Slumping Towards Mediocrity, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Slump

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.

Wakefield Baffles Batters and Halladay Loses, as Phillies Drop Red Sox Series

Special Guest Post by Skyline Stories (@SkylineStories)

Who's more likely to throw 8 shutout innings -- Roy Halladay, the former Cy Young award winner who leads the National League in complete games and shutouts, or Tim Wakefield, a 43-year-old knuckleballer whose last win was in July 2009?

If you picked Wakefield, then you'd be nuts. Except the improbable happened, as Wakefield bewildered the Phillies yesterday in an 8-3 win.



The last time I saw the two teams play was for Daisuke Matsuzaka's debut in a Major League ballpark in 2007, the crowd and media buzzing in anticipation of his fabled gyroball. But this was an awful game. The Phils couldn't hit, Dobbs and Hoover had costly errors, and Halladay had his worst start ever as a Phillie, per Philly.com.

Wakefield was only three innings from his first shutout since 1997, and became the oldest AL pitcher to throw that many shutout innings since fellow knuckleballer Charlie Hough in 1992, according to MLB.com. Of Wakefield's 103 slow-slower-really slow pitches (see below), most were knuckleballs that ranged from 65-68 mph, and later mixed in fastballs and curveballs (!).

Though I'm a Phillies fan, I wanted manager Terry Francona to leave him in for the shutout. Instead, he brought in Ramon Ramirez and the Phils rallied for 3 runs, too little too late. But Francona told MLB.com that Wakefield was gassed: "He said in the eighth […] he was starting to feel it. But I certainly would have let him go back out. He said he had enough."

The big concern for the Phils is Halladay. Last outing he threw an unbelievable 132 pitches, and though he looked strong in the first few innings, he didn't have as good location in the later innings. But Halladay and Manuel reject that's why Halladay had a poor outing. "[B]ody-wise I felt great, it was just a matter of making pitches," Halladay said at the press conference.

I disagree with PhilliesNation who thinks it's just one rough start against a "Red Sox team that has owned him throughout his illustrious career," and The700Level who chalks it "up to one of the five bad starts" that Doc says he's allotted. As Baseball Prospectus concluded, after 121 pitches "a manager may be gambling with that pitcher's next 4 or 5 starts at the very least."

We'll see in his next start.

Next up for the Phils are the Mets. Let's hope the Phils fare better on Tuesday night, when the Mets start R.A. Dickey -- another knuckleballer.

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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.