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Philaelphia hoping to get its ‘d’ back soon
By egrissom | April 15, 2008
Several players are hitting the ball well for the Phils in the early going, but overall the offense is off to a worse start than they had last year. Jimmy Rollins taking an extended seat no doubt is part of the cause, as well as early struggles by Ruiz, Feliz and Victorino. Here’s how many runs the Phils have scored and allowed so far this year and their ‘08 pace compared to what they did in 2007:
|
2008 |
On pace 2008 |
2007 |
|
| Runs Scored | 59 | 735 | 892 |
| Runs Allowed | 62 | 773 | 821 |
The Phils scored about 5.51 runs per game overall for the season in ‘07. Like many other teams, their offense started off slow in April and scored more runs per game in the other months of the season. Even compared to last April, though, the Phils are off their pace. In April, 2007, the Phils scored 123 runs and allowed 121 while going 11-14. Here’s how those numbers compare to what they’ve done so far this season:
|
March/April, 2008 |
April, 2007 |
|
| Runs scored per game | 4.54 | 4.92 |
| Runs allowed per game | 4.77 | 4.84 |
The Phils are both allowing and scoring runs at a lower rate than they did last season.
Curiously, the Phils are getting good pitching from both their starters and their relievers and yet still allowing a lot of runs. Not including Monday’s games, Phillies’ starters have thrown to a 3.81 ERA, eighth-best in the league. Phillies relievers have been even better, throwing to a 3.53 ERA, which is fifth-best in the league. Overall, however, the Phils have allowed 62 runs in 13 games — the 62 runs is 11th best in the NL. Going by total runs can be a little misleading, cause all the teams haven’t played the same number of games at a given time, but still, by ERA the Phils pitching has been good. Better than they have been at preventing runs overall.
The problem, of course, has been the defense. The Phils have allowed 13 unearned runs in 13 games, putting them on a pace to allow 162 unearned runs in 162 games. That’s not going to happen, they aren’t going to allow anywhere near 162 unearned runs, but 13 at this point is a ton, enough to lead the NL. Last year the Marlins allowed the most unearned runs in the NL with 98 for the season — the Phillies were charged with just 54 unearned runs.
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April 16th, 2008 at 7:35 am
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