Mr. Perfect: Roy Halladay, You ARE the Man!

I must confess, I was not watching last night's baseball game for most of it. I had to drive somewhere as it began, and I heard the first inning on the radio, where Roy Halladay threw more pitches than I would have liked but had a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. A good way to start the game, I thought, but I turned off the radio to go to a Memorial Day barbecue and didn't think more on the game other than to text Google every so often for the score. About two hours later, I was sitting watching the Flyers and Blackhawks beat up on each other, and after the 1st period ended 3-2 Flyers, my friends and I decided to turn off the TV to go back outside into the nice late spring evening and eat some more delicious food.

Then I got the text message. It read: "roy halladay has retired 24 batters...in a row...consecutively..." I got the message. Frantically, we went back to turn on my friend's TV, which of course didn't have cable. I decided to throw etiquette to the wind and we asked the host if he could get his laptop, and I got to mlb.com as fast as I could and saw that wonderful "live look-in" button. I clicked, and was met with the pleasant blue screen of the middle of the 9th. We sat and waited, crowded around a laptop.

The game returned, and when it did, the atmosphere in my host's tiny living room was electric. Fredi Gonzalez, the Marlins' coach, had decided to throw three consecutive pinch hitters at Roy Halladay in a bid to stop perfection and tie up what was still only a 1-0 game. Mike Lamb was the first, and he hit a pitch about as far as any was hit that night, to straightaway center. Shane Victorino moved back, but clearly had room and made the catch. Wes Helms was next. Halladay threw a 1-2 pitch to the inside corner that froze Helms for a called strike three. I was ready to jump for joy or scream in agony at this point. Finally, Ronny Paulino came to the plate. On another 1-2 pitch, a curveball from Halladay, Paulino hit a grounder to the left side. Juan Castro gloved it on the run, spun around, and fired to first. My heart stopped. The throw could have been too late. The throw could have been too high or too wide. But no, like the rest of the game, it was perfect. For the second time in Phillies history and the 20th time in baseball history, perfection was achieved. As Jayson Stark wrote, it was, indeed, a Halladay to Remember.

Roy Halladay, perfection achieved

(Photo courtesy of Wilfredo Lee/AP)

There are many videos of highlights out there to relive just how amazing this night was for Roy Halladay. Personally, I like watching all 27 outs, which you can see over at the 700 Level along with another great recap of the game. Enjoy.

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.

Autograph War: Wild Thing vs The Bull?

Special Guest Post by Skyline Stories (@SkylineStories)

I'm hoping there was an autograph war between Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams and Greg "The Bull" Luzinski on Sunday's Phillies game.





Luz signs at his Bull's BBQ stand. But on Sunday, he had some competition as "Wild Thing" -- the former Phillies closer for the 1993 World Series team and former manager for the now-defunct minor-league Atlantic City Surf of the Atlantic League -- signed copies of his new book "Straight From Wild Thing."

"Please, no memorabilia," a sign read.

Publisher Triumph Books didn't get reviews for the book -- but who needs those when you have THE MULLET on the cover?

From Triumph's Web site:

Though his successful pitching career is behind him, Mitch is still standing up in Philadelphia and telling it like it is. "Straight Talk from Wild Thing" is the story of his career, but more than that, it is inside baseball seen from many perspectives: sitting on a 10-hour minor league bus ride, standing on a pitcher's mound, and sitting in a clubhouse, a dugout, and a ranch in Texas, where a man who"retired" at age 32 struggled to figure out what to do next.

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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.

Unhappy Halladay

I don't have time for a full recap of the games since I last posted, but last night's loss was a tough one. The offense and defense was shoddy, and Halladay's 132 pitch complete game was a waste behind an offense that couldn't score more than one run against the Pirates though they had their share of opportunities. Roy Halladay may be different from any other pitcher in the game today, but at some point he's still human. He says not to worry about the fact that he's pitched an insane amount so far this year, and for now I'll take him at his word. For more on that check out Matt Gelb's piece over in the Phillies Zone.

Let's hope the Phillies can bounce back and support Jamie Moyer tonight. I'll be off tonight and tomorrow watching the Nats take on the Mets here in DC, and though the Nats are in 2nd place and the Mets are in last, I can't possibly root for the Mets. I'm mostly hoping to catch some fun baseball and maybe a glimpse of recent Nats call-up Drew Storen. I'll try and get a full post about the last few games up before the Phillies take on the Red Sox this weekend in the start of 2010 interleague play. Until then, I'll leave you with the following picture of Roy Halladay after he threw his 132nd pitch last night. I hope the offense thinks long and hard about what it did and gives Halladay all the run support he needs from now on. Oh and Roy, take some bunting lessons before next time, will you?

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

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.