Liberty Ball

Now that all the talk about the Cubs is going to go away, we can now start talking about the Phillies 28 year drought which will hopefully end this year.  Jamie Moyer and the Phillies offense couldn’t quite seal the deal last night, but with a rested Joe Blanton, you have to hope that the Phillies can move on and get the NLCS started against the Dodgers next week.  Game time is right about now.

My guess is, Chase Utley is the guy who gets it going.  He picked up just his second hit of the series yesterday, and while he probably won’t get the MVP consideration he deserves, it’d be nice if he could help the Phillies lock things up this afternoon.  While I like Cole Hamels chances, I really don’t want to see C.C. Sabathia get another chance because as far as the playoffs are concerned, he really is due.  Plus it’d be nice to have Hamels ready and able to throw in game one of the NLCS as opposed to burning him in a winner take all game five.

I also want to give a shout out to anyone looking for baseball equipment.  My son is a little league catcher and finding catchers gear is near impossible at your run of the mill store.  I finally found an excellent selection at Baseball Rampage, which had a huge selection of catchers equipment.  The guy I talked to on the phone was also extremely helpful.  I just wished I lived closer to Columbus because their retail store looks like a very cool place to check out in person.

Kyle Kendrick picked up his 10th win of the season last night as the Phillies shutout the Florida Marlins in a 5-0 win.  Kendrick pitched 6 innings giving up just 4 hits while striking out 5.  One spot of concern were his 6 walks.  However, he was able to work out of trouble well, and left the game unscaved.

Ryan Howard lead the offense with his 32nd homerun of the season.  Eric Bruntlett and Jimmy Rollins also had 2 hits a piece.  Newcomer Mike Cervenack got his first MLB hit and RBI in the game as well.

The Phillies acquired Scott Eyre from the Cubs to get another left-handed reliever in the bullpen.

In a not so anticipated return from the minors, Brett Myers pitched decently.  He pitched 5 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 3 hits.  His main problem was that he couldn’t find the strike zone.  He issued 5 walks on the day.

When Myers left the game it was tied 3-3.  After Ryan Madson gave up a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 6th, it was 6-3.  The game would end that way.  The Phillies were not able to muster much offense with only 6 hits on the day.  Both Shane Victorino and Geoff Jenkins hit solo homeruns.  The Mets had Billy Wagner back for the game, and he actually was able to get the save.  I was hoping for another romp of the Mets bullpen.

After squeaking out 2 runs over 8 innings against Johan Santana, the Phillies demolished a Billy Wagner-less Mets bullpen.  Entering the 9th down 5-2, the Phillies tallied 6 runs to take the lead 8-5.  Brad Lidge gave up 1 run on his way to his 22nd save in as many tries.  Joe Blanton got a “No Decision” in his first start for the Phillies giving up 5 runs over 6 innings.  Blanton pitched well except for spots in the 3rd and 6th innings in which he gave up a 2-run homerun in each.  Sadly his nerves won’t be completely gone since he still has to start a game at home.  Hopefully fans will realize that he is a better option than Adam Eaton, and Brett Myers and welcome him.

The only optimistic looking thing going into the top of the 9th was the fact that when the bullpen doors opened Duaner Sanchez came out instead of Billy Wagner.  Jayson Werth lead off the inning with a single to center.  Greg “pinch hit” Dobbs then came up to the plate for Pedro Feliz.  He hit his league leading 19th pinch hit of the season.  Shane Victorino hit yet another single to load up the bases.  After that, the Mets decided to bring in submariner Joe Smith.

It was the next play that basically turned the tide of the game in the Phillies direction.  Carlos Ruiz grounded to short where Jose Reyes (the Mets’ wunderkind) who aptly made a horrendous play.  Reyes bobbled for a second before trying to start a double play at 2nd himself.  Well in his hurry to touch before the Flyin’ Hawaiian (Shane Victorino) got there, he actually got his cleat stuck inches from the bag.  The ump was right on the play and made the correct call of safe at 2nd.  In Reyes’ shock and argument, he forgot to throw the ball to first to at least get one out on the play.  Jayson Werth scored, and the bases were still loaded with nobody out.

After throwing 5 pitches,  Joe Smith was pulled for Pedro Feliciano.  The Phillies countered by pinch hitting So Taguchi for pinch hitter Geoff Jenkins who was going to bat for the pitcher Chad Durbin.  Taguchi had not had a hit in a while, so it was a tough call to make, but boy did it pay off.  Taguchi doubled over the head of the right fielder scoring both Dobbs and Victorino.  Jimmy Rollins then also doubled in Ruiz and Taguchi.  Rollins would score later in the inning on a ground ball by Ryan Howard.

Joe Smith actually shouldered the loss while only throwing 5 pitches with Feliciano taking a blown save (I’m not sure how that works).  The bullpen effort by Rudy Seanez, JC Romero, and Chad Durbin was what kept the Phillies in the game.  Durbin received the win by pitching a scoreless 8th.

The Phillies lost game 3 of a three game series against the Marlins today in the 11th inning 3-2.  Clay Condrey came in to pitch the 11th.  He loaded the bases up then gave up a walk of hit.  Cole Hamels got the start, and once again pitched a wonderful game in which he was not awarded with the win.  Hamels pitched 8 innings giving up only 4 hits while striking up 7.  The thing that got Hamels was that two of the four hits he gave up were solo homeruns. 

The second came at a costly price.  The Phillies were up 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th inning when Hamels gave up a long ball to Cody Ross.  The Phillies were not able to generate much offense after that, and had to rely on the bullpen to get the job done inning by inning.  Ryan Madson, JC Romero, and Chad Durbin all comined for 2 scoreless innings, but Clay Condrey couldn’t keep it up allowing three hits and a walk leading to the loss.

The loss comes on the heals of a 9-5 loss on Saturday.  Kyle Kendrick took the brunt of the beating.  In 4 1/3 innings, Kendrick gave up 10 hits, 3 homeruns, and 7 earned runs.  Pat Burrell was the star Phillie of the game going 3-5 with 2 homeruns in the game. 

After the two losses, and the still somewhat hot Mets, there is now a tie amongst the top of the NL East between the two heading into their series on Tuesday.  If the Marlins win tomorrow, there will be a three way tie for #1.

In case you’ve been nosing around the trade rumors still after we got Joe Blanton, who is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Mets, you might have seen some people say that we are in the running for a huge blockbuster deal to get both Matt Holliday and closer Brian Fuentes for something like Shane Victorino, Carlos Carrasco, JA Happ, and Lou Marson.  Although both of those Rockies players are good, I don’t think it’s worth it to give up what’s left of our farm system just to bring in two guys.  Also, with Geoff Jenkins getting hurt, it would move Jayson Werth to center, and Holliday would have to move to right.  I just don’t see this deal getting done now that we already made one decent sized move.

Buster Olney reported that the Phillies traded for Oakland A’s starter Joe Blanton yesterday.  It was a well known fact that the Phillies were going to make a move to bring in another starter, it was just a matter of finding the right team and players.  Without having many top notch prospects in the farm system it was tough for the Phillies to bring in a big name starter like CC Sabathia or Rich Harden.  Though the Phillies don’t have too much in the minors, they were still rather unwilling to trade the likes of Carlos Carrasco, Luke Donald, and Greg Golson.

The Phillies did give up one of their top prospects in 20 year old 2B Adrian Cardenas.  Cardenas has been playing very well in Clearwater, but is at a position where he will not move up quickly in our organization.  Left-handed pitcher Josh Outman (what a great last name for a pitcher) and outfielder Matthew Spencer were the other two included in the trade.  Outman was converted into a reliever earlier in the season in hopes that he could move up quickly and join the big league bullpen.  He pitched well, but not well enough to warrant a call-up.  Spencer has been doing OK in Clearwater.  He is more than likely one of the names that nobody will ever hear of again unless he’s included on the tail end of another trade somewhere down the line.

Although Blanton’s numbers don’t look very good this season (he is 5-12 with an ERA of 4.96), he is an innings eater, gets very little run support, and is under contract through 2010.  That last part is a big reason why he was highly touted in the trade market.  Often-times you will see a big name get traded for the second half of the season only to become a free agent at the end of the year and go elsewhere.  Unless the Brewers make a splash in the playoffs I expect that to be the case with CC.

At any rate, Blanton is a much better option than Adam Eaton.  It is presumed that Eaton will move to the bullpen.  Brett Myers should be making his way back to the bigs sometime within the next 2 weeks.  If he can get his stuff together and pitch decently, not even well, then the Phillies look to be in very good shape in the NL East.  Right now, the Phillies are tied with the Mets who have been unreal on a current 10-game winning streak.  Their run will stop, however, and they should drift back down a little bit.

The Phillies take on the Marlins and THE WORST ALL-STAR OF ALL TIMES tonight in Dan Uggla.  Uggla was 0-4 with 3 Ks and grounded into a double play.  As if that wasn’t enough destruction for him, he had 3 errors in the field!  For all of you at thesouthfloridafan, HE IS NOT NOW, NOR WILL HE EVER BE BETTER THAN CHASE UTLEY.  They will argue that Brad Lidge picked up the loss in the All-Star game, which is true.  But, Lidge was called on to loosen up 6 different times in the game, and threw an estimated 100 pitches in the bullpen before finally coming in in the 15th inning.  Hopefully he is rested by tonight in case we only have a 3 run lead in the 9th and it is a save situation.

The Phillies enter All-Star Weekend with a .5 game lead for first place in the NL East.  Somehow the Mets picked up there season and have actually been playing well.  I guess Willie Randolph really was the problem for them.  For us, it’s our starting pitching.  The Phillies won 2 out of three against the Diamondbacks to lead into the break but the one loss was when Adam Eaton got blasted for 8 runs in 3 2/3 innings.  The Dbacks scored 8 runs in the 4th.  That’s tough to come back from.  I fully expect the Phillies to add another starter to the rotation before the trace deadline of July 31st.  They have made an initial offer for AJ Burnett from the Blue Jays, and Erik Bedard has been a hot topic ever since that Philly radio show he did.

A .5 game lead in the divisios bodes well for a team that normally plays it’s best ball in the second half of the season.  I have said all along that the Marlins won’t last because they are too young.  The Mets are talented but I don’t think they have the ability to stay strong mentally to compete.  All of them have to be playing well to win, whereas the Phillies hardly ever have everyone playing well at the same time.  We need to get rid of Adam Eaton, and keep Myers in the minors to stay strong into the playoffs.  Our bullpen has fantastic with Brad Lidge being arguably the best closer this season.  The rest of those guys (Tom Gordon excluded) have also been very good.

Enjoy All-Star Weekend (even though it’s during the week).  I won’t be able to because I am on vacation in northern Michigan with no TV.  Luckily there is a bar and a place that has wireless so I can find out what’s going on eventually!

OK.  I give Ryan Howard a lot of crap for hitting around .200.  But the fact of the matter is that when he hits the ball it’s going someplace hard, and usually far away!

Wednesday he hit the go ahead solo homerun in the bottom of the 8th inning to propel us to an eventual 4-2 win.  Pedro Feliz followed soon after Howard with a solo shot of his own for insurance.  Then last night Howard took sole possession of the home run lead with 2 homeruns in the game.  He now has 27 homeruns, 83 RBIs, and is only batting .234!  He could have 100 RBIs already if he was batting .290.  That is simply unbelievable.

The Phillies won 4-1 over the Cardinals with Old Man Moyer pitching yet another gem.  He went 7 innings while giving up the 1 run on 7 hits.  Ryan Madson pitched a shutout 8th, and a little into the 9th before JC Romero came in to get his first save of the season.  Lidge has been used quite a bit lately, and it’s good to know that somebody else can handle the pressure of the situation.

Sadly Pat Burrell was not named the final player for the NL All-Star team.  The Phillies will, however, be well represented with Chase Utley getting the start at 2nd base, and hopefully having the game be saved by Brad Lidge.  Utley is penciled in to take part in the Homerun Derby as well.  Hopefully he won’t go Bobby Abreu on us!

The Cardinals were able to completely dismantle the Phillies offense last night as they shut them out for the win.  Cole Hamels picked up the loss but pitched wonderfully.  He only gave up 3 hits in 7 innings.  2 of those hits were solo homeruns giving the Cardinals a 2-0 victory.

Joel Pineiro got the win in what is the Phillies 4th straight loss.  Hopefully they can pick things up and end the first half strong before the All-Star break.  The Phillies got just 6 hits in the whole game.  That does not lead to success.

On the trade rumor note; Erik Bedard has had his name thrown around a lot here in Philly.  He even did a radio interview with a local station.  Check out the interview here.  Wouldn’t mind getting him as our #2 and getting rid of Myers or Eaton all together.

So I come back from a nice holiday weekend vacation to watch the Phillies come up just short of the Mets 10-9 yesterday after Adam Eaton did all he could to hand the Mets the game.  I tuned into the game at the beginning of the 4th inning to see a highlight reel of the Mets getting hit after hit after hit.  When all was said and done Eaton had given up 8 runs on 10 hits in just 2 2/3 innings.

After spotting the Mets an 8-0 lead, I turned away from the game.  I checked back in to see two homeruns.  One by Chase Utley to bring the score a little closer…now 8-1.  The next one I saw was David Wright’s welcome to the Majors shot off of debuting pitcher RJ Swindle.

The Phillies were able to get to the Mets’ pen for 7 runs in the final three innings, but fell just short when Jayson Werth flew out to center to end the game.  Pedro Feliz drove in two just before that and was on 2nd, but Werth couldn’t pull out a hit.

Tom Gordon is now on the DL (finally).  Myers is still at Lehigh Valley (where he might be for a while seeing as how he won’t close for us again with the extension of Brad Lidge), and Adam Eaton is bad (to put it nicely.  Bottom line: THE PHILLIES NEED TO GET SOME PITCHING BEFORE THE TRADE DEADLINE!!!!

Oh yeah.  Vote for Pat Burrell to be the last man in on the NL All-Star team.

Now that we are done with the latest stretch of interleague play, it is time to reload.  The Phillies started their new look yesterday by demoting Brett Myers to AAA.  Myers has been struggling all year except for 2 starts.  I have been saying for a while that they needed to do something with him.  I wasn’t expecting to see him go to the minors, but that might actually be the best thing for everybody.  The Phillies purchased the contract of RJ Swindle for the time being.  It is unknown how many starts Myers will make for the Iron Pigs, but it should be somewhere close to 4.

The second part of reloading took place last night against the Atlanta Braves as the Phillies won 8-3.  Kyle Kendrick got the win to go to 8-3 by pitching a quality start (6 innings, 3 runs).  The Phillies bullpen got it going again with JC Romero, Tom Gordon, and Brad Lidge each pitching a shutout inning respectively.  Pat Burrell hit his 20th homerun of the year.  Shane Victorino also went yard.

The top 6 men in the lineup (Rollins, Vic, Utley, Howard, Burrell, and Jenkins) each had 2 hits, with Jayson Werth also going 1-1 after he pinch ran for Pat Burrell.  Greg Dobbs did his job by getting a pinch hit for Tom Gordon in the 9th.  Besides the 2 homeruns, and a double by Jenkins, the rest of the Phillies 14 hits were singles.  Paired with 6 walks and a couple throwing errors by the Braves, we had a lot of men on base to get those runs.

The series against the Braves continues right now actually.  In the bottom of the 8th, we are up a couple runs 5-3 after both Pat Burrell and Ryan Howard hit their 21st homeruns of the season.  Hopefully they can add a couple more or just hold off the Braves and get it to Lidge to close it out.

After dropping 6 games in a row, the Phillies beat the Oakland A’s last night 4-0 behind a strong performance from Kyle Kendrick on the mound and Chase Utley at the plate.

Kendrick gave up just 4 hits and struck out 4 in his 8 innings of work before handing the game over to JC Romero for the 9th inning. Kendrick’s record is now a nice 7-3 although his ERA is still close to 5. For how bad Myers and Eaton have been, Kendrick and Moyer (and the bullpen for that matter) have made up for them with their surprising first halves.

Chase Utley hits, the Phillies win. It’s a pretty simple concept. As Utley’s struggles went, so did the Phillies as a team. Charlie Manuel really shook up the lineup and it worked to break out of the losing streak. Here is what the starting lineup looked like:

1. Jayson Werth RF

2. Chase Utley 2B

3. Jimmy Rollins SS

4. Pat Burrell LF

5. Ryan Howard DH

6. Pedro Feliz 3B

7. Shane Victorino CF

8. Chris Coste C

9. Eric Bruntlett 1B

It was very strange to see the lineup get shifted that much after the middle had been relatively unchanged for most of the season. Whatever it takes to win though. Utley went 4-5 on the day with a double and a triple. His average should jump over .300 with a couple hits tonight. Chris Coste gave the needed production from the catcher position (I still think he should be the everyday starter) by going 2-3 with 2 RBIs. Pat Burrell and Pedro Feliz rounded off the production with each having an RBI.

The Phillies have been linked to almost every starting pitcher trade rumor, and I like the fact that they are trying to bring in a big name to be the #2 we need behind Cole Hamels. I wonder if they do get a solid starter, like AJ Burnett for instance, if they designate Adam Eaton or keep him in the lineup and try to put Myers back in the bullpen. Some have said that Myers gets traded, but I don’t feel any team really wants him right now. Also, if you will notice I haven’t been bashing Tom Gordon lately. That’s because he hasn’t pitched due to a “balky shoulder.” He said he is so sore that he sometimes has trouble playing long toss in the outfield with Romero. If the problem persists, look for the Phils to jump into the rumors for bullpen help, especially lefties.

Phillies play at a terrible time for anybody who works during the day (3:30) against the A’s in Oakland. Adam Eaton goes against Rich Harden. I’m going to leave it to I just hope the offense shows up.

The Phillies lost to the Los Angeles Angels last night 6-2 to run their losing streak to 4.  Once again the offense was shut down getting only 5 hits.  Jayson Werth homered and Pedro Feliz drove in Chris Coste in the 7th inning to tie the game at 2.  The Angels then scored 2 runs off of starter Brett Myers in the 8th before he was pulled, and another 2 off of Chad Durbin in the 9th inning.  Myers was terrorized by the long ball giving up three in the game.  He is now 3-9 with an ERA of 5.51.  So much for him being an “ace as a #2.”

One good thing is that Chase Utley’s average did not go down any in the game…Eric Bruntlett got the start at 2nd and Geoff Jenkins actually pinch hit for him in the 9th.  This does not bode well for the what was unanimous All-Star.

It’s very difficult to win a game when you only get 2 hits in 9 innings.  That’s what happened yesterday as the Phillies lost the opener to the Angels 7-1.  Shane Victorino and Chris Coste were the only Phillies to tally a hit, and Victorino and Ryan Howard each drew walks.  The Phillies were even helped out by 4 Angels fielding errors, but could only make them count for 1 run (RBI Chase Utley).

I said Ervin Santana was good and he did not let me down.  He went 7 innings giving up the 2 hits and unearned run all while striking out 9 Phillies.  His counterpart, Adam Eaton, was not nearly as impressive.  Eaton gave up a whopping 12 hits, and 6 runs (all earned) in just 5 innings of work.  I had a feeling it was going to be a rough one when Vlad Guerrero went yard in the first inning with a man on.

As many of you might know, there are a lot of starting pitchers who either are, or are expected to become available for trades.  Since Day 1 we have known that starting pitching was a weak point for us.  That was even with the assumption that Brett Myers might be able to pitch a little.  Jamie Moyer has been more than a pleasant surprise while Adam Eaton has done what I expected.  Adding another #1 or 2 guy to go along with Cole Hamels could be huge for the Phillies.

So far the Phillies have asked about CC Sabathia (CLE), AJ Burnett (TOR), Bronson Arroyo (CIN), and Jarrod Washburn (SEA).  I think that whoever reported Washburn made a mistake.  Most likely they were looking into newly available Erik Bedard.  Washburn is terrible.  The problem is that the Phillies don’t really have the farm system to go out and get guys.  They have Carrasco and Bastardo and that’s about it.  To get a guy like Sabathia, Burnett, or Bedard, they would most likely have to give up both those guys.  Sabathia could still become a free agent at the end of the season so it would be stupid to give up the farm just for his arm for a couple months.

I say we go after a lower profile guy who wouldn’t cost as much and just try to better the rotation in a whole by strengthening the bottom of it.  But don’t be surprised if the Phillies make a move in the next week.  I have heard that Ryan Freel (OF) is being looked at by many teams, Phillies included.  Also Tim Redding (SP, WAS) might be a name to consider.

Kyle Kendrick gave up a 3-run homerun to Boston’s JD Drew, and then gave up a solo shot to the next batter, Mike Lowell.  The Phillies added a run of their own in the bottom of the inning, but after Boston put up 2 runs in the 3rd, the game basically became out of reach.  Final score Red Sox 7, Phillies 4.

Boston is a very good team.  I personally feel they are the best in the AL.  Although I wish we would have played them tougher, especially after the first game win, I’m not too upset to lose 2-3 to them.  I am upset that it happened at home though.  The Red Sox are 18-22 on the road.

What’s most alarming about the game is that Chase Utley went hitless again.  It’s not too long of a streak, but he is 0 for his last 20 atbats.  His BA is now under .300 at .294.  It’s just like I said earlier in the season, the whole lineup doesn’t hit at the same time.  For awhile it was Chase and Pat Burrell doing all the damage, then it was Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard, or Shane Victorino and Geoff Jenkins, or Jayson Werth…you get where I’m going.  It seems like 2 guys are on together while the rest of the team coasts for a little bit.

Tonight the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim come into town to play at 7:05.  25 year old Ervin Santana gets the start for the Angels.  You can go ahead and add his name to the list of very talented YOUNG pitchers.  He is 8-3 with an ERA of only 3.40.  A few years ago I was actually worried because it seemed like all the good pitchers in the league were getting old.  Luckily all these young guys have come through in the last 2 years and have shined.  Cole Hamels, Edinson Volquez, Tim Lincecum, Santana, Cueto, Justin Verlander…the list goes on but I can’t think of any more off the top of my head (if anybody says Joba Chamberlain they are stupid).  I leave Chamberlain off because he is only seen as “good” because he plays for the Yankees and ESPN loves the Yankees.  The dude has not done well as a starter, and how many middle relievers become stars?  Honestly.  I don’t care if he didn’t give up a run in 20 innings.  Brad Lidge did almost the same and he is in a position that is vital to his team.

Well Boston definitely responded in yesterday’s game.  When a game gets handed over to Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon with a lead to close out the last 2 innings of a game, things don’t look good for the opposition.  Sadly, the Phillies were in that position last night as Red Sox starter Jon Lester handed a 3-0 game over to their bullpen to seal the deal.  The Phillies, who put up 8 runs the previous night had only 8 baserunners on 7 hits and 1 walk.  4 batters combined for the 7 hits.

Jamie Moyer picked up the loss giving up 2 runs in 5 innings of work.  Lester shut down our prolific offense by hammering the strikezone.  Out of his 99 pitches, 68 were for strikes.  That’s when it is key to get the ball in play and hope to find holes.  The scariest thing about the Sox is that their starting rotation goes about 8 quality guys deep once they all return.  Or so it seems.

The Phillies beat the Red Sox 8-2 last night.  Ryan Howard plowed the way going 3-5 with 2 homeruns and 4 RBIs.  Now I respect the Red Sox and how they play, but I sure don’t like them.  I hardly ever saw anybody wearing a Boston ballcap until they won the World Series a couple years back.  Out of nowhere everyone was jumping on their bandwagon claiming to have been cursed and been lifelong fans.  Yeah right.

Cole Hamels got the win (his seventh) and Chad Durbin pitched the final 2 innings giving up just 1 hit and without walking anybody.  Jimmy Rollins also went yard completing a stat line of 3-5 with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI.

The most surprising hits of the game were two triples.  Now with Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins at the top of the lineup, it’s not surprising to see a triple or 2, or 3 in a game, but neither of them contributed.  The two who legged out triples were none other than Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell, the two slowest Phillies minus the pitchers.  Way to get out there an hustle.  That’s the mentality this team needs to keep up throughout the long summer months.

So I think it should be a rule that Tom Gordon should not be allowed to pitch in the 9th inning or later of a game.  Granted tonight’s loss, 7-6 in 10 innings, is not all his fault.  There were two errors in the inning that led to Rick Ankiel scoring for the Cardinals.  One was charged to Chase Utley, the other to Gordon, but it was Utley’s poor throw that gave Gordon his error.

Brett Myer’s got knocked around pretty good again giving up 6 runs in 6 innings.  The bullpen pitched a scoreless 3 innings before Gordon came in.  Ryan Madson, JC Romero, and Chad Durbin each pitched an inning in the effort.

Ryan Howard had another big day going 2-4 with 4 RBIs.  I just cannot get a good read on him this year.  He has been the most inconsistent player in the majors.

The Phillies face another tough matchup tomorrow as they begin a series with the best team in the AL, the Boston Red Sox.  Cole Hamels takes on Bartolo Colon in his first start against Boston.  I’m done making predictions on games.

Losing a series on the road 2 games to 1 against a good team is never fun. The thing to remember is that the road team is supposed to lose. It’s called a home-field advantage for a reason. Just look at the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. These two teams have the best record in the AL and NL respectively. Boston is 14-20 on the road while the Cubs are 14-16. The Phillies are actually one of just 3 teams to have a winning road record. Both the Angels and Cardinals are also above .500 on the road. The good news is that even with dropping two games to the second place Marlins, we still lead them by 3 games in the NL East.

Tuesday:

As I said in my dialog with The South Florida Fan last time we played the Marlins, Brett Myers tends to give up homers in the first inning. Well that’s exactly what happened Tuesday. It’s always hard to fight out of a 3 run hole after your starter gives up 2 homeruns for 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning. Myers later gave up another 2-run shot in the 5th inning. Homers from Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins weren’t enough to overcome the original lead of the Marlins as the Phils lost 5-4. Myers, who had been pitching better of late, picked up the loss to run his record to 3-8.

Wednesday:

What a way to spoil a fantastic start by Cole Hamels, Tom. Hamels pitched 8 innings, gave up 2 solo homers and struck out 13! Yes, THIRTEEN! After the Phillies tied the game at 2 in the top of the 9th, Tom Gordon came into the game to preserve the game to give us a chance in extra innings. Gordon did record an out. That ends the good things that he did in the game. He also gave up a hit and walked 2 to load the bases for Dan Uggla. With one out, bases loaded, tie game in the bottom of the 9th, one of the top power hitters this season at the plate, and Tom Gordon pitching, I was not optimistic about the outcome. Uggla ended the game in grand fashion, literally. He crushed the ball for a walk-off grand slam. I figured he would at least get a sac fly to win it, but not that.

Yesterday:

Would you believe me if I said that our best starter is the oldest man in baseball? Well with the Phillies 3-0 win over the Marlins last night Moyer moved to 7-3 on the season. He has been quietly having a very nice first half. He has been able to utilize his offspeed junk to set up his “fast” ball. I might as well just call it a straight ball. The key for Moyer is location which he has been spot on with. He is a pitcher who really works hard to miss opposing teams bats, and hopefully as teams see him for a second and third time this season they don’t start to key in on him.

Moyer pitched 8 innings of shutout ball. He only gave up 2 hits and 1 walk. The Marlins have to be glad to see him leave town. The Marlins are now 0-9 in games that Moyer starts against them. Brad Lidge struck out 2 in the 9th for his 18th save.

Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, and Pedro Feliz all had 2 hits in the game. Ryan Howard is getting back closer to .200. By going 0-5 he is back to batting just .204. That is simply unacceptable for a major league player no matter how many homeruns or RBIs he has. Another player who has not been performing this season is catcher Carlos Ruiz. He is batting just .217 with only 2 HRs and 16 RBIs. Personally I would play Chris Coste over him. I think a lot of you would agree with me seeing as he is outperforming Ruiz, and he is a fan favorite across MLB.

Today:

The Phillies move to the STL to take on the Cardinals tonight at 8:15et. Both teams are 40-28 so it looks to be another good, tough series. Kyle Kendrick gets the start against the surprising Todd Wellemeyer. Wellemeyer made 11 starts last season and they were his first starts in his career. He has started 13 games for the Cardinals this year and is posting a 7-1 record with a ridiculous 2.93 ERA. The Cards, however, are without annual MVP candidate Albert Pujols who strained his calf coming out of the box the other day. Hopefully he can make a fast recovery for them. Look for another low scoring game tonight with the final score being 5-4. I would say that Brad Lidge can finally face his demons and pitch against Pujols in the bottom of the 9th for the save, but that’s not going to happen. He still gets the save though.

Shane Victorino went 3-5 on Sunday against the Braves, scored 3 times, and drove in a run of his own.  Ryan Howard, who is still above .200, was also 3-5 with all three hits being doubles.  He drove in 4 Phillies, mostly Victorino, on the way to a 6-3 victory.

As the guys on TBS said, he looks more confident now and is starting to progress because he is hitting the ball to left field.  During his MVP season in ‘06 Howard showed power to all parts of the field.

The bullpen picked up another win with Brett Myers getting his 17th save.  Adam Eaton had another quality start going 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs.

The Phillies are 15-4 in their last 19 games.  I credit the recent surge to not only the return of healthy Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino at the top of the order, but also to the return of first base coach Davey Lopes.  Since Lopes’ return those two have been on base much more and have been putting pressure on the opposing pitchers and defense all while setting the table for Utley, Howard, and Burrell who each have over 40 RBIs this season.  Only the Texas Rangers can also make the claim of having 3 men with that many RBIs.

The Phillies are up 4 games on the Florida Marlins for the lead in the NL East.  Now I don’t like to say that one game is more important than any other, or that one series is more important…but this one is.  We face the Marlins tonight to start a three game series down in Miami.  A series win here will put us in first place by 5 games.  That is huge no matter what time of the year it is.

Saturday the Phillies beat the Braves, or should I say Chipper Jones, 6-2.  Jones hit a 2-run homerun in the bottom of the 6th inning to then tie the game at 2.  Those would be the Braves only runs in the game.  Thankfully 2-run 8th and 9th innings for the Phillies cemented the victory.

Pat Burrell, Carlos Ruiz, and Jimmy Rollins all went deep in the game.  Rollins hit his in the 9th, while it was Burrell’s 15th on the season.  The Phillies are still barely in front of the Marlins for the league lead in homeruns.  I would like to point out that this game was in Atlanta so the theory that they only hit them in CBP is crap.

Shane Victorino just won the game for the Phillies!  Not only did he score what would be the winning run, but he just won it with a great defensive play.

Brad Lidge came in up 2 runs for the save in the bottom of the 10th inning.  He gave up a week bloop hit, then the Phillies defense had a few lapses.  The next batter reached on a bunt, and the man who was on first went all the way to 3rd as no Phillies covered either 2nd or 3rd base.  Then the man on first stole second without so much as somebody moving to the bag.  This took the inning ending double play out of posibility.  After a strikeout, Yunel Escobar came to the plate.  With two outs, down by 2, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Escobar singled up the middle to Shane Victorino.  The Flyin’ Hawaiian got to the ball quickly and fired a laser to catcher Chris Coste on the fly to nail Gregor Blanco.  It was one of the best throws I’ve seen this season.  Look for it to be on the top plays in the morning.

Phillies win 4-3.  Lidge did give up a run, but got his 16th save in 16 chances this year.

Well Cole Hamels returned to form last night.  He pitched a complete game shutout for the second time this season.  The Phillies beat the Reds 5-0 to win 3 of the 4 games they played.  Hamels struck out 4, walked 3 and gave up only 3 hits in his 9 innings of work.

The Reds committed three errors that helped the Phillies score 5 runs on only 5 hits.  Geoff Jenkins hit his 6th homerun, a solo shot, in the 6th inning.  Of the 5 runs, only 2 were earned.  The next hopeful young star, Homer Bailey, got the start for the Reds.  He gave up all the runs for the Reds.  It was his first start this season after he has been disappointing in the minors.  It was rumored that he might be the 5th starter for the team after spring training.

Right now the Phillies lead the Braves 4-2 in the top of the 10th inning.  Chris Snelling lead off the inning with a pinch hit double.  Jimmy Rollins then bunted pinch runner So Taguchi over to third.  He scored on a triple by Shane Victorino.  Chase Utley just drove in Victorino with a double of his own.

The Good News:

Brett Myers appears to have fixed whatever was wrong earlier in the season.  After his first inning against Florida in his last start and his start last night, he looks to be much better.  Last night he carried a no hitter into the 7th inning!

The Bad News:

The one hit that Myers did give up happened to be an RBI double to Joey Votto.  Votto hit another RBI double in the 9th off of JC Romero for the Reds second run.  That would be all they needed as they had Edinson Volquez starting for them.  This kid is lights out.  he pitched better than Myers’ 1 hit, 1 run performance.  He only gave up 2 hits through 7 without any runs.  Both he and Myers pitched 7 innings (Myers recorded an out in the 8th) and both struck out 8.  It was definitely a pitcher’s game last night.

Ken Griffey, Jr. did not play again last night which leads me to believe he is hurt more than the Reds lead on.  Jay Bruce is good, but I don’t think he is good enough to take Griffey’s starting spot.  I don’t know who will play in RF for them today as they are both lefties and Cole Hamels is throwing for the Phillies.

Hamels has to get a good start in here today (game is at 1:05).  He has not done well his last 2 times after I said he should be an all-star.  The Reds’ lineup is laden with lefty power hitters so hopefully he won’t get banged up by them too much.  He really needs to get all 3 pitches working to get the job done.  He has to be able to spot his fastball to make his devastating changeup work.

Well I fell asleep watching the game Tuesday night.  I was kind of awake when each team scored a run in the 3rd inning, and then I heard the sweet voice of Harry Kalas proclaiming victory.

The Phils ended up winning 3-2 over the Reds.  Pat Burrell hit a 2-run homerun in the 6th to put the Phillies up 3-1.  The Reds got a run back in the top of the 8th when Edwin Encarnacion scored on a sac fly off of Tom Gordon.  Encarnacion also hit a solo homer in the 3rd inning for the Reds.

Adam Eaton had his second strong outing in a row.  He pitched 6 2/3 innings and gave up only 3 hits, and 1 run on the homer to Encarnacion.  The bullpen once again proved why it is the best in the NL with JC Romero and Tom Gordon each getting holds en route to Brad Lidge recording his 15th save.

Besides Burrell’s blast, Jimmy Rollins was the man of the game.  He was 3-4 with a double, 2 steals, and he scored a run.  Chase Utley picked up the other RBI.  He went 2-3.  Adam Eaton got a hit, and Greg Dobbs once again came through in a pinch hit role with a hit, but nobody else tallied in that column.

Once again KGJ didn’t play.  He drew a walk in a pinch-hit at bat late in the game.

So after what I wrote yesterday, Dusty Baker decided to sit Ken Griffey, Jr.  Luckily the game was not short on homeruns.  The Phillies homered three times while the Reds were only able to clear the fences twice.  Chase Utley hit his league leading 21st longball.  Pedro Feliz and Chris Coste each went deep in the 4th inning, with Feliz’s being a 2-run shot.  Jay Bruce hit yet another homerun in his young career.  He was called up last week and is already 2nd in the running for NL Rookie of the Year in my opinion.  Soto from Chicago is leading now, but it might not be long until Bruce catches him.

Kyle Kendrick picked up the win in the 5-4 game.  He pitched into the 6th inning before being knocked out.  He gave up all 4 runs before the bullpen pitched a scoreless rest of the game.  Chad Durbin, Tom Gordon, and Brad Lidge all pitched very well in order to preserve the 1-run lead they inherited.

I just looked and saw that Griffey is once again out of the lineup tonight!

This is quite possibly the most excited I have been for a 3 game series all season.  Not only are the Phillies in 1st place in the NL East, but I get the opportunity to see arguably my all-time favorite player hit his 600th homerun.

Ken Griffey, Jr.  is sitting on 599 career homeruns as he comes into Citizens Bank Park tonight.  He will face Kyle Kendrick tonight, Adam Eaton, and Brett Myers.  Griffey’s lifetime numbers are pretty good against each of them so hopefully we can see him reach this phenomenal milestone.  It would be great for the Reds if he did it at home, but I know that Philly has some of the most knowledgeable fans of the game and I’m sure they will show their class and celebrate for him.

I always want to see the Phillies win, but I might not even care if Griffey gets it done against us.  That’s how much I have loved him over the years.  He has always been a great outfielder (and I love defense), and he has the sweetest swing of all times.

Game tonight is at 7:05.  Also, you can watch the Red Wings go for the Stanley Cup tonight at 8.  It’s always nice to see Pittsburgh lose.  I know I’ll have both games on.

Want to see what thesouthfloridafan has to say about the game?  Well here it is for you.

I had a lot of fun working with the guys over there.  They are passionate about their teams and I love that.  Don’t be surprised to hear more from them the next time these teams get together.  With the Braves losing again today, and the Mets milling around at .500, the Marlins are our biggest competition in the division, so this series and future ones will be very important.

4:15:

And that’s the game!  Lidge blew a fastball right past the youngster.  Like most of the Marlins, he did not shorten up his swing with 2 strikes and took a big hack on a full count fastball down the middle and swung right over it.  Phillies win the series 2-1 with the 7-5 victory.  Dan Uggla went an amazing 1-12 in the series.  Utley only hit 3 homeruns in the series so it was kind of a down series for him too….Now the Phillies are in first place in the NL East.  Big ups to Geoff Jenkins and Pat Burrell for their clutch hits to get us back into this game and win it.

4:12:

Brad Lidge is in to close out the game in the top of the 9th.  He made Mike Jacobs, who had homered twice already in the game, look like a fool with his nasty slider.  Then he let a slider slip to poser boy Uggla.  He hit it hard, but TJ Bohn was able to run under it in left-center for out #2.  Now it’s a full count to youngster Cody Ross. 

3:56:

Well Tom Gordon has walked Luis Gonzalez to start the inning, and is now 2-1 on Ramirez.  It’s not good to put men on base when going into the heart of this lineup.  Good thing they are free swingers (eg. Ramirez’s ridiculous swing on that fastball).  And Gordon struck him out.  I’m still worried that Dan Uggla hasn’t done ANYTHING this series.  He has struck out twice already today, and his BA is now sub .300.

3:49:

Pat “the Bat!”!!! After I said that I wouldn’t be surprised if this game was decided by another homer, Pat Burrell hit a 2 out, 2-run double.  Shane Victorino started off the bottom of the 7th with a single, then moved to second when Tankersley hit Ryan Howard in the ribs.  After another pitching change, the runners advanced on a wild pitch.  They decided to pitch to Burrell rather than walk him with the open base.  Big mistake.  Phillies lead 7-5 going to the 8th with Tom Gordon coming into the game and Jamie Moyer now in-line for the win.

3:27:

Geoff Jenkins hit an absolute bomb to right field in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game up 5-5.  And Ryan Howard just made an amazing play on a botched bunt attempt by Jacque Jones.  Jenkins, who did not start due to lefty pitcher Andrew Miller, pinch hit when the Marlins brought a righty in from the pen.  As the TBS announcers were saying that Jenkins was 0-9 pinch hitting this season, he crushed a deep fly.  The ball went about 30 rows back into the seats, and took about 3 seconds to go from bat to seats.  And Moyer just got Mike Rabello to ground into an inning ending double play, 6-4-3.  We’re heading to the bottom of the 7th with the top of the order coming up.

2:33

So I had a late night last night and forgot that the Phillies were playing at 1:30 today.  Luckily I turned into the game after the Marlins put up 4 runs, with the help of a 3-run homer, in the top of the 3rd.  I did get to see Andrew Miller not catch a ball, and Jimmy Rollins trot home.  It looked a lot like a little league game for a minute.  Then Chase Utley just hit a bomb to right-center for his 20th homerun of the season!  Yeah, 20.

Currently mlb.com is performing some maintainence on their site so I can’t watch the game right now.  Hopefully they get it working later.

Here is what happened in the game from a Marlins perspective.

Cole Hamels did not bring his “A” game today.  This was the second straight start that he has struggled in.  I have always looked to him to right the Phillies ship, and now that the team is running on all cylinders, he is struggling.  He gave up 3 HRs and 7 runs total through just 5 2/3 innings.  He has seen his ERA jump up to 3.73 now.  He has to get a quality start his next time out in order to still be mentioned for the All-Star Game.

Speaking of All-Stars, Chase Utley hit his 19th homerun of the season last night.  Meanwhile, Dan Uggla went an impressive 0-4.  If he’s “the best 2nd basemen in the league” then why does he have fewer homeruns, fewer RBIs, a worse batting average, and WAY more strikeouts than Chase Utley???  He’s 1-8 with a single in the series.  Utley is 3-9 with 2 HRs.