Brett Myers will take a leave of absence from the team through the All-Star break.  Nice move by everyone.  Read about it at Phillies.com.

This makes it less likely he'll start on Thursday.  Ryan Madson would seem to be a candidate to take the hill in his place, but we'll have to wait and see.

Take this thing back to Baltimore
June 27 2006

Do you remember the scene in Silence of the Lambs where Senator Martin looks at the heavily restrained Hannibal Lecter and says, seething, "Take this 'thing' back to Baltimore"? It kind of sums up nicely the way I feel about the Phillies at this point. 

The Phils need to start doing the big things right.  Did you see Bell's well-executed bunt in the top of the twelfth yesterday?  Nifty.  How 'bout Abreu leading off the bottom of the eleventh with a walk or Shane Victorino going first to third on Coste's seventh inning single?  All swell.  And the three-run homer in the tenth?  What?  Never happened?  Oh.  Oh yeah, I remember now.  I suggest the following game plan against the 35-42 Orioles:  everybody go out there and try to go 1-for-4 with three strikeouts and a three-run homer.  Let's see how that goes.

The Phillies finally managed to get some big hits at big times yesterday, coming off the bats of Rollins and Utley.  They scored seven runs and came up short anyway.  Pat Burrell has apparently become the poster-boy for the Phillies recent struggles.  Granted he has been awful of late, 0-for-his-last-15 with nine strikeouts in a lot of big spots, but to put the team's miserable stretch completely on his shoulders is absurd.  Yesterday the team went into the bottom of the twelfth with a one-run lead and Clay Condrey gave up two runs.  Earlier in the game Boston got six straight hits against Phillies pitching.  Chase Utley is hitting .221 in June, David Bell .209 and Aaron Rowand .217.  Ryan Howard is 2-for-his-last-18 with nine strikeouts.  Sal Fasano is 1-for-his-last-14.  After the Phillies did not start Burrell yesterday there are apparently thoughts of sitting him in Baltimore.  It would be a mistake, especially in a DH series.  Even with his horrible run he remains in the top 20 in the NL in home runs, RBI, slugging and OPS.

The Phillies limp into Baltimore tonight for the first of three against the Orioles.  The Phils are mired in futility, losers of five straight and looking hopeless at five games below .500.  They are in second place in the NL East and twelve games behind the New York Mets.  The Orioles are 35-42 and 5-5 in their last ten.  They come off a series against the Nationals at home where they took two of three.

The Phillies .253 batting average is worst in the NL.  They are tied for sixth in the NL in runs.  Baltimore leads the AL in stolen bases, thanks to Corey Patterson and Brian Roberts, and is ninth in the AL in runs. 

Baltimore has allowed the second most runs in the AL and the fourth most hits.  The 750 hits that Phillies pitchers have allowed is the second worst in the NL and they have allowed the fourth most runs. 

Miguel Tejada (312/366/513), catcher Ramon Hernandez (285/346/506) and Jay Gibbons (274/312/495) have been the big hitters for the Orioles this year.  Shortstop Tejada leads in the team in home runs (16) and RBI (54).  Catcher Hernandez is putting up another solid year after coming over from the Padres.  Gibbons has been out since mid-June with a knee issue, leaving the Orioles with some problems.  Corey Patterson (289/333/443), Nick Markakis (233/310/312) and Luis Matos (204/277/343) are getting a lot of time in the Baltimore outfield with some help from Brandon Fahey (265/312/342).  Patterson leads the group with a .333 on-base percentage.  Markakis has ten extra-base hits in 189 at-bats and Matos is on-basing .277.

Joining Tejada in the infield are Kevin Millar (236/342/366), Brian Roberts (309/376/395) and Melvin Mora (289/354/425).  Millar's .366 slugging percentage at first base isn't so impressive, but Roberts has been getting on-base again this year.  Roberts has yet to hit a home run this season.  Last year, after never hitting more than five in a year in his career, he hit 18. 

Javy Lopez (282/329/437) shares time with Hernandez at catcher and DH.  Hernandez was in an awful 0-for-23 slump, which he broke out of on Thursday with two home runs.  Ramon has five hits in his last eleven at-bats. 

There are plenty of developments around Tejada of late.  Most notably, according to an article in today's Washington Post, which you can read here, the Orioles are looking to trade him and his name has come up associated with the Jason Grimsely affair.

Righty Chris Ray is the Orioles closer.  He's posted 19 saves and a 3.38 ERA.  Opponents are hitting .198 against him and he's struck out 30 in 32 innings.  He has allowed five home runs, four of which have come against lefties.  He is joined in the pen by righties Latroy Hawkins, Todd Williams, Sendy Rleal, and Chris Britton.  Opponents are hitting .287 against Hawkins (lefties .309) and .339 against Williams and neither of the two are striking out many batters.  Rleal has allowed fewer hits, pitching to a 3.55 ERA, but has allowed six homers and 19 walks in 33 innings.  Chris Britton has been good, striking out 20 in 25 2/3 innings while allowing just 21 hits.  Lefty Bruce Chen was moved to the pen earlier this month.  Opponents are hitting .336 against him and he has a 6.75 ERA in 60 innings.  They also use lefty Kurt Birkins in relief, he has thrown to a 1.23 ERA in 22 innings.  He's allowed just 11 hits but walked 11 and has not allowed a home run.  Opponents are hitting .151 against him and lefties .111, so we may see him in the late innings against Utley, Abreu, Howard and Dellucci.

The series will be a showdown of teams with horrid starting pitching.  Each team comes in with an identical ERA for their starting pitchers:  5.53.  For the Phillies, the mark is worst in the NL.  For the Orioles, it's second worst.

Cole Hamels (1-3, 4.41) faces lefty Eric Bedard (7-6, 5.09) tonight in the series opener.  Bedard comes off of a start on Wednesday against the Marlins in which he was brilliant.  He got the win, going eight innings and holding the Fish to just two hits.  He struck out 12.  Righties have hit him this year, which is another reason it would be a mistake to sit Burrell tonight.  I would be really surprised if Manuel did.  Hamels comes off of a good start on Wednesday against the Yankees.  He went seven innings and held New York to two runs on six hits.    He lost when the Phillies managed to bang out three hits and got shut out, but let's stay positive.

Scott Mathieson (0-1, 4.22) gets career start number two against righty Kris Benson (8-5, 4.06) tomorrow night. Benson also comes off of a nice start against the Marlins.  On Thursday he went eight innings, allowing one run on six hits.  He's allowed 12 hits and two runs in his last 16 innings.  Curiously, righties are hitting .277 against him and lefties .233, which has not been the pattern over his career.  Mathieson went 4 2/3 innings of good relief when he was called on to rescue Ryan Madson from Madson's most recent wretched start on Friday.  He gave up just one run against the Red Sox on a seventh inning homer to Manny Ramirez.  He didn't have as much luck in his one other start, which came June 17 against the Devil Rays.  He did go six innings, but allowed four runs on eight hits.  He's pitched just 10 2/3 innings total on the year, but righties are hitting .357 against him.

Brett Myers (5-3, 3.86) faces righty Rodrigo Lopez (5-8, 6.45) on Thursday night.  Lopez is yet another Baltimore pitcher coming off of a solid start.  On Friday against the Nationals, he went seven innings, holding Washington to a run on seven hits.  Opponents are hitting .298 against him and lefties .324.  He's allowed an amazing 19 home runs, which ties him for the lead in all of baseball with three others.  It might not matter when it happens, but sooner or later the Phillies are going to explode and beat somebody like 17-6 or something.  When it happens it might be against a righty that gets hit hard by lefties and gives up a lot of long balls.  Brett Myers can expect the boos when he takes the mound Thursday.  He pitched on Saturday at Boston and went five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and four walks.  He's walked to many of late, ten in his last 11 2/3 innings.  In his 16 starts he's allowed more than three runs just twice.  He's walking a ton of lefties, 5.66 per nine innings compared to 1.75 per nine innings for righties. 

Seekers of Orioles blog may want to check out Camden Chat.

The Phillies lost again.  This time it was 8-7 in twelve innings after they came back from 6-0 to go up 7-6 in the top of the twelfth.  It's the fifth straight loss for the Phillies and the second straight walkaway whatever from David Ortiz.  The loss drops the Phillies to 35-40 on the year. 

Cory Lidle got the start and pitched better than his line.  He went 5 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks.  Two of the five hits went for extra-bases, both doubles.

Lidle got a 1-2-3 first and did a great job in the second.  After giving up a leadoff double to Manny Ramirez he got Nixon to fly to right for the first out.  Mike Lowell followed and hit a ball to right-center, Rowand and Abreu ran into each other and the ball was knocked loose from Rowand.  Lowell was safe at second, Ramirez went to third and Rowand was charged with an error.  Lidle got out of it, though, getting Crisp to pop out to the infield and striking out Mirabelli.

Lidle had another good inning in the third, getting the first two and walking #2 hitter Alex Cora on a 3-2 pitch that sure looked like a strike.  Ortiz followed and Lidle struck him out to end the inning.  He followed it up with a 1-2-3 fourth that kept the game a 0-0 tie.

In the fifth he got the first two before Alex Gonzalez singled to left on a ball trapped by Victorino for a single.  Youkilis followed with a walk, but Lidle got Cora to ground out and end the inning.

In the sixth, Ortiz led off with a walk and went to second on a Ramirez single.  Nixon hit it hard, but flew out to right, bringing Phillies-killer Mike Lowell to the plate with one out and runners on first and second.  Lowell singled, scoring Ortiz from second and putting Boston up 1-0.  Coco Crisp followed with a ground rule double, scoring Ramirez and sending Lowell to third with one out and the score 2-0 Boston.  With righty Doug Mirabelli up, Manuel went to his pen, calling on Geoff Geary.  Mirabelli singled, scoring the runner on third and making the score 3-0.  Alex Gonzalez followed with another single, the fourth straight hit for Boston, which made the score 4-0 with runners on first and second and one out.  Youkilis doubled, making it 5-0 with runners on second and third and Cora at the plate.  Manuel went to the pen for the second time in the inning, bringing on Fultz.  Boston called on pinch-hitter Mark Loretta against the lefty Fultz.  Loretta reached on an infield single for the sixth straight Boston hit, loading the bases for David Ortiz with one out.  The Phillies finally broke the string as Ortiz grounded out to first, scoring the runner from third extend the lead to 6-0.  Fultz intentionally walked Manny Ramirez to load the bases for Trot Nixon.  Nixon popped out to Rollins and end the inning.

After getting two hits through the first five innings, the Red Sox put up six runs on seven hits in the sixth.

Geary faced three batters, all of who got hits, a double and two singles.  He's allowed six hits in his last 1 2/3 innings and has been charged with three runs.

Ryan Franklin came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh after the Phillies put up five in the top of the inning to make the score 6-5. He kept Boston off the board with the help of a terrific throw from Chris Coste who nailed Coco Crisp trailing to swipe second.   Franklin returned and threw a 1-2-3 eighth.

Cormier came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth in a 6-6 game and got lefty Ortiz to lead off the inning.  The Phillies left him in to pitch to the righty Ramirez, which I was sure was a mistake.  It worked as Cormier got Ramirez to ground to short for the second out.  Righty Gabe Kapler hit for lefty Trot Nixon and flew out to left to end the inning.

In a move that defies reason, Cormier, who had gotten more than three outs in a game once this season, came back to pitch the bottom of the tenth.  He walked Mike Lowell to lead off the inning on four pitches.  Crisp bunted him to second.  Varitek pinch hit for Mirabelli and was intentionally walked.  With one out and Lowell at second, Gordon came on to pitch to Alex Gonzalez.  Flash got a double-play on a lineout to Utley at second when
Lowell was caught too far off the bag.  Manuel got away with one there.

Gordon pitched the bottom of the eleventh and Boston loaded the bases with one out on a double and two walks.  Flash got out of it, though, getting a ground ball to short with the infield in that Rollins made a nice play on to get the runner at home.  Gordon then got Lowell to ground out and end the inning.

Clay Condrey came in for the twelfth with the Phillies up 7-6.  He gave up a leadoff double to Crisp before getting the next two batters and putting the Phillies perilously close to victory.  No worries, though.  Youkilis singled to left and I honestly believe Victorino was going to throw Crisp out at the dish, but Shane bobbled the ball then threw it home hopelessly late.  It was the wrong place to throw it.  Second base would have been a nice place to throw it.  Bell couldn't cut it off and Youkilis did a nice job getting to second.  Condrey walked Loretta, and Youkilis scored on an Ortiz single to give Boston an 8-7 win.

The Phillies lineup against righty Tim Wakefield went (1) Rollins (2) Utley (3) Abreu (4) Howard (5) Rowand (6) Dellucci (7) Victorino (8) Bell (9) Coste.  It was the same lineup that Manuel tried to use yesterday in the game that was rained out.  Burrell rests with Dellucci at DH and Victorino in left field.  Howard hits in the cleanup spot for the seventh time this
year, going into the game he was 4-for-24 in the #4 hole.  Bell drops down to #8 in the lineup, where he was 1-for-6 this year going into the game.  Coste gets a start for Fasano, who must be weary.  Fasano is on a pace to appear in 100 games this year, coming into the season his career high was 74 in 1998.

Wakefield came in to the game having been much more effective against lefties than righties.  Righties were 261/333/451 against him and lefties 190/253/275 and the Phillies switch-hitters in the lineup responded by hitting righty against him rather than lefty.  It's a nice move, but given that was the approach it makes it a little more surprising the Phillies had the best righty on the team start the game on the bench.  Granted, given Burrell's recent struggles the Phillies best hitter may have been on the bench considering a career in professional softball, but still.

The Phillies got five hits and a walk off of Wakefield in the first four innings.  In the first, Howard flew out with two outs and Abreu on third.  In the second, Bell grounded into an inning-ending double-play with runners on first and second.  In the third, Rollins made it to second with one out before Utley flew out and Abreu struck out to end the inning.  And in the fourth, Rowand and Dellucci had back-to-back singles to make it first and third with one out before Victorino struck out and Bell popped out.

The Phillies went 1-2-3 in the fifth and the sixth.

In the seventh they loaded the bases against Wakefield.  Dellucci reached on an error by Loretta that was later called a hit, Victorino was hit by a pitch and Bell walked to start the inning.  The Red Sox brought in Rudy Seanez to pitch to Coste who got the first hit of the inning, a single, which brought in Dellucci and made it 6-1 with the bases still loaded and nobody out.  A three-run triple by Rollins made it 6-4 with nobody out and a runner on third with Utley up and the Red Sox brought in lefty Javier Lopez.  Utley walked.  Abreu followed with a ground out to second that scored Rollins and moved Utley to second with one out and Howard at the plate and the Phillies down 6-5.  Howard struck out for the
second out of the inning.  The Red Sox walked the righty Rowand to bring up the lefty Dellucci with two outs and runners on first and second.  Manuel called on Burrell to pinch-hit and Francona called on righty Mike Timlin.  Timlin struck him out to end the inning.

The Phillies scored five runs in the inning, getting just two hits -- a single from Coste and the triple from Rollins.

The Phillies got a two-out double from Coste in the eighth, the first extra-base hit of his career.  Boston brought in the unhittable Papelbon and Jimmy Rollins didn't hit him, grounding to first to end the inning.

You know who did hit him, though?  Chase Utley, who led off the top of the ninth with a solo home run to tie the game at 6-6.  And Abreu didn't hit him but he walked him, getting a pass to first with nobody out.  Howard struck out for the first out of the inning.  Rowand followed with a ground ball to second that wasn't hit hard enough for a double-play.  Papelbon struck out Burrell to end the inning.

Utley's home run off of Papelbon was the first the pitcher had allowed in 35 games this year.

Chris Coste got another two-out hit in the tenth, giving the Phillies a chance to go ahead in that inning against Julian Tavarez.  Rollins followed with a walk and Utley got a chance to put the Phillies ahead with two on and two out.  Utley grounded out to first.

In the eleventh, Bobby Abreu led off with a walk and Ryan Howard tried, really, to bunt for a base hit against the shift before striking out.  I didn't make that up.  I wouldn't do that to you and I'm not that creative.  Abreu stole second before Rowand and Burrell were retired to end the inning.  Burrell didn't strike out this time, though, grounding to third so he's on a mini hot streak heading to Baltimore. 

Tied 6-6 in the top of the twelfth, Victorino led off with a single and went to second on a Bell sacrifice bunt.  Coste grounded out, moving Victorino to third before Rollins got his second huge hit of the day, a double that put the Phillies up 7-6.  Utley popped out to end the inning.

Rollins had a great day, going 3-for-6 with a walk and four RBI.  He was 7-for-15 in the series.

Utley had the huge home run off of Papelbon.  He was 1-for-6 on the day.  In the series he was 3-for-15.

Abreu 1-for-4 with two walks and 4-for-12 with two doubles in the series.

Howard 0-for-6 with three strikeouts.  2-for-14 with seven strikeouts in the series.

Pat Burrell was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and four men left on base.  0-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the series and 0-for-his-last-15 with nine strikeouts.  Dellucci was 2-for-2 today and 4-for-7 in the series.  Dellucci's line for the season is an impressive 296/348/543 in an unimpressive 81 at-bats.

Rowand was 1-for-5 today and 2-for-12 in the series. 

Victorino was 2-for-5 on the day but his unfortunate bobble in the bottom of the twelfth was huge.  He's at 317/378/480 on the year.

David Bell was 0-for-4 today and 1-for-10 in the series. 

Chris Coste did a great job today.  He went 3-for-6.  Fasano was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the series and is 2-for-his-last-18. 

During the three games in Boston, Utley, Burrell, Rowand, Howard and Bell combined to go 8-for-63 (.127).

Phillies play the Baltimore Orioles tomorrow night in Baltimore.
 

Seen a man standing over a dead dog, lying by the highway in a ditch (Bruce Springsteen)
June 26 2006

Time is not running out on the Phillies.  Just the opposite is true.  Time is on their side.  It's June.

What's not on their side apparently is their starting pitching, which has been horrible.  The whole team has been horrible of late, in fact, looking like they have about as much of a chance to make the playoffs as they do of winning the Super Bowl.  The thing to worry about, though, isn't the date or even the Phillies record -- it's that the Phillies have had the same problem all season long and haven't found the answer yet.

The good news is that's there is still time to fix it.  The Phillies have a very good offense and are going to score runs (possible exception:  the last three games, in which they've scored five).  Madson, Floyd, Mathieson and Brito aren't going to take them to the next level this year, however.  Maybe in 2009.

In each of the past three years a team in the National League that has finished June with a record of .500 or below has made the playoffs.  Houston did it last year, finishing June six games under and went to the World Series.  Atlanta was three games under in 2004.  Florida was at .500 in 2003 and went on to win the World Series. 

Over the past three years, 25% of the teams that have made the playoffs in the National League ended June with a record that was .500 or worse.  Two of them went to the World Series.