Liberty Ball

I’d like to say that the Phillies are good team that’s just strugglng, but dropping two of three against a team like the Pirates makes you wonder if they were really that good to begin with.  Sadly, the Phillies play in a weak division (at least the bottom’s weak) so the Phillies are still tied for second place, even if it is a distant second.

Pitching wasn’t the problem this weekend, it was our bats.  We scored a grand total of eight runs, and five of those came in one game.  Things got off to a really rough start on Friday when the Phillies lost 3-1.  A pretty good start by Bret Myers went to waste because the Phillies only managed a single run on six hits.  The only run came when Ryan Howard scored on Mike Lieberthal’s ground out.  Myers gave up three runs on nine hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings yet still took the loss, his first of the season.

Saturday was a tough loss to take because we actually outhit the other team.  Cory Lidle gave up three runs (two earned) on only four hits with six strikeouts in six innings but all the Phillies could muster was two runs in the 3-2 loss.  Aaron Rowand hit a solo homerun and Pat Burrell singled home Bobby Abreau in the fourth inning.

Sunday we finally hit paydirt.  The Phillies touched up a still struggling Oliver Perez to the tune of five runs on eight hits.  Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollns both homered and Abraham Nunez had three hits.  Gavin Floyd picked up the win despite walking five guys in only 6 2/3 innings.  Fortunately the Pirates stranded 10 guys in the 5-1 win.

The Phillies are tied with the Braves again and we’re both six games back of the Mets, who look like they’re running away with things.  The Phillies head to Miami to take on the Florida Marlins for a two game set, so hopefully we’ll get back on track with a couple of wins over the last place team.

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I guess the favorite thing I like to do in Philadelphia, at least in the summer, is to go to a few Phillies baseball games. I like catching a series between the Phillies and the New York Mets, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves, or against the Washington Nationals. And I totally hope to see the Phillies in the playoffs this year too.

I know the Phillies are tied for second place in the NL East, but 9-12 isn’t going to cut it.  And while the Rockies have been off to a good start, they’re not a great team so this split doesn’t sit wll, especially considering it came at home.

Things started off nicely on Monday.  The Phillies jumped out to a 6-2 lead, and while the Rockies tried to stage a come back, they fell a run short.  Cory Lidle struck out ten in 6 2/3 innings and he picked up the win.  Tom Gordon pitched the ninth and he picked up his sixth save of the season.  Bobby Abreau drove in three runs and Ryan Howard drove in two.  Chase Utley had three hits and three runs and Jimmy Rolling had two hits and scored twice in the 6-5 win.

Tuesday was another one run game but we were on the losing end of things.  All thirteen runs in the game were scored before the fourth inning as both starters were hit hard.  Gavin Floyd continues to struggle and he picked up the loss.  He’s now 1-2.  The pen tried to keep them in the game but the offense ran out of gas in the first half of the game.  Aaron Roward scored twice and Sal Fasano drove in two runs.

The Phillies ensured at least a split on Wednesday as their offense turned it on.  The Phillies jumped out to a 7-1 lead by the third inning.  David Bell hit a three run homer and Pat Burrell had two hits and two RBIs.  Mike Lieberthal and Chase Utley both had three hits.  Ryan Madson didn’t throw all that well but he picked up the easy win.  He gave up three runs on ten hits in five innings and he’s now 2-1.  Tom Gordon had another nice outing and pitched a scoreless ninth.

The Rockies secured the split this afternoon 6-3.  The Phillies actually had a 3-1 lead, but the Phillies scored two in the fifth, two in the eighth and one in the ninth to put the game away.  Jon Lieber had a solid start but it went to waste.  He gave up three runs on nine hits with four strikeouts in seven innings.  Ryan Franklin was hit hard and he took the loss.  He gave up two runs and one of the them was a two run jack.  He was pulled without getting an out.  Pat Burrell had two hits and two RBIs and Bobby Abreau and David Bell both had two hits.

The Phillies travel to Pittsburgh tomorrow so hopefully this is where we get back on track and back to .500 with a sweep.  The Pirates have been one of the worst teams in all of baseball this year, so we have to get the job done.

You can tell when a team is struggling.  The Marlins are a bad team and we had two chances against them.  We dropped one of those two chances.

Jon Lieber continued to struggled on Friday.  He dropped to 0-4, and he lost to Scott Olsen, who made his sixth career start.  Olsen has a weird stat line for the season.  He has a nice ERA (1.50), but a horrible WHIP (1.67) and strikeout to walk ratio (7/8).  Against us, he gave up eight hits and two walks, but we could only get two runners across.  The good news is, Ryan Howard continues to hit the ball well despite being slotted in the seventh spot in the lineup.  If that’s not a case for Charlie Manual getting the boot, I don’t know what does.  Howard was two for four with a double and run in this game.  Lieber gave up four runs on six hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings and his ERA is now down to 7.99.

This afternoon was a nice game.  Ryan Howard drove in three of the Phillies four runs with two homeruns and he’s now batting .345.  The Phillies were also busy on the base paths and three different Phillies stole four bases.  Bret Myers improved to 2-0 and he gave up two runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts in six innings of work.  Tom Gordon continued to throw well and he struck out the side in the ninth.  He earned his fifth save of the season. 

The Nationals have won two straight and we’re now tied with them for third place in the NL East.    The Mets have hit a tough spot so we’re only 4 1/2 games back.  We host the Rockies for four games.  Anything less then a split will be tough to take.  Three of four would be nice.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the Rockies’ team of the recent future.  They’re 10-8 and they’re in first place in the NL West.

Just when it looked like the Phillies were getting back on track, they drop two of three to one of the bottom feeders of the National League.  Man, is our pitching failing us.  In the two losses, the Nats scored 10 runs and even in the win we needed everyone of the seven runs that we scored.

Cory Lidle got the start on Tuesday, and while it wasn’t anything stellar, the Phillies were at least in the game when he left.  Then Arthur Rhodes and Geoff Geary were both hit hard and the Nationals finished with a blow out.  Pat Burrell hit his sixth homerun of the season and he drove in two in the 10-3 loss.

Ryan Howard was the man in the only win of the series for the Phillies.  He had a two run homerun in the second inning, then he had a walk off RBI single in the tenth to put the game away.  David Bell and Bobby Abreau both homered and the Phillies came back from three down to tie the game in the eighth.  This time, the pen did them good.  Gavin Floyd was hit hard (six runs, nine hits in six innings) but the bullpen held the Nationals scoreless through the final four innings in the 7-6 win.

Last night’s game was ugly.  Ryan Madson was pulled in the second inning, but not before he had given up nine runs.  Pat Burrell and Chase Utley both drove in two runs in the 10-4 loss.  Bobby Abreau scored twice despite not getting a hit.

The Marlins come to town this weekend and hopefully we can use them to get back on track.  This is a pretty bad team, so while I’m hoping for a sweep, anything less then two wins this weekend would be pretty bad.

Normally, teams have been able to walk all over the Colorado Rockies.  This year, the Rockies were off to a good start and anytime you play in Denver, you just don’t know what might happen.

On Friday, we had a typical Coors field game.  The two teams combined to score 18 runs and there were 30 hits.  The Phillies scored nine runs by the end of the fourth inning, and only a four run ninth inning by the Rockies made things interesting.  Ryan Madson had a solid start.  He did give up eleven hits, but he held the Rockies to four runs (three earned).  Julio Santana was credited with those four ninth inning runs, but fortunately, Arthur Rhodes and Tom Gordon came in to stop the bleeding.  Chase Utley had the monster game.  He had two homeruns and drove in five runs.  Aaron Rowand went three for four with a homerun, three runs and two RBIs.  Pat Burrell had two RBIs and two runs.

Saturday was more of the same, but this time it was the Rockies scoring ten runs.  Jon Lieber was having a mediocre start until he ran into some major problems in the seventh inning.  He left the game and ended up being credited with seven runs on seven hits.  He had only a single strikeout and he dropped to 0-3 on the season.  Bobby Abreau homered and drove in four runs and Pat Burrell had a two run homer.

Sunday was the anamoly.  Ryan Howard hit a solo homerun in the seventh inning (only his second of the season) and that was all of the scoring.  Bret Myers threw a gem and the Phillies won 1-0.  He threw 7 2/3 shutout innings and he struck out five.  Tom Gordon pitched a perfect ninth and he earned his fourth save of the season.  Outside of Gordon’s first game as a Phillies, he’s done a great job so far this year.  Arthur Rhodes has done a nice job as the setup man as well.

The Phillies get the day off tomorrow, and then they come home to play the Nationals.  Cory Lidle will take the mound in the series opener and he’ll go against Tony Armas.  A sweep will put the Phillies above .500 for the first time this year.

Interleague play begins this weekend, and the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox will be coming to town.  The Red Sox led the league in road attendance last year so Red Sox Tickets are a hot commodity.  And if you don’t want to fight that crowd, the Phillies travel to Shea Stadium to take on the current NL East leading New York Mets.  The Mets have cooled down from their red hot start, but they set an attendance record last year, so Mets Tickets are hard to come by.  If you’re on the west coast in early June, you should pick up some Dodgers Tickets because the Phillies will be rolling into town.  And later in the month, if you’re lucky enough to get Yankees Tickets, you can see the Phillies go head to head with the Bronx Bombers

It’s bad when you talk about the team “improving” to 3-6.  Things got off to a rough start on Monday.  Bret Myers bounced back from a horrible start last week and put up some nice numbers, but the offense wasn’t there.  He left the game down 3-2, but it ended up being Ryan Franklin who took the loss in relief.  Jimmy Rollins and Aaron Rowand both had three hits, but the Phillies three/four/five hitters combined to go 0 for 11.  Rollins scored two of the Phillies three runs and the loss dropped Philadelphia to 1-6.

The Phillies ended the skid on Wednesday.  Mike Lieberthal got things going with a two run double in the second inning.  The Phillies scored two more on Edgar Renteria error.  The Braves crept back into the game and cut the lead to a single run, but a two run homer by Aaron Rowand and a solo shot by Pat Burrell in the seventh inning gave the Phillies the lead for good.  Cory Lidle gave up ten hits in six innings, but only three of those runners crossed the plate and he improved to 1-1 on the season.

Tonight’s game looked like it was going to be a blow out, but it ended up being a very close game.  The Phillies scored five runs in the top of the fifth and had a 7-3 lead heading into the eighth inning.  Then the Braves scored three runs in the eighth and made things close.  Fortunately, Tom Gordan came in and slammed the door shut in the ninth.  Chase Utley had a monster game.  He had two homeruns and four RBIs.  Bobby Abreau and Jimmy Rollins both homered as well.

The Phillies travel to Colorado tomorrow.  Playing in Denver is never easy.  It’ll be Ryan Madson against Zach Day in the series opener.

Well, this isn’t quite what I was expecting.  The Phillies have looked bad, and if it weren’t for a ninth inning homerun for Bobby Abreau on Sunday, the Phillies could very well be 0-6.

Not a whole lot to say either.  The pitching hasn’t been horrible, but our offense has been.  The Phillies have scored only 21 runs in six games, and they’re hitting .248.  if it weren’t for Bobby Abreau’s hot start (.409 in 22 at bats), the numbers would look even worse.

The good news is, I know this is a better team then what we’ve seen in the first week.  The Philies travel to Atlanta for a three game series, so hopefully they’ll get back on track against their division rivals.  The Braves are struggling too (3-4 and two consecutive losses) so hopefully we can use them as a spring board to get a few wins.

I know it’s his first game in a Phillies uniform, but we’re paying Tom Gordon closer money.  Yesterday, he didn’t pitch like one.   He walked two and then gave up the go ahead run to Yadier Molina.  The Phillies loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Mike Lieberthal couldn’t come through with the clutch hit.

The Cards and Phillies square off one last time.  Cory Lidle will throw against Jason Marquis.

I guess you can’t win them all and when you’re facing the only team to win 100 games the last couple of years, you expect a good game.  This was a beat down though.  Albert Pujols hit two homeruns and Scott Rolen hit a grand slam in the 13-5 loss to the Cardinals.

Jon Lieber didn’t even make it through the fourth inning.  He gave up eight runs on nine hits.  The pen didn’t fare much better.  The rest of the way, the pen gave up five runs in 5 2/3 innings.

Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell both hit homeruns.  Chase Utley had three hits and four other Phillies had two hits.  The Phillies left 10 men on base though, not that it would have mattered too much in the eight run loss.

Hopefully Bret Myers will do better on Wednesday.  He’ll face Mark Mulder in a rematch between the two teams.

We came so close to making it to the postseason last year.  One game was all that seperated us and the Houston Astros, who eventually played in the World Series.  We’re starting fresh, and there’s some new faces.

I definitely think the offense will be there for us.  Ryan Howard should be good for 35-40 homeruns, and Jimmy Rollins and Bobby Abreau will do their job.  Pat Burrell should be good for 30 dingers and I’m expecting good season from Chase Utley and Aaron Rowand.  I think our season will be won and lost on the mound though.  Bret Myers is a shining star and Jon Lieber’s a solid arm.  If anyone of those two guys falters, we’re in trouble.  And hopefully Randy Wolf comes back in time to help us out down the stretch.

The Mets have a great team, but I think the Phillies can hang with them.  Tomorrow, we’ll get to see how it all plays out.  Jon Lieber will take the mound against the defending Cy Young winner, Chris Carpenter.