullpen some rest, and they did with Antonio Bastardo going 7 innings.
But tonight, its on the offense.
Its on the new lineup to produce some runs and the game’s about to start. Of course, J.A. Happ has to give the team some innings but its not on him. The offense has to score some runs and have to cut down to the K’s.
So here’s the lineup for both teams:
Orioles:
- Roberts
- Markakis
- Jones
- Huff
- Wigginton
- Scott
- Zaun
- Andino
- Bergesen
Phillies:
- Rollins
- Victorino
- Utley
- Stairs
- Werth
- Dobbs
- Feliz
- Bako
- Happ
Matt Stairs will play LF, Greg Dobbs takes over at 1B, and Paul Bako gets the start at catcher.
Bastardo gives Phillies much needed innings
Pitch seven innings.
Only one pitcher has gone seven innings on the homestand and that was Joe Blanton in the first game of the stand.
It was duly noted that the Phillies bullpen has been struggling of late and fatigue is a huge factor.
One thing you could only hope for Bastardo in his start against the Orioles is that he at the very least goes five innings. One inning isn’t going to cut it; his last start he had one inning and allowed five runs to Boston.
But the Phillies got something that no one expected Bastardo to do.
Antonio tossed seven effective innings albeit he allowed four runs on five hits. The most important thing is that he kept the Phils in the game and gave them seven innings.
He had a rough second inning in which he allowed three runs, and after that inning, it looked like it was going to be another very long night for both the bullpen and the fans. However Bastardo settled down and didn’t allow another run until the sixth inning.
Bastardo did his job and some more, the offense didn’t.
The only runs the Phils scored against O’s starter Rich Hill came in the first inning when Jayson Werth doubled in two runs with Ryan Howard scoring the second run on a perfect slide. But that’s all they were able to do.
Oh and Jack Taschner also did his job as well. He went has allowed three runs in two innings. Nice going Jack, proving yourself worthless once again.
The game is still going on, its 7-2 right now with the game likely over. But tonight’s loss is one that I can swallow because the pen got some rest other than Taschner, who wouldn’t throwing in a meaningful game anyways.
So the skid will likely continue, but at least Bastardo gave the Phillies some much needed relief with seven innings.
Thank you Antonio!
Starting pitching needs to go deeper
The Phillies bullpen is taxed, and it’s showing.
Ryan Madson hasn’t pitched all too well in his last three appearances, Clay Condrey all of a sudden can’t retire any batters after such a hot start, Chad Durbin has thrown five innings in the last six days. Jack Taschner is reminding a lot of people of a left-handed Adam Eaton, was that too harsh?
In
two games against the Jays, Madson blew a save and picked up the loss
in the finale. The loss was because Rod Barajas hit a solo homer in the
ninth inning against Madson on a 0-2 fastball.
I personally have
a problem with Barajas’ home run, and it’s not necessarily with
Madson. Chris Coste, why would you call for a 0-2 fastball when the
batter can’t hit anything off-speed and you have a pitcher with one of
the best change ups in the game?
Condrey is tired and its
starting to show, he has allowed six earned runs (7 runs total) in his
last 1/3 inning. Clay has been the long reliever, but for the most
part, he has been more than that. I guess we were spoiled!
Durbin
on the other had has been terrific in his last several appearances, but
he has been throwing a lot of innings. He has thrown 5 1/3 innings in
the last six days.
Taschner is garbage, there’s not much more to say about him.
Park has been great since being moved to the bullpen and Tyler Walker is another arm they brought up and he’s been good in three games with the Phillies.
But the Phillies need their starting pitcher to start going deep into games.
Cole Hamels
has to start going past the sixth inning, he’s only gone more than six
innings twice this season. He has to go deeper, and I’d expect him to
go at least seven in his next start. Jamie Moyer and Joe Blanton have to go deeper.
The most important starter for the Phillies is J.A. Happ.
In his last two starts, he has allowed nine runs in 10 1/3 innings. He
failed to go six innings in each of his last two outings. In five
starts this season, he has only gone six innings twice and one of them
was a seven inning outing against the Padres.
Happ needs to start going deep into games, at least six innings at the very least.
The Phillies need Antonio Bastardo
to go at least six innings in the series-opener with the Orioles.
Bastardo is 2-1 with a 5.25 ERA in three career starts, but his last
outing, he only lasted one inning.
Another solution for adding a
fresh arm in the bullpen is one that I’m sure they thought of, but
haven’t done so yet. First, why is Paul Bako even on the active roster? He has played in one game and he struck out, and he’s the third catcher.
Either
call up another bat that can actually be useful or call up another
reliever that can give the guys some rest. Send down Bako and bring up Gary Majewski.
Majewski
is 2-1 with a 3.76 ERA with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs this season. He
proved to be a serviceable MLB-pitcher in the past.
I mean, how can’t you like his mustache?
Majewski would be a lot more useful for the Phillies than a third catcher who doesn’t play.
It’s getting to a point where the Phillies may need a starter to go
nine innings even if they get their behinds whooped, which is doubtful
that they would do it. Maybe Bastardo can give the Phils a no-hitter
against the O’s later tonight.
Somehow, someway, the Phillies have to get innings out of their starters. It’s pretty much a must at this point.
Uh oh, Ibanez to the DL
Is Raul Ibanez hurt?
The answer is: Yes.
Ibanez was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strain in his left groin.
Raul missed Sunday’s finale with the Red Sox because of a sore left Achilles, but this is obviously much worse.
I read somewhere, I think it was a Scott Lauber column that it has been bothering since April, but the Phillies were unaware until last week.
Matter of fact, it was Lauber’s column: BREAKING NEWS: IBANEZ TO THE DL
It obviously wasn’t bothering him enough not to play in April or May, but it must have been flaring up in the June.
I’m guessing that he was going to play through it until he couldn’t bare the pain anymore, which has probably happened. An injured groin isn’t fun, and you guys should know that!
Whatever the case is, he’s going to miss at least 15 days, likely more. That isn’t good news for the Phils, not at all.
For the next 15-plus days, the Phillies will be without there best hitter in the first two and a half months. The only good thing is that the Phils do have a loaded lineup and if Jimmy Rollins gets going and Chase Utley continues to hit well, the Phils should be fine.
But if J-Roll however doesn’t get rolling, then they’ll be in trouble.
This adds even more pressure on Jimmy to get going because it’s even more important for him to start hitting and setting the table for Utley and Ryan Howard.
Not all the burden falls on J-Roll, this adds more pressure to guys like Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth.
Shane is hitting .292, but that was in the .260s at one point. He needs to avoid one of those slumps that he often goes into, start getting on base and using his speed.
Werth isn’t having a great season, but he does have 11 home runs and 34 RBI. J-Dub needs to start being more consistent and raise the batting average up a bit (.263 at the moment).
The ingredients for success without Ibanez is there, like the kind of success they had last season but without Pat Burrell. But for the ingredients to mix together, the Phillies need Rollins and Victorino to get on-base and use their speed as a weapon.
To replaced Ibanez on the roster, the Phillies have recalled John Mayberry Jr. from Lehigh Valley. Mayberry is 2-for-9 in three games played with his first career home run in his second career at-bat against the Yankees.
It’s raining pretty bad in Philly today, or at least in the suburbs, so I doubt that the their game slated for 1 p.m. EST will start on time or at all, but if it does, Mayberry will be playing right field while Werth moves to left.
Check this video out
I know it’s old, two years old, but I just came across it again while surfing YouTube and I find this just plain out hilarious. I’m from Philly, and love it, but this is all funny stuff. In case you don’t know, it’s Bill Buhr going nuts because the crowd booed three comedians, including him.
I love the Flyers more than the Phillies to tell the truth, but the best part was when was talking about the Flyers and when they wore the slacks. That was just sad.
Funny stuff.
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