This will be brief, since the Phillies haven't given me much to write about since I last wrote. Since one week ago, the Phillies have scored a total of three runs, all in the 9th inning Sunday afternoon after Tim Wakefield left the game with an 8 inning shutout going. To put it another way, the Phillies have scored runs in one of their last 47 innings of play. To put it another way, they have now not scored runs off a starting pitcher in their last 35 innings facing opposing starters. I could go on, but let's hope tonight makes this all moot. As Paul Hagen wrote today, the Phillies cannot afford to become complacent in the NL East right now. Even a rare team meeting called by Charlie after Wednesday's second shutout in as many nights did not galvanize the team to do much of anything offensively yesterday.
Everyone knows that slumps happen in baseball, especially to this often potent Phillies team, but this one is particularly rough to watch. For some good perspective on it, read Bill Baer's take over at Crashburn Alley on why we shouldn't be rushing for the panic button right now. I agree that it isn't time to panic, but three consecutive shutouts by the Mets of all teams is really, really hard to watch. I know the slump will end, but I don't want have to write a blog post before that happens about how the Phillies have set a new record for consecutive innings being shutout. The players should be in worrying about this right now and be doing everything they can to fix whatever is not clicking. As a fan, however, it's time to stop worrying and love, or at least tolerate, the slump.
Showing posts with label Mets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mets. Show all posts
Friday, May 28, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
First Series Loss: Reflections Looking Forward
Today was the first series loss for the Phillies this year, and the torrid offense of just days ago decided to take the weekend off, scoring only one run in the last two games. While offenses go through ups and downs, this was quite the precipitous dropoff for a team that went into yesterday's game averaging 7.7 runs a game. If not for a Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the ninth yesterday, the Phillies would have been completely shut out by the Marlins this weekend. First for some recaps of this series against the Fish and then some general thoughts.
Friday's game was Roy Halladay's third start as a Phillie, and once again he did not disappoint. He went 8 strong innings and only gave up two runs. He probably would have completed another game if the field had not turned into a giant puddle by that point from all the rain, a puddle that no amount of Diamond Dry seemed to be able to quell. David Herndon came in for the 9th to protect the 8-2 Phillies lead, and proceeded to get charged with four runs on five hits, only two of which left the infield. The soaking wet infield. Herndon did what the Phillies have kept him around to do: induce groundballs. Unfortunately, ground balls hit into soaking wet turf don't tend to have the same bounce that they would get on dry ground. Madson had to come in to the record the save, which he did, thankfully. It was one quite an ugly 9th inning for the Phillies even though it resulted in a win, but once that win was notched, it was easy to look back and say it was mostly bad luck. It was certainly hard to do that as it was happening. Fortunately the offense had provided more than enough insurance against such bad luck, including solo homers by Polanco and Utley (his fifth in four games) and three RBI on two Juan Castro singles. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of most of the Phillies offense.
Saturday night was Jamie Moyer's second start of the year, and as I've pointed out before, he made history with this start by being the first non-knuckleballer to make more than one start at the age of 47 or older. Unfortunately, he showed his age in the first inning, giving five runs including a three run shot to Ronny Paulino, who the Phillies possessed for the 2008-2009 winter but traded him to the Giants for Jack Taschner. In retrospect, not one of the best moves that Ruben has made. Back to the game at hand, Moyer then looked stunning for the next five innings, giving up two hits, no runs, and striking out seven. If that Jamie Moyer takes the mound all the time, he'll be able to keep his career alive a good while longer. If not, we'll see. The other story of the game was the lack of a Phillies offense, except for the Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, making the final score 5-1 Marlins. I'd say that became the bigger story of the game after today's performance.
Today's game was at times painful and at times great to watch. Specifically, the Phillies offense was painful and Cole Hamels was great. Despite losing 2-0 to the Marlins, I consider this game to be a net positive going forward. The offensive slump is annoying, to be sure, but seeing Cole Hamels pitch 8+ innings with 2 ER (one of which was credited to him but batted in on a double given up by Madson) and 8 Ks was reassuring. First, Hamels is now the only pitcher other than Roy Halladay to pitch past the 6th inning so far this year, and he not only went past it, but he blew past it, throwing devastating change-ups and largely settling into a rhythm after giving up a solo homer to Dan Uggla in the 2nd. The offense, on the other hand, had some issues beyond the fact that they scored 0 runs. A ground rule double by Ben Francisco cost Jayson Werth the chance to score the tying run from first base in the 6th. He could have scored later on in the inning when Ruiz flied out to center and Cameron Maybin's throw went to the backstop. However, Werth was too tentative in his running and stayed at third, and Hamels grounded out to end the inning. A forgettable day for the bats, but a great day for Cole Hamels.
With this latest loss, the Phillies have now lost three of their last four games. This is not cause for alarm, but certainly cause for concern, with the shaky Kyle Kendrick starting the next game at Atlanta on Tuesday and the probable starters after that being something of a murky situation. This murkiness came after it was announced that J.A. Happ has had some left arm soreness which could cause him to miss his last start. That arm trouble could definitely explain why his velocity was a little off in his start last Thursday and why he walked six batters in 5.1 innings. The last thing the Phillies need right now is another player to succumb to the injury bug. Here's hoping for good news when Happ throws a side session during the off day tomorrow. For now, the Phillies leave Philadelphia on a low note after an otherwise great season so far. The question marks are there for this team, but so is incredible potential.
In an un-Phillies related note, last night was quite the crazy night around baseball. First, the Cardinals and the Mets played a 20 inning game, where the first run of the game was not scored until the top of the 19th inning. I had been watching the game in the 9th inning and left my house for a few hours, got back and turned on my TV again, and assumed that Fox was replaying the game. Until I saw that it was the top of the 18th. And Felipe Lopez, a position player, was pitching for the Cardinals. I enjoyed the ride from there until the end of the 20th, and if you missed out on this game, go read the recap. Jayson Stark will undoubtedly write something about it as well in the coming days.
Another note around baseball: Ubaldo Jimenez, the Rockies number one starter and flamethrower, pitched the season's first no-hitter last night. In case you were wondering, the last time a no-hitter and a 20 inning game happened on the same night was back in 2003 when Kevin Millwood pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies against the Giants and the Cardinals beat the Marlins 7-6 in 20 innings. I mention that mostly to bring up the fact that no one has pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies since. I, for one, would have no problem with another no-no from one of our starters one of this days.
Friday's game was Roy Halladay's third start as a Phillie, and once again he did not disappoint. He went 8 strong innings and only gave up two runs. He probably would have completed another game if the field had not turned into a giant puddle by that point from all the rain, a puddle that no amount of Diamond Dry seemed to be able to quell. David Herndon came in for the 9th to protect the 8-2 Phillies lead, and proceeded to get charged with four runs on five hits, only two of which left the infield. The soaking wet infield. Herndon did what the Phillies have kept him around to do: induce groundballs. Unfortunately, ground balls hit into soaking wet turf don't tend to have the same bounce that they would get on dry ground. Madson had to come in to the record the save, which he did, thankfully. It was one quite an ugly 9th inning for the Phillies even though it resulted in a win, but once that win was notched, it was easy to look back and say it was mostly bad luck. It was certainly hard to do that as it was happening. Fortunately the offense had provided more than enough insurance against such bad luck, including solo homers by Polanco and Utley (his fifth in four games) and three RBI on two Juan Castro singles. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of most of the Phillies offense.
(Photo courtesy of Tom Mihalek/AP)
Saturday night was Jamie Moyer's second start of the year, and as I've pointed out before, he made history with this start by being the first non-knuckleballer to make more than one start at the age of 47 or older. Unfortunately, he showed his age in the first inning, giving five runs including a three run shot to Ronny Paulino, who the Phillies possessed for the 2008-2009 winter but traded him to the Giants for Jack Taschner. In retrospect, not one of the best moves that Ruben has made. Back to the game at hand, Moyer then looked stunning for the next five innings, giving up two hits, no runs, and striking out seven. If that Jamie Moyer takes the mound all the time, he'll be able to keep his career alive a good while longer. If not, we'll see. The other story of the game was the lack of a Phillies offense, except for the Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, making the final score 5-1 Marlins. I'd say that became the bigger story of the game after today's performance.
Today's game was at times painful and at times great to watch. Specifically, the Phillies offense was painful and Cole Hamels was great. Despite losing 2-0 to the Marlins, I consider this game to be a net positive going forward. The offensive slump is annoying, to be sure, but seeing Cole Hamels pitch 8+ innings with 2 ER (one of which was credited to him but batted in on a double given up by Madson) and 8 Ks was reassuring. First, Hamels is now the only pitcher other than Roy Halladay to pitch past the 6th inning so far this year, and he not only went past it, but he blew past it, throwing devastating change-ups and largely settling into a rhythm after giving up a solo homer to Dan Uggla in the 2nd. The offense, on the other hand, had some issues beyond the fact that they scored 0 runs. A ground rule double by Ben Francisco cost Jayson Werth the chance to score the tying run from first base in the 6th. He could have scored later on in the inning when Ruiz flied out to center and Cameron Maybin's throw went to the backstop. However, Werth was too tentative in his running and stayed at third, and Hamels grounded out to end the inning. A forgettable day for the bats, but a great day for Cole Hamels.
(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Inquirer Staff Photographer)
With this latest loss, the Phillies have now lost three of their last four games. This is not cause for alarm, but certainly cause for concern, with the shaky Kyle Kendrick starting the next game at Atlanta on Tuesday and the probable starters after that being something of a murky situation. This murkiness came after it was announced that J.A. Happ has had some left arm soreness which could cause him to miss his last start. That arm trouble could definitely explain why his velocity was a little off in his start last Thursday and why he walked six batters in 5.1 innings. The last thing the Phillies need right now is another player to succumb to the injury bug. Here's hoping for good news when Happ throws a side session during the off day tomorrow. For now, the Phillies leave Philadelphia on a low note after an otherwise great season so far. The question marks are there for this team, but so is incredible potential.
In an un-Phillies related note, last night was quite the crazy night around baseball. First, the Cardinals and the Mets played a 20 inning game, where the first run of the game was not scored until the top of the 19th inning. I had been watching the game in the 9th inning and left my house for a few hours, got back and turned on my TV again, and assumed that Fox was replaying the game. Until I saw that it was the top of the 18th. And Felipe Lopez, a position player, was pitching for the Cardinals. I enjoyed the ride from there until the end of the 20th, and if you missed out on this game, go read the recap. Jayson Stark will undoubtedly write something about it as well in the coming days.
Another note around baseball: Ubaldo Jimenez, the Rockies number one starter and flamethrower, pitched the season's first no-hitter last night. In case you were wondering, the last time a no-hitter and a 20 inning game happened on the same night was back in 2003 when Kevin Millwood pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies against the Giants and the Cardinals beat the Marlins 7-6 in 20 innings. I mention that mostly to bring up the fact that no one has pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies since. I, for one, would have no problem with another no-no from one of our starters one of this days.
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