The Phils got the pitching performance they needed from Vance Worley last night, but the bats went silent as the Rockies topped the Phillies 4-1.
Jimmy Rollins led off the bottom of the first with a home run for the Phils, but that was all the offense they would get in the game. They were unable to score despite leadoff doubles in the second and again in the eighth.
Worley kept the Rockies off the board until the seventh, when a two-run homer by Chris Nelson put Colorado on top to stay. Wilin Rosario hit a two-run homer off of Michael Schwimer in the top of the ninth to account for the rest of the Colorado scoring.
Worley has thrown to a 1.35 ERA over his last three starts, allowing three earned runs over 20 innings. The Phils have lost all three games.
The Phillies are 33-38 on the year after losing to the Colorado Rockies 4-1 last night. The Phils take the series two games to one. They are in last place in the NL East, nine games behind the first place Nationals.
Worley got the start for the Phillies and went seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks. Two of the hits went for extra-bases, a double and a home run. He struck out two.
He threw a 1-2-3 first.
He started the second up 1-0. Tyler Colvin walked with one out. Jordan Pacheco was next and moved Colvin to third with a single to right. Worley got Chris Nelson to ground back to the mound into a double-play to turn the Rockies away.
Worley struck out pitcher Jeff Francis and Dexter Fowler in a 1-2-3 third.
Marco Scutaro walked to start the fourth. Carlos Gonzalez was next and grounded to second with Scutaro forced at second for the first out. Cuddyer popped to short for the second out before Colvin reached on catcher’s interference, putting men on first and second. Gonzalez was thrown out trying to steal third to end the frame.
Worley threw a 1-2-3 fifth. Pence made a nice sliding catch in right on a ball hit by Nelson for the second out.
Switch-hitter Eric Young hit for Francis to start the sixth and flew to center for the first out. Worley got Fowler to pop to short behind him for the second out before Scutaro singled to right. Gonzalez grounded to second for the third out.
Colvin doubled to left with one out in the seventh. Pacheco grounded to short for the second out, but Nelson followed and hit a 2-1 pitch out to left center, putting the Rockies up 2-1. Wilin Rosario grounded to third to set Colorado down.
Qualls started the eighth with the Phillies still down a run. Fowler and Scutaro singled back-to-back with one out, putting runners on the corners. Diekman came in to pitch to the lefty Gonzalez and a wild pitch moved Scutaro up to second before Gonzalez hit a ground ball to short. With the infield in, Rollins took the grounder and threw home where Fowler was tagged out by Ruiz for the second out. Diekman struck the righty Cuddyer out swinging to leave the runners on first and second.
Great job by Manuel to get Qualls out of the game and let Diekman pitch to the lefty Gonzalez. After he gets the lefty Gonzalez, Diekman stays in the game to face the righty Cuddyer and strikes him out to leave two men on base. Would have been nice to put a righty on Cuddyer there, but the Phils have three righties in the pen. Papelbon is probably not an option behind in the eighth, Qualls had already pitched and Schwimer doesn’t make you feel a whole lot better than letting the lefty Diekman face Cuddyer. Worked out well for the Phils.
Qualls allows hits to two of the three batters he faces, but no runs thanks to Diekman and Rollins’s play to nail Fowler at the plate. He hasn’t been charged with a run in six innings over his last six appearances, dropping his ERA on the season from 5.32 to 4.18.
Diekman got the lefty Colvin to pop to third for the first out. Lefty Todd Helton hit for the pitcher Matt Belisle and Diekman walked him after getting ahead 0-2. Schwimer came in to pitch to the righty Nelson and got him on a fly ball to right for the second out. Rosario was next, though, and he hit the first pitch from Schwimer out to left, extending the Colorado lead to 4-1. Schwimer struck out DJ LeMahieu for the third out.
Diekman goes one inning in the game and is charged with a run on one walk as Helton scores on the Rosario homer allowed by Schwimer. He has a 1.86 ERA over his last 12 appearances but has allowed 11 hits and six walks over 9 2/3 innings (that’s a 1.76 ratio).
Three righties in pen, one of which is the closer and one of which can’t face lefties ever means that right number three is going to have to pitch. Righty number three is Schwimer and he has a 5.14 ERA for the year after allowing a run on one hit over two-thirds of an inning last night.
Overall the pen went two innings in the game, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. Diekman threw 17 pitches, Schwimer 12 and Qualls eight. Nobody in the pen has thrown more than one day in a row.
The Phillies lineup against lefty Jeff Francis went (1) Rollins (2) Pierre (3) Pence (4) Ruiz (5) Victorino (6) Polanco (7) Mayberry (8) Martinez. Pierre in left against the lefty. Mayberry at first after Wigginton delivers a big two-out hit to start the rally in the ninth in game two. Martinez at second.
Rollins was the first batter of the bottom of the first and hit a 2-2 pitch out to left, putting the Phils up 1-0. Pence singled to left with one out, but Ruiz struck out behind him for the second before Victorino reached on an infield single that moved Pence up to second. Polanco struck out looking to leave both runners stranded.
Mayberry doubled to center to start the second. Martinez popped to Nelson for the first out. Worley was next and reached on a throwing error by Pacheco at third, leaving the Phils with runners on the corners with one down. Rollins fouled out to Cuddyer for the second out with the runners holding. Pierre flew to center to leave them stranded.
No run for the Phils after the leadoff double. Martinez can’t move the runner out. Rollins can’t bring the runner home from third with one out.
The Phils went in order in the third.
Mayberry singled with one out in the fourth. Martinez struck out behind him and Worley popped to short.
Pierre bunted for a single with one out in the fifth and moved up to second on a ground out by Pence. Ruiz grounded to second to leave Pierre at second.
Righty Josh Roenicke set the Phillies down in order in the sixth. Mayberry hit the ball well, but Scutaro made a nice diving play to field the ball and throw to first in time to get Mayberry for the third out.
Roenicke struck Martinez out for the first out in the seventh with the Phillies down 2-1. Fontenot hit for Worley and singled to left, but lefty Rex Brothers came in to pitch to Rollins and got him to ground into a double-play to end the inning.
Wigginton doubled off of righty Matt Belisle to start the eighth. Pence struck out for the first out and Ruiz flew to center for the second with Wigginton tagging and moving up to third. Victorino popped to Scutaro to leave him at third.
Again, like in the second, the Phillies don’t score after the leadoff double. Pence can’t move Wigginton up to third with the first out.
Trailing 4-1, Polanco and Mayberry went down against righty Rafael Betancourt to start the ninth. Thome hit for Martinez and struck out swinging 2-2 to end the game.
Thome now 0-for-12 as a pinch-hitter with eight strikeouts.
Rollins was 1-for-4 with a home run in the game. 4-for-11 with two walks, two doubles and a home run in the three-game series. He’s hitting 260/309/382 for the year. 294/344/483 over his last 154 plate appearances. 15-for-his-last-39 (.385) with eight extra-base hits.
Pierre starts against the lefty and goes 1-for-3. He was 2-for-7 with a triple in the series. 323/360/379 for the year.
Pence 1-for-4 last night and 2-for-13 with a double in the series. Two home runs so far in June after hitting eight in May. 275/339/464 for the year.
Ruiz 0-for-4 last night and 2-for-10 with a double and a home run in the series. 347/414/568 for the year.
Victorino 1-for-4. 4-for-12 with four singles in the series. 252/319/399 for the season.
Polanco 0-for-4. 2-for-10 with two walks and a double in the series. 274/309/356.
Mayberry 2-for-4 with a double. 5-for-11 with a walk, three doubles and a home run in the series. 11-for-his-last-28 with two walks and eight extra-base hits. 249/284/422 for the year.
Martinez was 0-for-3 and struck out twice in the game. 1-for-11 with a three-run homer in the series. He’s on the field way, way too much for the Phillies after being on the field way, way too much for the Phillies in 2011. 6-for-36 on the year with five singles and a home run.
Cliff Lee (0-3, 3.48) faces righty James Shields (7-4, 3.72) tonight. The Phillies really need Lee to help them stabilize the rotation with Halladay out. He hasn’t done it so far, winless for the year and having thrown to a 4.79 ERA in his three June starts and a 4.87 ERA over his last six. The Phillies are 3-8 in his starts for the year and have lost three games in a row. Shields has allowed one earned run in 14 innings over his last two starts (four runs if you count the three unearned runs he surrendered). He started game two of the 2008 World Series against the Phils, throwing 5 2/3 scoreless innings as the Rays won 4-2.
June 22nd, 2012 on 11:17 am
Well, at least Worley and Lee can keep each other company in the way they are losing, ie pitching wel enough to win but being let down by the offense.
Interesting to hear Charlie calling out his team for mailing their performances in. And he specifically mentioned his center fielder.
June 22nd, 2012 on 11:34 am
I think that Lee has had some good starts, but I wouldn’t really say he’s been pitching well of late. 4.87 ERA over his last six starts. The Phillies need more from him.
Victorino has been terrible, whether he’s running hard on every play or not. I do think people will note that Maneul pointed out that he remembers when his CF ran hard every play. Victorino’s problems are bigger than running the ball out, but it couldn’t hurt.
June 22nd, 2012 on 1:00 pm
I’ll take whatever I can get from the center fielder at this point, including a couple of prospects in a trade.
June 22nd, 2012 on 1:20 pm
I’d kinda of rather see the Phillies trading for players of Victorino’s caliber at this point. By that I mean players as good as he is when he’s not being awful. He was terrible at the end of 2011, too, hitting 163/237/288 over his last 115 plate appearances. Over his last 382 at-bats going back to last year (and not including the playoffs in 2011) he’s hitting .228 and slugging .369.
But the Phillies don’t have enough good hitters. I think getting rid of Victorino or Pence would create a bunch of problems. Let’s hope he gets better soon.
June 22nd, 2012 on 4:27 pm
Truly, the marginal players playing marginally are not the problem that the core players playing badly have represented. Amaro’s plan for this year, if it had any hope of working at all, required Rollins, Victorino, Polanco and Pence to perform. Mayberry was a smaller but no less essential part of that plan.
They still need to perform if they are going to make any progress at all Utley/Howard/Doc notwithstanding.
The clock is ticking pretty fast now.
June 22nd, 2012 on 4:36 pm
I think how big a problem the marginal players playing marginally is depends on how many of them you have. The Phillies have way too many and they’re playing marginally. It’s definitely a huge problem that the guys the Phillies were counting on, Rollins and Victorino in particular and Pence to a lesser degree, haven’t done enough. I think people who counted on Polanco to do more than he has done were being optimistic. Also, Ruiz has done way more than anyone should have expected, which helps off-set some of the awful offense from Victorino and Rollins.
I think it’s also important to remember that the hole the Phillies have dug for themselves has more to do with bad pitching than it does bad hitting.
June 22nd, 2012 on 6:25 pm
In your first sentence you said a mouthful.
That is Amaro’s design. It does not make sense and has not. Hector Luna hitting clean up? Really? Or any other of the guys we thought had been acquired to “strengthen the bench”. Little did we know.
Well, I sure am going to be pulling for Lee tonight. Lord knows we need him to be who he has been in past years.
June 22nd, 2012 on 7:22 pm
Me too. Not holding a 5-2 lead in the eighth his last time out wasn’t so great. He allowed more runs in that start (5) than he did in the ten starts he made in June and August on 2011 combined (3).
June 22nd, 2012 on 7:25 pm
Also, the games where you start Cliff Lee and the other team has Jeff Keppinger hitting cleanup are the ones you want to try to win if possible.
June 22nd, 2012 on 8:32 pm
Still delayed. Can’t win that way.
June 23rd, 2012 on 9:13 pm
Saturday night. Pretty remarkable game. Thome sets the all time record for walk off home runs at 13. Thinking about that, it is pretty awesome.
June 24th, 2012 on 9:30 am
The bullpen was a little tough to watch, but at least it ended well. Nice time for Thome’s first hit of the year as a pinch-hitter. Wasn’t expecting a three-run homer from Pierre, either.
June 24th, 2012 on 10:07 pm
Sunday night. Pretty amazing the difference 24 hours can make.
So, what’s the deal with Cliff Lee.
June 25th, 2012 on 9:39 am
Seem’s like every time this team revives a bit of optimism in me, they turn around and find a new way to lose.
Utley should be back Wednesday/Thursday. Maybe we can put him in the bullpen.
June 25th, 2012 on 10:56 am
Yep. Nice win in the opener to get things started, even though the pen was awful, then they stink things up in the last two games of the double-header.
Bastardo scary. Qualls scary. Rosenberg embarrassing. Diekman not much better, walking the AL-pitcher with the bases loaded. Lee can’t get the job done. Mayberry huge strikeouts with men on third and less than two outs in both games yesterday. Manuel had a miserable game in game one. Kind of a bad day for a team that can’t afford many more.