How'd we ever win nine?! It's a miracle
March 9 2007

In 2006, the Phillies' 9-18 June wound up doing far more damage to the teams' playoff chances than it's 10-14 April.  As you can guess, the numbers for June overall are pretty awful.  Using OPS and ERA as the measures the team had it's worst month of the season both hitting and pitching.

The rotation was in tatters in June.  Brito, Mathieson and Adam Bernero combined to make five starts in which they allowed 27 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings (a 13.02 ERA).  The Phillies were 0-5 in those games.  Hamels, Myers and Lidle all made five starts for the Phils -- Myers was 1-1 with a 7.13 ERA, Hamels 1-4 with a 6.49 ERA and Lidle 0-1 with a 5.65 ERA.

The bats were miserable theirownselves.  Ryan Howard was hitting well, posting a 280/357/630 line with nine longballs in his 100 at-bats.  Almost everyone else was struggling.  Bell hit 215/319/241 in his 79 at-bats.  Rowand 223/275/330 in 94 at-bats.  Victorino 213/302/340 in 47 at-bats.  Utley was hitting homers but not doing much else -- in 110 at-bats he had six bombs but posted a 225/314/464 line.

Not only that, but there were also unconfirmed reports of rampant lollygagging. (The movie-version Durham Bulls were actually 8-16 at the time of the loggygag tirade, but you get the point).

A year ago yesterday the USA lost to Canada in the World Baseball Classic.

Mike Hampton is going to miss some time.  The Braves have some problems with their fourth and fifth starters.

Terrmel Sledge, the guy some had speculated the Padres might need to replace by trading Scott Linebrink for Rowand, hit a grand slam yesterday.  It was his third home run of the spring.

The Phillies played the Cleveland Indians yesterday and lost, 7-6.  Their record this spring is 4-4.

The Phillies lineup saw almost all regulars with Coste behind the plate and Brennan King as the DH.  Behind Rollins, Victorino, Utley and Howard the lineup went Burrell, Helms, Rowand, as I expect it will in games that matter until somebody gets hurt.

The Phillies had one hit against CC Sabathia through three innings, a solo home run by Howard.  It was his second home run of the spring.  Utley had an RBI-double in the fourth.  Rollins was 1-for-3 with an RBI-single.  Nunez hit a two-run home run in the eighth in his lone at-bat on the day.

Coste was 1-for-2 with a walk.  Brennan King was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.  Garcia 0-for-1.  Chris Roberson had a walk in his lone plate appearance and stole a base .

Brian Mazone got the start for the Phils and was hit hard early, giving up three runs in the first inning on two singles and a three-run bomb by Victor Martinez.  He kept Cleveland off the board in the second and the third.  Anderson Garcia followed Mazone and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing a double and a walk in the fourth before setting down the side 1-2-3 in the fifth.

Alfredo Simon allowed a walk in an otherwise uneventful sixth.  He returned for the seventh and gave up hits to the first four men he faced.  He left having gone 1 1/3 innings and charged with two runs.  Justin Germano replaced him and got a double-play to end the seventh.  Germano returned for the eighth and kept the Indians off the board despite allowing a one-out double.

Jim Ed Warden came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth with the Phils up 6-5.  He gave up a single and a walk to the first two men he faced before the third bunted them up to second and third with one out.  He intentionally walked the next man to load the bases and set up the double-play, but Shin-Soo Choo singled in two runs to give Cleveland a 7-6 win.

In yesterday's B-game, Adam Eaton allowed a run on five hits over four innings against the Blue Jays.  Alfonseca and Madson pitched well and Dobbs hit a three-run homer.

Red Sox today.

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