Coffee, anyone?
June 22 2006
Earlier this month the
news spread through baseball like wildfire -- not only is
HGH here, but it
can make you pitch like Jason Grimsley and hit like David Segui. And that's
not all. If you believe everything you read, the coffee's juiced too. If
you're a big leaguer and, for whatever reason, getting jacked up for the
game is more important to you than sleeping regularly or having normal
sexual functioning in later life, you won't have to look far to find what
you're looking for. Most of the nation recoiled in horror at the
revelations. But for Phillies fans, there was another response: What else
have you got? How 'bout a donut that can help
David Bell with ground
balls? Maybe a granola bar that'll get Aaron Rowand to bloop one into left
field every now and again? And if in this great land of ours, anyone,
anywhere, in a lab or a basement or a garage, is toiling away on a magic
pill that will help relievers get through the eighth inning, the Phillies
need to know about it.
Just to toy with us, the Phillies got great starting pitching last night but
lost anyway as they managed just three hits on the game. The loss drops
them two games below .500 to 35-37 on the year. The Yankees take the
series, winning two of three.
Cole Hamels got the start for the Phillies. He went seven innings, giving
up two runs on six hits and three walks. He went seven innings for the
first time in his career and threw more than 100 pitches (103 last night)
for the second time.
Hamels pitched very well, allowing just two hits through four scoreless
innings. He also allowed two walks and hit Alex Rodriguez, but went into
the top of the fifth in a 0-0 tie.
Miguel Cairo led off the fifth with a triple for the Yankees, and scored on
Jaret Wright's sac fly to put New York up 1-0. Damon followed with a
single, but Hamels got the next two to end the frame.
Hamels threw a 1-2-3 sixth. He also returned for the seventh, and by then I
was ready to see him go. The Phillies need some starters to go deep into
games, but it would be nice if it wasn't the 22-year-olds. In addition to
the health concerns, I was pretty sure he was about to get lit up, but it
turned out he pitched pretty well. Melky Cabrera led off the inning with a
double and went to third on a Cairo sacrifice. I hate this play by the
Yankees, I think they had a chance to get more in the inning. As it turns
out, they didn't need to get more, but still. Pinch hitter Andy Phillips
hit a ground ball to short and the Phillies got Cabrera at home for the
second out. Hamels stayed in to pitch to the lefty Damon and walked him,
and then Jeter singled, scoring Phillips from second to make the score 2-0
before Giambi fouled out to end the inning.
For the second straight day the Phillies pen got pounded in the eighth.
Fultz started the inning and walked A-Rod before getting the next two. With
two outs and Rodriguez, who stole second, on second, Fultz gave up an
RBI-single to Cabrera, who went to second on the throw home. With New York
up 3-0, the Phillies brought in Geary to pitch to Cairo. Cairo singled to
make it 4-0 with two outs. Bubba Crosby and Damon followed with singles,
making the score 5-0, before Geary finally got Jeter to end the inning.
In his last three appearances, Geary has gone two innings and allowed six
hits and two walks.
Clay Condrey pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing a single but getting a
double-play and a pop-up to end the inning.
The Yankees pen threw four innings without allowing a hit. The Phillies pen
threw two innings, allowing three runs on five hits.
Nothing new with the Phillies lineup. Against righty Jaret Wright they went
(1) Rollins (2) Utley (3) Abreu (4) Burrell (5) Howard (6) Rowand (7) Bell
(8) Fasano. Fasano will be 35 in August and has to be dead tired at this
point. After a bad defensive inning in the top of the fifth yesterday that
featured a passed ball and a wild pitch, Hamels was charged with a wild
pitch last night on a ball that looked blockable in the fourth inning.
Fasano
did make a great throw in the top of the third to catch Damon stealing for
the second out of the inning. Jeter followed with a single, which would
have scored Damon, so it saved the Phillies a run.
The Phillies got three hits.
Jimmy Rollins led off the bottom of the first with a single. He led off the
bottom of the third with a single. Rowand hit a two-out single in the
fourth.
On two of the three Phillies hits, the guy who got the hit was caught
stealing. When Rollins got caught in the third it was a weird rundown thing
after Abreu struck out.
Rollins was 2-for-4 on the day and 2-for-12 with no walks in the series. He
has not on-based above .320 for any of the three months in the season.
Utley was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and 1-for-10 in the series. He's been
in an awful slump. After going 10-for-his-first-23 in June, he's 8-for-57
(.140).
Abreu was 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts for the second straight
day. He was 1-for-8 with six strikeouts in the series. After not striking
out three times in a game for the first 70 games of the year, he's done it
twice in two days. Also oddly, it came immediately after a day off. Here's
the part where I completely make stuff up, but maybe he is bothered by the
struggles of Rollins and Utley ahead of him and trying to pick them up. Or
maybe his cat died. I have no idea.
Burrell was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. 3-for-8 with four walks
in the series.
Rowand was 1-for-4 last night and 3-for-11 with a walk in the series.
Bell walked twice last night. He was 1-for-7 with three walks in the
series.
Fasano was 0-for-2. For the series he went 1-for-10 with three strikeouts.
I was glad to see Manuel pinch hit for him late last night and let Coste catch. This is something Manuel has seemed unwilling to do in the
past, putting his last catcher in the game, but I was glad to see him go
that route. The Phillies already almost never use Roberson, and
having two guys that you never use can't help. I don't understand why Roberson
is up since the Phillies already have two outfielders not getting enough
time in Dellucci and Victorino. Presumably it's related to Burrell's foot
and needing a defensive replacement, but that has seemed much better of
late. How about a pitcher?
Damon 6-for-13 in the series. Jeter 4-for-12 with two walks. Hamels
handled Giambi last night, but he was 4-for-12 with two home runs in the
series. A-Rod 2-for-9 with four walks. Posada 3-for-13 with five
strikeouts. Bernie Williams 5-for-10 with a five-hit game. Melky Cabrera
3-for-13 after going 0-for-5 in the first game of the series.
Elsewhere in the NL East, the Mets lost two of the first three against Cincy
and finish that series this afternoon. The Marlins had their nine-game
winning streak snapped against Baltimore and the Braves have lost nine in a
row. The Phillies are still in second place, 9 1/2 behind the Mets and
three-games ahead of the suddenly third place Marlins. The Braves have
fallen to 30-42, in last place and 14 1/5 games behind the Mets.
Randy Wolf got hammered in his Double-A rehab start, allowing six runs in 3
2/3 innings.
The Phillies are off today and start a three-game series in Boston tomorrow.
Phils on a Rhodes to nowhere
June 21 2006
Last night it was as if
Ryan Howard and
Arthur Rhodes were doing
a good-night-bad-night demo for the baseball illiterate. The Phillies found a
new and exciting way to mix bad starting pitching and bad bullpen pitching
to pull out a defeat even when victory seemed inevitable.
The Phillies fell to the New York Yankees last night in miserable fashion,
losing 9-7. The loss drops them to 35-36 on the year.
Cory Lidle got the start for the Phillies. He went 5 1/3 innings, allowing
four runs on eight hits and two walks. Four of the hits went for
extra-bases, two doubles and two home runs.
After a 1-2-3 first, Lidle started the second with a 3-0 lead. He got the
first two men before allowing a double to Robinson Cano and Bernie Williams
single that made the score 3-1.
Lidle got another 1-2-3 inning in the third. Through three innings he had
gotten nine outs on eight ground balls and a strikeout. Lidle has thrown
way more ground balls this year than he has over most of his career. Last
year he got 262 outs on the ground and 163 in the air for a GO/AO ratio of
1.74, which was the highest it had been in the last six seasons. In 2006 he
has gotten 125 ground outs and just 59 air outs, for a ratio of 2.31.
As if on a mission to demonstrate that ground balls are our friends, Jason
Giambi led off the fourth with a home run, which made the score 3-2. Lidle
got two of the next three batters on fly-outs, with a Posada single
sandwiched in-between, which made it two outs with a runner on first.
Bernie Williams and Kevin Reese each followed with a single, tying the game
at 3-3 before Lidle got Mussina to ground out and end the inning.
The Phils got two in the bottom of the fourth to go up 5-3. In the fifth,
Lidle got a ground out to start the inning before walking the next two and
getting a double-play ball from Rodriguez. Fasano had a wretched inning,
failing to catch the ball once and letting another go, which was called a
wild pitch. He has to be tired after all he's been playing.
Jorge Posada led off the sixth with a home run that made it 5-4. Lidle got
Cano but Bernie Williams, who was 5-for-5 on the day, followed with a
double. Williams was 1-for-his-last-10 coming into last night's game. With
one out and Williams on second, Manuel brought in Aaron Fultz. Fultz did a
nice job, getting the next two batters to end the inning.
Cormier came in to pitch the seventh and gave up a lead off single and hit
the next batter before getting Giambi to fly to center for the first out of
the inning. With one out and runners on first and second, Geary replaced
Lidle to pitch to A-Rod. Rodriguez singled, scoring Damon from second
before to tie the game at 5-5 before striking out the next two to end the
inning. After pitching to a 1.20 ERA in May, Geary has thrown to a 1.93 ERA
in June.
The Phillies went up 7-5 in the bottom of the seventh and Rhodes came on to
pitch the eighth. Things got ugly quickly, the Yankees went single, walk,
RBI-single to make it 7-6 and a two-run triple from Damon that made it 8-7
Yankees. Rhodes didn't get anybody out and was replaced by Franklin with
Jeter up, Damon on third and nobody out. Jeter singled to make it 9-7
before Franklin got a pop-up and a double-play to end the inning.
The first single of the inning came off of Rhodes and was originally called
an error on David Bell at third. Bell failed to field the ball cleanly, but
Williams may have been safe even if he had. Nonetheless, it would have been
a nice one to field and Bell avoided his 12th error of the season. He's
been terrible at third, tied for second in the NL with 11 errors. Combine
that with Ryan Howard's worst among NL first basemen 10, and Utley's third
worst among NL second basemen seven and you've got yourself a pretty
miserable defensive infield. Maybe it has something to do with moving the
fences back. Maybe Utley and Howard can work out some kind of exchange
program with Jimmy Rollins where he gives guest lectures on fielding while
they advise on hitting.
Franklin returned to pitch the ninth and kept the Yankees off the board
while allowing a double to Bernie Williams. He managed to strike out
Mariano Rivera in his lone career regular season at-bat. He dropped his ERA
to 4.04 on the year.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Having traded away Vincente
Padilla, the Phillies made the biggest decision of the year coming out of
spring training, sending Franklin to the pen putting Madson and Gavin Floyd
in the rotation despite the fact that Madson had one career start and Floyd
was coming off of an awful year at Triple-A. It was a bold move and it
didn't work. Madson and Floyd got shelled. Looking back on it now with
less than half of the season played, it looks like a mistake. Even if you
take Franklin's worst year, last year in Seattle, it's still better than the
22 starts the Phillies have given Floyd and Madson this season. What I
don't understand is if the Phillies see it as a mistake, and, if they do,
why they don't fix it. I think the answer must be that they either think
Madson will get better or Franklin will pitch worse. I would put Franklin
in the rotation and send Madson back to the pen.
The Phillies lineup against righty Mike Mussina went (1) Rollins (2) Utley
(3) Abreu (4) Burrell (5) Howard (6) Rowand (7) Bell (8) Fasano. This is
the standard lineup, with Bell still manning his post at third.
With two outs in the first, Abreu singled and Burrell walked before Howard
followed with a three-run homer that put the Phillies up 3-0.
In the fourth, Burrell led off with a single and Howard followed with his
second home run of the game. It put the Phillies up 5-3.
In a 5-5 game in the bottom of the seventh, with two outs and Utley on first
via a hit by pitch, Burrell walked. Howard followed with a two-run triple.
It gave him seven RBI on the day and put the Phillies up 7-5.
Howard finished the day 3-for-4 with a two homers, a triple, a walk and
seven RBI. He is tied with Albert Pujols for the NL lead in home runs with
25 and leads the league with 66 RBI. He's on pace to hit 57 home runs and
drive in 150.
Rollins was 0-for-5. He doesn't have a hit in the first two games of the
series and is on-basing .311 for the year.
Utley was 1-for-4 with a single and a hit-by-pitch. He's 3-for-his-last-19
and on-basing .298 in 76 June at-bats.
Abreu was 1-for-5 and struck out three times for the first time this
season.
Burrell had a nice game, getting on base and being driven in by Howard three
times. He was 2-for-2 with two walks. In June he's slugging .604 with a
.394 on-base percentage.
Rowand was 0-for-4 with a strikeout and three men left on base. He's been
absolutely awful of late, posting a 224/264/358 line in 67 June at-bats.
Bell was 1-for-3 with a walk. He's 1-for-his-last-11 and hitting .228 in
June.
Fasano 1-for-4. He's 2-for-his-last-12.
The Phillies can still take the series with a win tonight. Cole Hamels
faces Jaret Wright.
Phillies impersonators put on a great show against the Yankees
June 20 2006
This Phillies team is
frustrating even when it wins. After spending most of the past ten days
looking like the only hope was for Kelly Leak to ride in on his motorbike,
the Phillies played a beautiful game last night, complete with outstanding
pitching, timely hitting and superb defense. Are these the same guys that
couldn't catch or hit last week? That made six errors in two games? The
uniforms look the same. It was about as much fun as you can have watching a
team get back to .500 in June.
The bad news for the Phillies is that they've slumped themselves into a
position where they need to go on a run and win a bunch of games in a row.
And I don't think they can. Not with this pitching staff. What they can
do, though, is tread water and hope that the cavalry arrives (in this case
the cavalry is being played by Lieber and Wolf with a possible cameo by Ryan
Franklin).
The Phillies beat the New York Yankees 4-2 last night. The win improves
their record to 35-35 on the year.
Brett Myers got the start for the Phillies and pitched very well. He went 6
2/3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits and six walks. Two of the six
hits went for extra-bases, a double and a home run. He struck out a
season-high 11 after striking out more than six in just one other start this
year -- on April 28 he struck out eight Pirates in Pittsburgh.
Myers kept the Yankees off the board in the first three innings. In the
first he loaded the bases on a single and two walks but got Posada to pop
out and end the inning. He didn't allow a base runner in the second or
third.
Jason Giambi led off the fourth with a home run that was crushed to right to
put the Yankees up 1-0. He started to look a little like the Brett Myers
who had allowed 16 hits in 5 2/3 innings over his last two starts after
that, giving up a double and a walk, still with nobody out. And then he
snapped out of it against the bottom of the Yankees order, striking out
Cano, Crosby and Randy Johnson all in a row to end the inning.
The Phillies got two in the bottom of the fourth and Myers pitched the top
of the fifth with a 2-1 lead. After allowing two-out singles to Jeter and
Giambi, he struck out A-Rod to end the inning. Shane Victorino made a play
in right field in the inning that may have saved the Phillies a run. With
two outs and Jeter on first, Giambi grounded a ball just over the bag and
down the right field line. Victorino got to the ball unbelievably fast,
holding Giambi to a single and keeping Jeter at third. The difference
between the speed of Victorino and Abreu in right may have saved the
Phillies a run on the play.
Also in the top of the fifth the Phillies got the first out of the inning
when Pat Burrell ran as far as I've seen him run all season to catch Johnny
Damon's foul ball. For those of you who don't watch the Phillies every day,
Burrell is coming off of foot surgery and was slow to begin with. For much
of the year he has lacked the ability to get to balls in the outfield that
required him to move more than about eight or ten feet.
Myers kept the Yankees off the board in the sixth with the help of a
spectacular play from second baseman Abraham Nunez. With two outs and
Robinson Cano at second, pitcher Randy Johnson hit a hard ground ball up the
middle that Nunez dove for and fielded, throwing out Johnson to end the
inning. It was a very nice play by Nunez on a ball that looked like it
should have gone through and tied the game at 2-2. The Phillies almost got
hurt on the defense of Utley, who played first base last night for the first
time this year, the play before. With Cano on first, Bubba Crosby hit a
hard ground ball to Utley who bobbled it. He still got one out, but with a
good defensive play and no bobble the Phillies might have gotten two.
The Phillies got another in the bottom of the sixth to go up 3-1. Myers
stayed in the game in the seventh and Damon led off with a single and stole
second as Cabrera struck out for the first out of the inning. Jeter
followed with a ground out that moved Damon to third with two outs. I think
I may be Charlie Manuel's biggest fan in all of Philadelphia -- I certainly
don't like all of his decisions but it seems like he takes a whole lot more
than his share of the blame. I thought he got away with at least two bad
decisions last night, the first of which came here, as he left Myers in to
pitch to the lefty Giambi. I would have brought in Cormier. Myers walked
Giambi and followed that up with a walk to A-Rod to load the bases (I also
think he should have brought a righty, Geary, in to pitch to A-Rod after
Myers walked Giambi) and Manuel did call on his pen, bringing in Cormier to
face Posada. Posada hit a hard ground ball to short and the Phillies got
their third outstanding defensive play in the game. Rollins kept it in the
infield for a single, allowing Damon to score from third but the other
runners to move up just one base. Cormier got out of the inning when Cano
grounded to second and the Phillies led 3-2.
Arthur Rhodes came in to pitch the eighth, coming off of an awful outing on
Sunday where he gave up three hits while getting just a single out. He got
a 1-2-3 inning.
The Phillies went up 4-2 with run in the bottom of the eighth and Flash
Gordon came on in the top of the ninth. He pitched a perfect inning,
getting two strikeouts to earn his 20th save. He's on a pace to save 46
games for the Phillies. Who knew? Apparently the Phillies front office,
who said 40 to 45 saves was a possibility when they signed him. We'll see.
I'm infatuated with A-Rod and what he does with runners on base. Last night
he came up in the first with runners on first and third and walked. He
doubled with nobody on in the fourth. In the fifth he struck out with
runners on first and third with two outs to end the inning. In the seventh
with runners on first and third and two outs he walked to load the bases.
He was on-deck when Giambi struck out to end the game. There's one bad
at-bat here, where he struck out in the fifth with two men aboard, but the
list of Yankees who left more men on base last night goes Posada, Cano,
Crosby and Randy Johnson. I understand the problem goes deeper than this,
but the Yankees have the highest OBP in all of baseball and the most base
runners. Every time Rodriguez is unsuccessful, which is going to be about
60% of the time, there's going to be a good chance there were runners on
board.
The Phillies lineup against lefty Randy Johnson went (1) Rollins (2)
Victorino (3) Utley (4) Burrell (5) Rowand (6) Bell (7) Fasano (8) Nunez.
It's the second day in a row Manuel figuered out a way to go Rollins and
Victorino at the top of the order. Shane played right, given Abreu a much
needed day off at a good time. Ditto for Ryan Howard, who was spelled by
Utley's first appearance at first base. The Phillies catcher almost always
bats eighth, not sure why Fasano got bumped up in front of the
switch-hitting Nunez.
The Phillies managed just one hit, Aaron Rowand's one out single in the
second, off of the Unit through three innings.
In the fourth, Jimmy Rollins led off and flew out on a 3-1 pitch. The stat
I want to see on Rollins is what his numbers are on the pitch right after
the first strike of the at-bat. I don't know what they are, but I'm
guessing they aren't good. Victorino used his speed again, singling on a
ground ball to Cano at second and going to second when Cano threw it away.
Utley followed with a walk and Burrell followed with the Phillies biggest
hit of the game, a two-run double that put them up 2-1. With Burrell on
second and one out, Johnson got out of the inning, striking out Rowand and
Bell.
The Phillies went 1-2-3 in the fifth but would score again in the sixth.
Again in the sixth, Rollins made the first out and Victorino followed by
getting aboard, this time on a single to center. Utley grounded out and
Burrell walked to make it first and second with two outs. Aaron Rowand
followed with a double to left that scored Victorino and sent Burrell to
third. The Phillies were up 3-1 but couldn't get more as Bell grounded out
to end the inning.
The Phillies went 1-2-3 in the seventh but got their fourth run in the
eighth. Rollins led off with a great at-bat, going 3-2 and fouling off
several pitches before getting hit in the head with a Kyle Farnsworth
pitch. Victorino bunted him to second and Utley was walked intentionally.
Pat Burrell followed with a hard ground ball to third, which A-Rod made a
great play on to get Burrell at first while Rollins went to third and Utley
to second. With two outs, Rowand walked to load the bases. Bell was up and
I think Manuel got away with his second bad decision of the game as he let
him hit for himself rather than calling on Howard or Abreu. If he had, the
Yankees would have no doubt brought Myers in, who was ready in the pen, but
I would still rather have had Howard or Abreu against Myers rather than Bell
against Farnsworth. Howard and Abreu were good hitters as recently as
yesterday, Bell was a good hitter as recently as 2004. Bell struck
out, but the ball got away from Posada, allowing a run to score and make the
game 4-2 before Fasano flew out to center to end the inning.
Rollins was 0-for-3 but had a great at-bat in the ninth.
Victorino was impressive again, 2-for-3 and scoring two of the Phillies
runs.
Utley 0-for-2 with two walks. Burrell 1-for-3 with the two-run double and a
walk. Rowand was 2-for-3 with a walk.
Bell and Fasano were both 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and each left three
men on base. Nunez was 0-for-3.
Manuel has some interesting choices to make with tonight's lineup.
Victorino and Nunez have both started in consecutive games and been very
good. I don't think it's likely that Rowand is going to lose much playing
time, especially coming off of two hits last night. It should be
interesting to watch what happens with Bell, however.