Signs of Life?

Last time the Phillies were discussed in this space, Roy Halladay had pitched a perfect game following an eked out 3-2 win the night before. Not much of note has happened since then, except the fact that the Phillies are out of first place, having been shut out 1-0 by the Marlins following Halladay's perfecto then losing three straight to the Braves, the new team atop the NL East. Chase Utley is having the slump of his career and has to simply wait it out, and Ryan Howard isn't too far behind. That, coupled with the fact that many of the other bats have fallen silent, Jimmy Rollins is still disabled, and Placido Polanco was out for a few games, has spelled offensive disaster.

Chase Utley, wondering where the hits have gone
(Photo courtesy of Wilfredo Lee/AP)

All is not lost, however. The Phillies won 3-2 last night over the Padres, the team with the best record in the National League. Roy Halladay followed up his perfecto with a fine seven inning, two run performance, and he even singled and scored the first Phillies run of the night on a two run homer by Shane Victorino in the 3rd. Victorino later doubled and scored the go ahead run on Jayson Werth's bases loaded walk off Padres starter Mat Latos in the 5th. This was only the third win for the Phillies in two weeks, but the offensive has ended the streak of repeated shutouts. The team still hasn't scored more than three runs in a games since their May 21st 5-1 victory over the Red Sox, the night before Daisuke Matsuzaka nearly no-hit the Phillies and the slump of all slumps began.

 (Photo courtesy of David Warren/Philly.com staff photographer)

In the midst of all this offensive impotence, the strength of the pitching staff has been a bit overlooked. Pitching was arguably the biggest question mark going into this season for the Phillies, but the rotation has for the most part been solid through these hellish last two weeks.

We all know the offense will come out of this. Contact has been made more frequently, the runs have started trickling in, and luck will start swinging back towards the Phillies soon enough. The Braves have been on an absurd hot streak, and it would certainly be nice for that to end soon. I don't have as much confidence in the Braves getting a lot worse as I do in the Phillies getting a lot better, but I do believe things will even out. I'd like to think that by the All-Star break in a little over a month, we'll all look back on these last two weeks and wonder where this hiccup in an otherwise great season came from.

2010 Jimmy Rollins, We Hardly Knew Ye Redux

For the first time since the home opener introductions on April 12, the Phillies were back to their regular lineup in its regular order. Cole Hamels was once again pitching, and all looked right for the Phillies entering interleague play against a struggling Red Sox. I got home in the middle of another nerve wracking 9th inning, just in time to see J.C. Romero walk Adrian Beltre to load the bases with David Ortiz on deck as a pinch hitter. It's a wonderful thing that David Ortiz is no longer the feared slugger he once was, otherwise the ball he hit to straightaway centerfield would have easily been a grand slam that tied the game at 5-5. Instead, Shane Victorino caught the ball to end the game. All seemed good for the Phillies to me, until I read the first recap. Then I discovered that Jimmy Rollins had strained his right calf. Again.

Rollins left in the 6th with a re-strained right calf.

(Photo courtesy of Steven M. Falk/Philly.com staff photographer)

Before I get to the latest in the injury problems for the 2010 Phillies, let's rewind a bit. Where I last left you, Roy Halladay had thrown a complete game loss to the Pirates last Tuesday. This followed a big outing by Kyle Kendrick and the offense on Monday, which saw Kendrick pitch eight innings and the offense score 12 runs to destroy the Pirates 12-2. This followed the weekend sweep of the Brewers, who looked every bit the 2nd to last place team that they currently are. Coming off that and the big win on Monday, Halladay's CG loss took the wind of out the Phillies sails going into a two games series against the Cubs.

The first of those games was another tough loss that saw another wasted effort by Jamie Moyer, who pitched seven innings and gave up only two runs. At this point, I have to say that Moyer, who was demoted to the bullpen last year and had three offseason surgeris, is the frontrunner for comeback player of the year. Hopefully he continues his ageless success. Still, the Phillies only managed one run and lost 4-1.

Thursday afternoon, they managed to score four runs on the long ball, with Chase Utley effortlessly hitting a baseball into the right field seats in the 1st and Jimmy Rollins coming up with a clutch three run homer to break the 1-1 ball game in the 6th. However, Joe Blanton, who mostly mowed down the Cubs through the first six innings, gave up two more runs in the 7th and the game was tied 4-4 on a homer given up by Antonio Bastardo in the 8th. Ibanez came through with a clutch single to make it 5-4, and Jose Contreras had an epic save that followed a hit batsman, a single, two strikeouts, and a pop out. Whew.

Now we can talk about last night, the kickoff bash of 2010 interleague play. The Red Sox came to Philadelphia hoping to continue their hot streak at Citizens Bank Park of recent years, and ran into the wall of Cole Hamels, who had looked an awful lot like the 2008 Cole Hamels in his last four starts. He pitched seven innings, gave up one run, and struck out eight. The offense was keyed by homers Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth, the latter of whom continues to show why the Phillies should pay him lots of money for many years. Between those long balls and Hamels' ace-like performance, the Phillies won 5-1 after the bullpen gave fans a few heart palpitations for good measure.

 Cole Hamels, apparently possessed by some sort of demon

(Photo courtesy of Stephen M. Falk/Philly.com staff photographer)

The hitch in the game was the aforementioned re-injury to Jimmy Rollins in the 6th. This was his first game back in the leadoff spot, and probably his last for a few days at the very least. He's saying all the right things and swears that it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time he strained it. For now, he'll most likely rest tonight and tomorrow and then the Phillies will see how he's feeling. I thought I was done saying this for the season, but once again: get well soon, Jimmy.

A Sausage Fest

After a fairly boring week for Phillies baseball that saw two snow/rain postponements in Colorado, the Phillies batters have been on fire, continuing to score runs at the scorching pace at which they began the season. The Phillies have scored 19 runs in two games, and are now one behind their free swinging series opponents in total runs in the NL. Hopefully that will change today.

The sausage race, a highlight of Brewers home games

(Photo courtesy of mlb.com)

Rewinding a little bit, last Wednesday was supposed to be a double header for the Phillies and Rockies, after Tuesday's game was postponed. Wednesday's afternoon game was played as scheduled, but the heavy precipitation came back and the night game was again postponed. The afternoon was a rough one, where Roy Halladay managed to pitch into the 7th inning while getting out of jams left and right and only giving up one run up until that point. He might have pitched out of the 7th inning if not for some errors and a few bad pitches which ended up tying the game up at 3-3. J.C. Romero and Danys Baez managed to keep it tied for the next two innings, aided by an insane amount of luck (read, hard line drives hit directly at Phillies). Chad Durbin still kept it tied in the 9th, but came out again for the 10th and promptly gave up a walk off homer to catcher Miguel Olivo. This was Olivo's 5th hit of the game, so it's probably good the Phillies didn't have to face him again Wednesday night.

(Photo courtesy of Ed Andrieski/AP)

Moving on to the sausage fest at Miller Park, Jamie Moyer was back on the mound for the first time after pitching his historic two hit shutout against the Braves a week before. He had another outing with several solid innings and one bad one, where he gave up three homers, luckily all solo shots. He passed the 500 homer mark with the second of those three, making him the second pitcher ever to do so. As I've mentioned before, the other pitcher is Phillies great Robin Roberts with 505, and Moyer should pass him in the next three or four starts, so keep an eye out for that. It should be mentioned that behind Moyer and Roberts on that list is no shabby group of pitchers. Todd Zolecki pointed out that, "rounding out the top 10 are Ferguson Jenkins (483), Phil Niekro (482), Don Sutton (472), Frank Tanana (448), Warren Spahn (434), Bert Blyleven (430), Steve Carlton (414) and Randy Johnson (411)." If that's not good company for a pitcher, I'm not sure what is. Anyhow, other than those three home runs and a few runs that could have been saved had Chase Utley not committed an error in the 7th, Moyer had himself a solid outing. The offense provided more than enough support, including some fine production by the bottom of the order and homers by Utley, Ryan Howard, and Raul Ibanez. The Phillies, wearing shiny powder blue throwback unis, took this one 9-5.

Ryan Howard, homering in the first

(Photo courtesy of Morry Gash/AP)

Joe Blanton came to the mound yesterday afternoon and, except for three pitches, pretty much dominated the Brewers lineup. Unfortunately those three pitches were hit out of the park for five runs. One has to keep in mind that Blanton is still in recovery mode after his recent stint on the DL, so he should only get better as the season goes on. The offense came through again, with the bottom of the order pulling their weight and then some, which they had also done Friday night. As a good example of this, Paul Hoover, the back up back up catcher, scored three runs after scoring two the previous game. How many runs had this journeyman scored in his entire nine year career up until this point? Why, I'm glad you asked. The answer is four. That's right, he scored more runs in his first two starts this year for the Phillies than he did in his entire career up until now. In addition to that, Victorino continued his recent destruction of opposing pitchers, going three for six with a single, double, and homer and driving in four runs. He now is second only to triple crown contender Andre Ethier in RBI for the NL, and that's all out of the leadoff spot. That's a tribute both to Shane's hitting and the productivity of the bottom of the Phillies order. The Phillies won 10-6, despite a nerve wracking bottom of the 9th where Jose Contreras finally struck out Rickie Weeks and Craig Counsell to end the game and end his first career save.

(Photo courtesy of H. Rumph Jr./AP)

For now, Jose Contreras had better keep pitching the way he has so far because he is the team's closer. Brad Lidge has returned to the DL, after the Phillies announced he was only day to day following an MRI that showed no serious damage to his elbow. Unfortunately, the inflammation that has kept him from pitching for the past week does not seem to want to go away. His time on the DL has been made retroactive to May 10th, so he will be eligible to pitch again on May 25th, and will hopefully get whatever cortisone or joint lubrication injections he needs to be back before then. Lidge's few appearances offered a tantalizing glimpse at what might be if Lidge is indeed healthy again, and I still believe his arm has life left in it. For the sake of this bullpen, let's hope so. Otherwise Ruben Amaro Jr. and the rest of the Phillies' front office might be busier than they planned come this year's trade deadline.

Hitting Their Stride

For now, the Phillies offense appears to be back, after a lackluster road trip that saw some poor pitching and poor offense. Friday night's game looked to continue that trend, with the Phillies losing 9-1 to the Mets. However, after a 10-0 shutout behind Halladay's pitching and a much needed resurrection of the Phillies hitting, they took the series from the Mets on Sunday night with an 11-5 win that included Johan Santana's worst outing of his career. Here's how it all went down.

Welcome to Philly, Johan

(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)

Friday night was one of those nights that Phillies fans would rather forget. After their crazy, improbable comeback win over the Giants on Wednesday, the team was looking to build momentum and stop the Mets' 7-game winning streak. The Phillies apparently forgot that in order to do this, they would need to: A) score runs, and B) prevent the other team from scoring runs. Kyle Kendrick had another outing that saw homers flying on sinkers that forgot to sink. He only gave up four of the nine runs that the Mets would score, with four more going squarely on Danys Baez' shoulders in an awful 7th inning. Brad Lidge, fresh off the DL, gave up a solo homer in the 9th to complete the rout. The Phillies were held to six mostly scattered hits, none of which were for extra bases. They ended the night a half game behind the Nationals and 1.5 games behind the Mets in the standings, which, no matter how early it is in the season, is a painful sight to behold.

Kendrick proving that Spring Training can't be trusted

(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)

On Saturday night, the ball and the need for momentum went to Roy Halladay, and he did his best job of pretending that his previous five run outing at the Giants never happened. Bolstered by an offense that remembered how to hit, he had his third complete game and second shutout of the year. From ESPN, I learned that he now has more complete games than most other teams as a whole do, and I expect the year to end with that still being the case. Just a quick update from Todd Zolecki from this recent post about Mr. Halladay's season: "Halladay is 5-1 with a 1.43 ERA. He leads the majors in wins, shutouts, complete games, innings (49) and strikeout/walk ratio (9.75).  He is fourth in strikeouts (39)." The offense did its part and broke the game open with a six run 4th inning against Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, who entered the game leading the league in ERA. The victory was a much needed rout and it ended the Mets 8-game winning streak and put the Phillies only a half game back in the standings. Their big inning against Pelfrey foreshadowed an even bigger one against an even bigger pitcher last night.

(Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)

Sunday's series finale match-up of Johan Santana and Jamie Moyer looked to be an easy win for the Mets, pitting their ace and one of the better pitchers in baseball in recent years against, well, Jamie Moyer. For the first three innings, Santana looked like a decent if not stellar version of himself and Moyer looked like Moyer, giving up two homers for a 5-2 ball game entering the bottom of the 4th. Santana was an out away from getting out of the inning after giving up a leadoff double to Chase Utley, when the Phillies decided it was time to really look like the Phillies again. Ibanez singled. 5-3 ball game. Carlos Ruiz walked, but that was okay for the Mets since Jamie Moyer was coming up with the bases loaded and two outs. Seven pitches later, Jamie Moyer was walking over to first base and Ibanez was walking over home plate. 5-4 ball game. Then Shane Victorino hit a grand slam, the second of his career. His first came under eerily similar circumstances, albeit in a more important ball game, game two of the 2008 NLDS, after Brett Myers heroically worked a walk against C.C. Sabathia. 8-5 Phillies. How many players in baseball have had their only grand slams come after pitchers worked walks against former Cy Young winners? Probably not too many. Following Vic, Polanco singled and Utley homered, making it 10-5. For some extra icing on the Mets-destroying cake, Howard singled and Werth doubled him home, to make it 11-5, which would be the final score of the ball game. Johan Santana had the worst night of his career, and Jamie Moyer had a typical night on the mound and an extraordinary night at the plate. As of 11 PM, when the game ended, the Phillies were back in 1st place and all seemed right in the world of baseball.

(Photo courtesy of Tim Shaffer/Reuters)

Going forward, we know that all is not right for the Phillies. Starters not named Roy Halladay remain a concern, though I'm still convinced that Cole Hamels is on the verge of returning to his 2007 and 2008 form. His strikeout and walk numbers are phenomenal, the problem is that opposing hitters seem to pounce on every bad pitch he makes, though they've been aided by a little luck. The bullpen also hasn't calmed down at all, with the revolving door still open for business between the Phillies pitching staff and the disabled list. The latest casualty was Ryan Madson, who of course would go on the DL by breaking his toe kicking a folding chair after his blown save against the Giants last Wednesday. Poor Antonio Bastardo has now been optioned to AAA, called back up, and optioned again in the last five days. This last optioning was to make room for Joe Blanton, who makes his first start of the season tonight in the series opener against the Cardinals. Hopefully Blanton will return as the solid, reliable presence in the rotation that he was for most of last year. And hopefully the wave of injuries ends with Madson and his broken toe.

Forever Young

47-year-old Jamie Moyer finally had the outing we had been waiting for. Finally, he skipped the one bad inning that plagued him in his first two starts, and pitched as he did in the rest of the those starts. For six solid innings. If not for a pair of Chase Utley errors in the 5th, Jamie Moyer would have given up zero runs in those six innings. As it stands, it's hard to get on Utley's case for those errors after the stellar defense that backed Roy Halladay on Wednesday. Utley's double play that night was more than enough to buy him some breathing room for a few games. Still, it would have been nice to continue shutting out the Braves. The greatest moment in Moyer's outing had to be when he struck out Jason Heyward looking in the 6th after throwing three straight balls to him to start the at-bat. Never mind that Jamie Moyer made his major league debut more than three years before Heyward was born.

(Photo courtesy of John Bazemore/AP)

The offense decided to show up again, tallying up eight runs through good, small ball playing. All of the runs were scored on either RBI single or sac flies, but I can't really complain when they scored more than three runs for the first time since last Friday's outing against the Marlins. Greg Dobbs also went 2-for-3 filling in for a bruised Placido Polanco at third for the first half of the game, and Juan Castro continued his suddenly hot hitting, going 3-for-5 and raising his average to .353. Ross Gload also had the second pinch hit of anyone coming off the bench for the Phillies this year, driving in a run in the 7th.

The bullpen decided to return to form last night. Chad Durbin and David Herndon both managed to pitch themselves into and out of jams, but that "out of" part matters much more than the "into." Durbin had the bases loaded for Brian McCann in the 7th, but managed to escape with only one run scoring on a sac fly by McCann before he struck out Troy Glaus, who seems to be booed every time he comes to the plate in Atlanta. In between Durbin and Herndon, Danys Baez had a nice 1-2-3 inning, which was reassuring to see after his last outing a week before.

The Phillies continue their road trip in Arizona tonight, facing the Diamondbacks for the weekend. Cole Hamels will take the mound tonight, and hopefully show that his 8+ innings, 2 ER, 9 K performance last Sunday is going to be the norm from now on. If he does, the bats better not forget to show up this time.

 (Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)

In the final news for the day, J.A. Happ was put on the 15-day DL yesterday after starting to throwing an abbreviated bullpen session and talking it over with the trainer and pitching coach. This is probably for the best, as the Phillies have Nelson Figueroa to cover tomorrow and can get away with a four man rotation after that through the end of this road trip. Happ's DL stint is back-dated to April 16th, so he'll be eligible to come off on May 1st. At this point in the season, and with a potential lingering injury like the one that Happ has, it's a good idea to err on the side of caution here. Plus, Joe Blanton is getting closer to making his return, so the Phillies have a little leeway in giving Happ extra time off. Still, another injury is another injury. Hopefully this will be the last of them for a while.

Putting on a Show

Roy Halladay. 4-0 for the first time in his career. So far he's got a 0.82 ERA (which Cliff Lee also had in his first four games as a Phillie), 33 innings, three walks, and 29 strikeouts. Just to be clear, half of his starts are complete games, which his first shutout coming tonight. The other two games could have been shutouts: he was only taken out on opening day because the Phillies had a 10 run lead and it was important to give the bullpen some time. Last Friday, he probably would have come out to finish the game if the infield had not been a puddle. To be clear, Roy Halladay was not taken out of those two games because he was struggling. In the last three games, Phillies starters have pitched 26+ innings and gave up two earned runs. Unfortunately the Phillies were only 1-2 in those games. Still, it's good to see Doc getting some company going deeper into games.

(Photo courtesy of Gregory Smith/AP)

The other half of this game for the Phillies was not the offense, which only put up two runs on a pair of RBI doubles by Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth, who has quietly put together nine doubles in 14 games. No, the other half of the game for the Phillies was the defense. If ESPN was short on material for web gems tonight, they aren't after this game. The highlights were definitely Shane Victorino making a sprinting leaping catch to rob Troy Glaus of a homer in the 2nd and Chase Utley's incredible diving catch to start the inning ending, bases-loaded double play in the 7th. Ryan Howard also had quite the diving stop in the bottom of the 9th to prevent the tying run from coming to the plate. Even Wilson Valdez, who came in for Placido Polanco after he was beaned on the elbow and suffered a contusion in the 1st, made a solid play at 3rd base to end the game. The defense has long been the unsung strength of this Phillies team, and today they showed why they've consistently been one of the best in the league.

Jamie Moyer is on the mound tomorrow night to go for the series win against the Braves. Let's hope he pitches like he did in innings two through six of Saturday night and not like he did in the 1st. Let's also hope that whoever is inevitably called in from the bullpen does his job well. Finally, let's hope the offense gets galvanized by tonight's win and destroys Derek Lowe.

The Bullpen Rears Its Ugly Head

We knew it couldn't last forever. The offense and bullpen simply could not cover up forever the fact that every starter not named Halladay has gone 6 or fewer innings in each of his starts. The offense didn't get it going until the 6th inning, other than yet another homer by Utley early on. They scored 3 more runs in the 6th, but Shane Victorino left the bases loaded, which would become one of many crucial stranding of runners throughout the game. Still, at the time the Phillies were up 4-1 against a lackluster Nationals offense, Ryan Zimmerman-less, that had only managed one unearned run up until that point, despite the fact that J.A. Happ walked 6 men. He may have a 0.00 ERA through 10.1 IP, but he has a pretty poor WHIP, or walks and hits per innings pitched, at 1.65. Just shows how some of the more traditional stats like ERA don't tell the whole story.

Anyway, on most days, going into the 7th with a 4-1 score against the Nationals would have been just fine. Only it became 4-2 with Bastardo pitching. A little worrisome but not terrible. Then it came apart in the 8th. Danys Baez gave up a home run to Adam Dunn, his first of the year, to lead off the inning. 3 batters later, after walking Ivan Rodriguez, an injured Ryan Zimmerman hobbled to the plate (okay, I'm exaggerating) as a pinch hitter, and of course hit a home run. 5-4 Nationals. Bad, but hey, this is the Phillies offense that scored 64 runs through 8 games so far this season. So after the Phillies were retired in the bottom of the 8th, it was up to Ryan Madson to hold it to a 1 run lead for the top of the order coming up in the bottom of the inning. Instead, he continued the first Phillies bullpen collapse of 2009, allowing batters on 2nd and 3rd for Rodriguez to bat them in with a single. 7-4 Nationals. Still, we believed when Victorino led off the bottom of the 9th with a 405 foot homer and Polanco followed with a single. Then Utley, Howard, and Werth were retired in order. 7-5 Nationals.

(Photo courtesy of Yong Kim/Inquirer staff photographer)

There's nothing left to do after a game like this but dust off and move on. The pitching was ugly, no doubt about that. Roy Halladay will be back on the mound tomorrow, and ideally that will give the bullpen much needed rest after today's implosion. As for the rest of the starters, Hamels has his issues but nothing major as of yet. Kendrick is clearly not going to last very long in the rotation, especially with Charlie moving Halladay up to tomorrow from Saturday, since there was an off day this week. This sets up the possibility that Kendrick's next scheduled start can simply be skipped with another off day next week. Joe Blanton should be close to recovered by then. Jamie Moyer's next start will be against the Marlins on Saturday, and it will be interesting to see how he fares against that lineup. In his last start against the Fish last year, he pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 hit, striking out 4. It will also be his day to make history, becoming the first non-knuckleballer in major league history to start more than one game at his age or older.

(Photo courtesy of Pat Sullivan/AP)

Many consider tomorrow night to be the real beginning of the Phillies season, after warming up against the Nationals and Astros for the first 3 series of the season. I don't buy this, but I do agree that the next series against the Marlins then after that against the Braves and Giants will be a truer measure of what the Phillies 2010 season will turn out to be. Game on.

Game 8: Jimmy Who?

Another win is in the books for the Phillies in this offensively hot 2010 season, with them beating the Nationals 14-7. Yes, the Nationals scored 7 runs, 6 of which were off Kyle Kendrick. Remember how people always said to not trust Spring Training results, no matter how tempting? This is starting to look like a good case for why. Of course, it's only 2 starts, but he probably had the most to prove as a starter going into this, and has not done so, even against the Washington Nationals. Once again, he needs to go back to working out with Roy Halladay.

(Photo courtesy of Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

The story of the night, going in, was the effect that losing Jimmy Rollins to the DL (out 2-4 weeks officially, hopefully on the lower end of that) and resting Jayson Werth. Well, from the 1st inning it was clear that this game belonged to the offense, on both sides. Stammen and Kendrick were both rocked and knocked out in less than 2. Kendrick gave up 6 runs in 1.2 innings, Stammen gave up 7 runs in 1.1. Not exactly your classic pitchers' duel. Once again, the Phillies bullpen was phenomenal, giving up 1 run in 7.1 innings. Figueroa not only pitched effectively, but hit a single and a double. He's looking like a better pick up every time he goes out. Durbin continued to look as effective this year as he was disappointing last year. Bastardo and Herndon combined to pitch a scoreless 8th and 9th.

Back to that offense, Shane Victorino's performance in the lead off spot was simply stellar. He was 4 for 5 with 2 singles, a 3 run triple, and a 2 run homer. That's 4 for 5 and a double shy of the cycle. He was certain doing his best 2010 J-Roll impression. Then there was Chase Utley, with his 2nd and 3rd homers in as many games. Placido Polanco and Ryan Howard also contributed multi-hit games of their own (as did the aforementioned Figueroa). All in all, J-Roll was missed, but not in the box score.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Slocum/AP)

Now, it's on to the final game of the series tomorrow, and Happ will try to bring the second sweep in a row for the Phils. So far, the offense is scary good. There's no two ways about that. You can argue all day long that we've only faced the Nationals and the Astros so far, and there's certainly some merit to that. However, even good teams playing terrible teams don't tend to average 8 runs a game. Winning 7 of 8 is impressive no matter what the schedule is. That being said, it'll be fun to see what happens going forward against the Marlins this weekend and against the Braves after that. I say, bring it on.

Let the Roller Coaster Ride Begin

Having been at the game once again yesterday, I can easily say that the final score of 8-4 does not do justice to the fact that the real Phillies season started yesterday. That would be the Phillies season where, even when we're ahead, the team still does its best to treat us to a nice roller coaster ride of nerves.

Let's begin with mediums, then I'll get to the highs and lows. Cole Hamels. His much ballyhooed start was certainly not his best. Then again, compared to his first start last year, this one was an absolute gem. He clearly was not hitting his spots all the time, based on the 4 walks he issued in 5 innings. He also struck out 5, so while that's not a great K/BB ratio, it's still a great K/9 IP ratio. It's also one start, but hey, the numbers have to start somewhere. Despite his struggles, he did manage to get himself the win and only gave up 2 earned runs.

 (Photo courtesy of Yong Kim / Inquirer staff photographer)

Hamels showed flashes of 2009, which was certainly cause for a few heart palpitations. However, he never became completely unhinged by a bad inning as occurred a few times last season. The closest it came to that was after he gave up a solo homer to Ian Desmond to start the 3rd, then issued back to back walks and 2 singles. However he got out of a bases loaded jam to end that inning. That bases loaded jam was certainly one of the lows of the game, but Hamels escaped relatively unscathed. His greatest problem and cause for concern going forward, was not so much the damage caused by the Nats line-up, but the number of pitches it took Hamels to limit that damage. Giving up 2 earned runs in 5 innings is fine, but if it takes him 103 pitches to do so every time, he will not go any deeper into games. Which brings us to the Phillies bullpen last night.

On the whole, the 'pen was a high. Chad Durbin looked sharp, after a fairly lackluster 2009 season. Danys Baez struggled, but was bailed out by Antonio Bastardo doing what he's paid to do as the lefty specialist: come in for one left-handed batter, throw a pitch, get an out, and hand the ball off to the next pitcher. That next pitcher was Ryan Madson who registered the four out save and was throwing some sharp stuff. He even got an at bat with the bases loaded, and I was really hoping for a relief pitcher grand slam. I wonder how many of those there have been in baseball history.

Another high was the offense. Rollins had his second 2 BB game in a row. He only had 4 such games all season last year, so that certainly bodes well.  Polanco, Utley, Howard, and Ruiz all had multi-hit games, and Howard blasted (and I mean blasted) his 2nd homer in as many games. Hell, even Cole Hamels had an RBI single, making him the 2nd Phillies starter in 2 games to do so. I wonder how many teams have started off their seasons with back to back games with pitcher RBIs. If anyone has any insight on that, let me know.

So there you have it, game 2 of the 2010 season. The good, the bad, and the mediocre of the Phillies season so far. The offense overall looks great, though it would be nice if the bats of Ibanez and Werth started showing some life soon. The pitching was solid in the end, but not wonderful. Despite the 8-4 final score, there were several near disasters in this game against a line-up that is hardly among the most fearsome in baseball.

In the greater scheme of things, the Phillies added some pitching depth by claiming Nelson Figueroa off waivers yesterday, who is likely to go straight into the bullpen today and replace Drew Carpenter. This strikes me as a good, low-risk move at a time when the Phillies sorely need more major league-ready pitching depth. It also gives Figueroa another shot at proving his value to the Phillies as part of that ill-fated Curt Schilling trade to the Diamondbacks all those years ago.

One final note: Kyle Kendrick has his first start of 2010 today against the Nationals, and his days in the rotation may be numbered. I fully expect him not to take that time for granted and pitch his hardest to make his case for the 5th starter spot when Blanton returns from the DL. Hopefully he'll continue his spring training emulation of his man crush. All Phillies eyes (and ears in my case, since the game will be blacked out on mlb.tv) will be on that starting at 4:35 PM.

Spring is here!

Though pitchers and catchers officially report tomorrow to sunny Clearwater, Florida, many have been throwing the ball around since yesterday.  That's right, spring has arrived for the Phillies. Spring has certainly not arrived in Philadelphia, my former home, or in DC, my current one.  Hopefully all of this snow will  be gone by the time I go see the debut of one Harry Leroy Halladay on April 5th at Nationals Park.  That same pitcher looks quite dashing in front of his brand new Phillies locker.  Now there's a sight to warm the hearts of Phillies fans.  That should hold us over until we have pictures of him destroying the Nats in 40 short days.

(Photo courtesy of Yong Kim at the Daily News)

Speaking of Phillies pitchers, Brad Lidge made himself available to the media today.  It sounds like he decided to finally tell the truth about the extent of injuries last year.  Either that or he's making a great effort to find a scapegoat for that dismal record of his in 2009, which does not need to be repeated here.  As I've stated before, I'm optimistic about his chances for a good, if not great season in 2010, and I do believe that those injuries and Lidge's denial of those injuries last year did a lot of harm.  Let's hope we see some quick evidence of improvements, especially a good down fastball and that biting slider that made him the closer we knew and loved in 2008.

For a whole run down of the state of Brad Lidge, check out what Scott Lauber has to say over in his blog, Philled In.  In the end, I just want to see more of this in 2010 than we did last season:

(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

The stories emerging from Clearwater are music to my ears so far.  Philippe Aumont's fastball has impressive movement on it.  Chase Utley is even faster than last year, when he was certainly no slouch at stealing bases.  J.C. Romero is doing better than expected and could be back providing some much needed left-handed relief sooner than expected.  Oh, and that Roy Halladay is just as inhuman as we all hoped he would be.

So spring has arrived and there is much to be happy about as a Phillies fan.  This is a better team than we had last year.  We shouldn't need Raul Ibanez to carry most of the offense until June this year, and Jimmy Rollins will more than likely remember how to hit before July this time around.  And we have Roy Halladay replacing half a year of Brett Myers/Antonio Bastardo/Rodrigo Lopez and a half year of Cliff Lee.  That's an upgrade we should be able to take to the bank in a few months.

Before the official start kickoff of all things Phillies for the 2010 season tomorrow, I just wanted to leave you with what was the best moment of the entire 2009 season.  While there were many contenders in my mind, this was the only one that I can look back at and distinctly remember just how ecstatic I was when it happened.  It also happened right before my birthday, so if I didn't say it enough before, I'll say it again: Thanks Jimmy.  Enjoy: