Phils pen well-rested for meaningless phase of the season
July 24 2006
The Phillies are playing
without a net these days, but they could have used one last night.
Surprisingly they needed one despite playing against an Atlanta team that was without their two best hitters,
in a game where Brett Myers pitched great and the Phillies banged out 11
hits.
If you're looking for a
bright spot, they don't have far to fall.
After the team has been put together, the lineup written out, the starting
pitcher determined and the game starts it's pretty hard for a manager to
make a decision that costs a team the game. After that the manager usually
makes decisions that tip the odds in or against their team's favor by tiny
percentages. Anything Charlie does in a game is a tiny decision compared to
say, letting Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd combine to make 26 starts. Charlie
Manuel stuck with his starting pitcher an inning too long last night. It
was a bad decision. It didn't cost the Phillies the game, but just moments
after it was made the game was lost without being over. Bringing Myers back
for one more inning could have been overcome -- he could
have thrown a 1-2-3 ninth. Or Gordon could have kept the Braves off the
board after Myers left and the Phillies could have tied or gone ahead in the
bottom of the inning. None of those things happened.
The Phillies lost to the Atlanta Braves last night. The 5-1 loss drops them
to 44-51 on the year and they join the Marlins at 13 1/2 games behind the
Mets and a full game behind the Braves. Eight teams are ahead of them in the Wild Card hunt and they trail
the Reds by six full games. There are three teams in the National League
with a record that's worse than the Phillies (Nats, Cubs and Pirates).
Brett Myers got the start for the Phillies and was excellent. He went eight
innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out seven. He
pitched far better than his line.
Through the first three innings Myers had allowed just one hit while
striking out six. He went into the top of the fourth with a 1-0 lead and
gave up a leadoff home run to Edgar Renteria before getting the next three
to end the inning.
With the score still tied at 1-1 in the top of the fifth, Myers gave up a
leadoff double to LaRoche but got out of the inning. Thorman followed and
failed to move him to third with a strikeout, and Langerhans flied to left
before the pitcher Ramirez grounded out to end the inning.
Myers got 1-2-3 innings in the sixth and seventh. He got another 1-2-3
inning in the eighth after running a full count on leadoff man Scott Thorman.
And then he returned for the ninth. He entered in a tie game, having thrown
95 pitches. The pen was rested, having thrown one inning in the last three
days. Myers had thrown a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, but hadn't looked real
impressive doing it.
Marcus Giles led off with a walk, the only walk Myers allowed on the day. Edgar Renteria tried to bunt, but after
he fouled his second attempt off he swung away and doubled to left, scoring
Giles from first to put the Braves up 2-1. Tom Gordon entered the game and
got Betemit to fly out for the first out of the inning. He then
intentionally walked Brian McCann to set up the three-run homer from
Francouer. It was 5-1 Braves and Gordon got the next two to end the frame.
The Phillies lineup against lefty Horacio Ramirez went (1) Rollins (2) Utley
(3) Abreu (4) Burrell (5) Howard (6) Rowand (7) Bell (8) Lieberthal.
Nothing new here except it's not clear to me what the new pattern is for
which catcher is starting when. Lieberthal caught this game but I suspect
the reason why had more to do with Myers on the mound than with the lefty on
the hill for the Braves.
The Phillies went 1-2-3 in the first before getting their only run of the
game in the bottom of the second. Three of the first four Phillies singled
in the bottom of the second, loading the bases with one out for Lieberthal.
Lieberthal hit a soft ground ball to short, Renteria got him at first for
the out but Burrell came in to score and put the Phillies up 1-0. Myers
followed, grounding out with runners on second and third to end the inning.
In the game the Phillies managed just one run on 11 hits and the score
stayed tied at 1-1 until the ninth. They had just one walk and one
extra-base hit, a double by Utley. Utley's double came with one out in the
third and the Phillies failed to score when Abreu struck out behind him and
Burrell grounded out to end the inning.
Ryan Howard led off the fourth with a single, but Rowand followed him by
grounding into a double-play. Bell singled with the bases empty but
Lieberthal lined out to Thorman in left to end the inning.
Rollins hit a one-out single in the fifth but was stranded at second on an
Utley ground out to third and an Abreu strikeout.
In the sixth they had a single and a walk, putting runners on first and
second with one out and the super-hot David Bell at the plate. Bell
scorched a ground ball to third, but Betemit made a nice play to start an
inning-ending double-play.
Then there was the seventh. Still in a 1-1 game, Mike Lieberthal led off
with a single. Brett Myers hit for himself, took a ball and bunted one
foul, then, in what
he would later say was a missed sign, swung away into a double-play.
Rollins followed with a single, but it was two outs and a runner on first
rather than one out and the Phillies up by a run. Utley grounded out to end
the inning.
Lefty Macay McBride started the eighth for the Braves. Abreu led off with a
hit to right-center, but was out trying for second with the score still tied
at 1-1. The ball beat Abreu by a lot, it was a great throw from Francoeur,
but replays showed Abreu might have gotten his hand in. Alas, not to be.
Burrell was next and he struck out against the lefty, and Howard followed
that with another strikeout to end the inning. It was the second straight
inning where an aggressive play didn't work out for the Phils -- whether it
was a missed sign or not I don't mind either Myers swinging away or Abreu
going for two. Didn't work out, however.
The Phillies went down 5-1 in the top of the ninth and went 1-2-3 against
new Brave Bob Wickman in the bottom of the inning.
Rollins was 2-for-4. Utley 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
Abreu was 1-for-4 and struck out twice. His slugging percentage continues
to tail off, he's at just .350 for July and .448, worst of his career in any
season with 200 at-bats, for the year.
Burrell was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. The Phils needed him against the
lefty. He's 1-for-his-last-13 with a single and five strikeouts.
Howard was 3-for-4 with three singles and a strikeout.
Rowand 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. He's 1-for-his-last-17.
If you've been wondering what David Bell has been doing for the last year
and a half apparently the answer is learning how to dink the ball into right
field as part of his mad plan to rule the galaxy. He had two more hits last
night, going 2-for-4. He did hit into one of three Phillies double-plays,
but he really scorched the ball at Betemit in that at-bat. He's up to
286/353/405 on the year and crazy hot of late, 16-for-his-last-29 (.552).
He's mixed in more than the occasional non-dink as well, slugging .619 in 63
July at-bats.
Lieberthal was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
The Phillies can still take the series with a win in the final game. Cole
Hamels faces Tim Hudson.
Randy Wolf will return to the team to make a start in one of the two games
in Sunday's (July 30) double-header with the Fish.