Results tagged ‘ Marlins ’
Lee Pitches Another Gem
In a year full of drama for the Phillies, Cliff Lee stepping on the mound is a sight for sore eyes. The same can be said when he steps to the plate as well. In a complete game shut-out of the Marlins last night, Lee also collected 2 hits, giving him a team-leading .316 batting average. And his .350 on-base percentage is second only to Michael Young (.378) among active Phillies.
Simply put, Cliff Lee is amazing.
Yet those offensive numbers are a bit disturbing in another respect. When your ace pitcher is leading the team in average and OBP, there are some serious problems. Granted, Lee only plays once every 5 games, but it is still a somewhat revealing statistic on a team that has struggled to score runs.
There was some offense last night though, and some signs of life all around. Although they only scored 3 runs, most guys hit the ball well and as team, they collected 12 hits, which is way better than their usual production this year. On Tuesday night with Tyler Cloyd pitching, the Phillies racked up 7 runs on 15 hits in the win.
But again, this has been a pattern; the Phillies have 1 or 2 games with solid offense and then they go right back to not being able to hit the broad side of a barn. And with the injuries mounting, can they get any kind of consistency?
The latest injury to Chase Utley is extremely worrisome. Utley was finally having a good year, after missing time in both of the previous 2 seasons with knee issues. Now, it appears he has an oblique strain of some sort; he will have an MRI today and will likely be put on the DL along with Roy Halladay, Mike Adams, John Lannan and Carlos Ruiz. Stay tuned…
Today is an off day as the team travels to Washington to take on the Nationals. News on Utley should be coming very soon…cross your fingers!
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Spit-Gate, Injuries and Other Depressing Phillies News
The Phillies looked like a shell of a team last night against the Miami Marlins, who are possibly the worst team in all of baseball. Leave it to the Phillies to make them look like All-Stars. Ugh.
When Domonic Brown smacked a home run in the second innings, it looked like the Phils might have carried over some momentum from Sunday’s dramatic walk-off win. But that was the end of the momentum and the beginning of Spit-Gate.
Marlins pitcher Alex Sanabia entered Monday’s game with a dismal 5.00 ERA and a 2-6 record. After the Brown homer, Sanabia apparently thought some cheating was in order. He was caught on camera spitting on the ball and did not make any attempt to hide it.
First of all, this is just gross. It is also against MLB rules. But did it really affect the Phillies hitters? Probably not too much…they have basically sucked all season long. However, it did add insult to injury in this very unsettling loss.
Even Cole Hamels could not hide his emotions as he slammed his glove around on the Phillies bench after his outing. And after the game, he did not speak to reporters. I believe Hamels is feeling the same frustration we all are; specifically, WHY can’t this team score runs?! Poor Hamels is now 1-7 on the season. Last year, he had 6 losses for the entire season…already this year, not even half way through the season, he has that total beat.
Two runs allowed in 6 innings should get you a win…unless you are on the Phillies, apparently. Making matters worse, this team is now riddled with injuries. Carlos Ruiz came back after his suspension to play only 16 games before being put on the DL with a strained hamstring. Mike Adams is on the DL with a bad back. John Lannan is still on the DL with no expected return date being reported. And now Ryan Howard has sat out 2 games in a row with a sore knee and possible a torn meniscus.
And at least half of the bullpen may as well be injured; they might actually pitch better. Because our healthy pen cannot stop runs from scoring. Phillippe Aumont gave up 2 more runs last night and has a 4.15 ERA, plus many inherited runners have scored on him. Pretty much everyone in the pen is guilty of that too. And check out some of the other ERA’s: Chad Durbin, 8.10; Jeremy Horst, 5.09; BJ Rosenberg, 20.25 (1 game). Yikes!
As all the crap keeps piling up on this team, it is going to be harder and harder for them to dig their way out of the heap. And I do not want to hear anyone else talk about how it is still early in the season. As far as I am concerned, it is never too early to play winning baseball. And thus far, this team has not shown they can do that.
Game time tonight is 7:10pm; Tyler Cloyd will pitch.
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Photo via NBC Sports
Phillies Flounder Against Fish in 2 Straight Losses
So, anyone else out there sit in traffic for hours just to watch the Phillies get slaughtered by the Marlins? Oh yes, the Broad Street Run was exiting just as people were arriving to the game, plus 95 north closed due to a huge tractor-trailer fire/accident. It was the perfect storm.
I did leave very early, so my usual 1 ½ hour drive was about 2 ½ hours. Others were not as lucky. And certainly no one was happy with the end result, whether they made it to the game or not.
Prior to the game, the Phanatic unknowingly gave us a little foreshadowing of the events to come. Here he is, literally licking the boots of the Marlins catcher, much to the amusement of the entire Marlins squad:
And then the real fun began…Roy Halladay gave up 5 runs in the 1st inning, a grand slam in the 3rd inning and was pulled from the game after only 2 1/3 innings with 9 runs allowed on 4 hits and 4 walks. His head hung low as he exited the field:
Afterwards, Halladay revealed that he has been experiencing shoulder pain for several weeks, something he neglected to tell the team prior to this and his previous start. Expect to see Doc on the DL shortly…
And as usual, the offense did absolutely nothing all day long. Marlins pitcher Kevin Slowey had not had a win in the major leagues since 2010 (*%!@!), yet the Phils managed only 2 hits off him. They did avoid the shut-out, with 2 runs in the 8th inning, thanks mostly to Marlins shoddy defense. But not much else was working for the Phillies.
The relief staff added 4 more runs to the happy Fish who were rounding the bases quite swimmingly. And they are no longer the worst team in baseball with 2 straight wins over the Phils. Way to go, Phillies, helping out your Marlins buddies. The final score was 2-14…eeekk!
To end on a high note, it was Mother’s Appreciation Day at the ballpark. Chase Utley’s mom joined him on the field and the Phanatic brought him mom as well.
We also got a cute Utley tote bag when entering the ballpark, which was the only bright spot of the day. But if you’d like to see more photos anyway (some of them are pretty good, even if the game sucked), here is the Photo Album.
The Giants are up next as the team travels to San Francisco. As for me, I will also be getting on a plane in a few days to head to the birthplace of the Phanatic…the Galapagos Islands! I hope to check in from there if the internet connection cooperates. It is a shame I cannot take the Phanatic with me, but I think he has his hands very full right now keeping fans entertained while the Phils flounder :O(
Game time tomorrow is 10:15pm EST.
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Two Wins and Some Verbal Fireworks
After getting destroyed by the Indians earlier this week, the Phillies have won their first 2 games against the lowly Marlins. Both Kyle Kendrick and rookie Jonathan Pettibone pitched well and the offense even managed to score some runs. Ryan Howard and Domonic Brown hit home runs in each of the 2 games.
But keep in mind, all of this was against the smelly Fish, who did not have their best little fishy, Giancarlo Stanton, in the line-up. With an 8-22 record, this team sucks. So please excuse me for not being too impressed with these wins. The Phillies beat bad teams in April as well, but they did not beat too many good ones. So if they finish out this series strong and then give the San Francisco Giants a big-boy spanking, then I might be a little more excited.
What was sort of exciting this week was reading all the stories about the verbal spat between Phillies pitching coach and former-Phil’s closer turned baseball analyst, Mitch Williams. Apparently, Rich Dubee yelled at Williams in Spring Training for trying to interfere with his pitchers. Then this week, Mitchy-Poo went off via the WIP radio show on Dubee for not helping Phillies pitchers fix their mechanical issues.
There is nothing like a good dose of man-on-man hissy-fit drama early in the morning…yum!
But the best part was yet to come…When asked about Mitchy-Poo’s comments, Roy Halladay came to Dubee’s rescue like a knight on a white horse. A normally reserved Halladay called Williams, “the mechanical wonder,” and said he was “completely out of line.” Doc even demanded that Williams “make amends” for his criticism of Dubee.
And in his usual no-nonsense/smarty-pants style, Dubee suggested that Williams “submit a resume” if he wants to be a pitching coach. Oh my.
I’ll say this about it, having spoken to both guys in the past on a variety of occasions. Mitchy-Poo is a guy who, right or wrong, always speaks his mind. I have a great deal of respect for him in that regard. He speaks from his heart. Dubee is very similar; he does not take crap from anyone and will always tell it like it is.
Once in the bullpen at a charity event, Dubee was showing me how to toss a fastball. I quickly realized I had forgotten to take a ring off that I was wearing. In order not to remove my glove and be quick about it, I pulled the ring off with my mouth, spit it into my palm and shoved in my pocket. Dubee folded his arms, grinned and said, “What, you can’t toss a pitch with that rock on your finger?” He then made a sarcastic comment about me trying to throw a spitball. After that, I was videotaping him working in the pen with someone else, and he asked me if I was going to use that video against him later.
Dubee loves a good joke; he is a naturally funny guy, whether he is trying to be or not. And he treats everyone the same, which I love about him. I did not want to be babied in the bullpen just because I was a girl and I was not disappointed.
So maybe Williams should not be butting in with Phillies pitching, but then again, he is just doing his job as an analyst. And Dubee is doing his job, protecting his players. Both are good guys with good hearts.
In that case, who is right and who is wrong is sort of a mute point. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, I do think this little drama might inadvertently be a very good thing for the Phillies. If Phillies pitchers want to defend the honor of their pitching coach, there is only one way to do that effectively…win!
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Head shot and photoshopping by Jenn Zambri Photography
Halladay Finds His Mojo Against the Cards
The Roy Halladay we have all been waiting to see returned last night in an 8-2 win over the Cardinals. It began with his last start against the Marlins and then Friday night, he continued to improve in an impressive 7-inning effort.
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The game was called due to rain after the 7th, so this will go in the books as a complete game for Halladay. He allowed only 2 runs, both solo homers.
But the really encouraging part was seeing Halladay get angry. Not the fiery red-faced, frustrated sort of anger; this was his old competitive fire, finally burning once again. He got mad in situations that most would just shrug off; for example, Ben Revere made another amazing catch in center field, but Halladay was visibly annoyed that the batter was able to hit the ball that hard, even though it turned into an out.
Halladay also had no issues trying to intimidate first-year major league umpire, Alan Porter, by staring him down or barking at him when he didn’t get the call he wanted. Porter had blown a fair/foul call the day before that put the Phillies in a hole, so no one was sad to see Roy giving him a hard time.
Seeing Halladay back to his old, grouchy self is a very positive sign. For some pitchers, this might mean the guy is getting frazzled; but for Halladay, being grouchy means he is on his game, ready to compete. When good is not good enough for the Doc, you know he is feeling confident.
Just as exciting as seeing Halladay find his mojo again was seeing the Phillies offense finally get some hits. The Phils busted out for 5 runs in the first inning, which was triggered by Chase Utley drawing a 2-out walk. And thank goodness someone walked, because I was getting beyond tired of hearing every single sports reporter whine about the lack of walks. Now they can all get back to whining about Ryan Howard…
Howard did not play last night due to a sore groin and he is day-to-day. Kevin Frandsen filled in at 1st base and drew the 2nd walk of the game for the Phillies and scored twice. Freddy Galvis started his second consecutive game in left field and made one of the weirdest diving catches you will ever see. His hand actually did a 360-degree turn on the ground, with the ball in the mitt. Of course, I cannot find a video of it anywhere…but it does look like we may have another outfielder. This guy looks like he can play anywhere…amazing.
So the real question tonight is will the Phillies offense come to play two days in a row? Cliff Lee hopes so; he takes the mound at 7:05pm tonight.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
The Phillies Offense Has Sprung a Leake
In 2012, the Phillies faced Reds pitcher Mike Leake twice and destroyed him to the tune of 13 runs. He had an overall ERA against the Phils of 17.55. Ouch. But last night, this team sprung Leake from his Phillies prison, allowing him to mow them down one hitter after another.
Ah, sweet freedom for Mr. Leake. He must be quite relieved this morning.
On the exact opposite side, the Phillies probably got little sleep due to nightmares. Some people have nightmares about standing naked in a crowd. The Phillies are probably having nightmares about standing at home plate without a bat. They may as well have been standing there without one if they were never going to use it.
And that pretty much describes this entire 6-game road trip which went down in flames after getting swept in 3-games by the Reds. They scored only 10 runs in all 6 games and came away with just 2 wins, both against the Marlins.
Granted, it is very, very early in the season. The Phillies have time to make up ground, however, these are very serious issues. At some point, one has to question whether or not this team is capable of more. But we will not really know until we see the whole team together as it was meant to be; that means when Carlos Ruiz returns and we also finally see what Delmon Young has to offer. Ruiz cannot return due to suspension until April 28th. And Young is still on the DL, although he has been participating in extended Spring Training games.
To make matters worse, Domonic Brown left the game early with a sore back; he will have an MRI today. And John Lannan, who got pounded for 6 runs in 1.2 innings last night, complained of a sore knee after the game. His status is unknown.
Do not be surprised if manager Charlie Manual decides to shake up the line-up tonight against the Cardinals. And say a prayer that Cole Hamels can get his first win of the season; although, he may need a little offense to get that done. *Sigh.*
Game time is 7:05pm.
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Photoshopping by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Fishing for Offense in Series Win
All 3 games between the Phillies and the Marlins this weekend went into the 9th inning tied by a score of 1-1. It is safe to say that both teams had a wee bit of trouble finding runs.
The Phillies had base runners in the series, but only hit 6 for 30 with runners in scoring position. Both Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley could not come through with the bases loaded; Rollins was 0 for 8 total. And today, the Phils hit into 3 double plays to kill rallies.
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Despite the seriously offensive offense, the Phillies managed to squeak out two wins. A lot of that had much to do with the fact that they were playing the Marlins, who look a lot like Phillies-Lite: Placido Polanco, Juan Pierre, Greg Dobbs and Chad Qualls are all ex-Phils.
In another unusual turn of events, Laynce Nix wound up being the hero of the day in the finale. Nix smashed a 2nd deck homer to right field to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the top of the 9th inning. It was Nix’s second home run pinch hit in the last 4 games. He also made a diving grab in right field in Saturday’s game; diving is not his forte, so this was truly a sight to behold. Ok Laynce, you win…I like you. You can stay. ;o)
But the real story of the day was Roy Halladay who picked up his 200th career win today. Not only was that an amazing feat, but this win had to be a huge relief in another way as well. After struggling mightily basically since last year, Halladay finally had a Halladay-like game. In 8 innings, the Doc allowed only 1 run with 5 hits and a walk. Granted it was against the Fish, but this will be a huge boost for his confidence.
So congratulations to Roy Halladay on his 200th career win!
The Phillies will celebrate tonight and then it is back to work tomorrow in Cincinnati. Game time is 7:05pm.
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Playoff Elimination: Check; Howard Injury to End Season: Check.
The end of this Phillies season seems to be a long, painful check list of unfortunate events. And there are still 4 games to go, so the list may not yet be complete. Let us see where we are so far:
- The Phillies have been eliminated from the playoffs.
- Ryan Howard dropped a warm-up bat on his toe and broke it, ending his season. That makes 2 straight seasons that will end with a Howard limping off the field. Maybe the Phillies need to invest in a lot of bubble wrap?
- Rookie pitcher Tyler Cloyd has been shut-down early with a “tired arm.”
- In what seems like an attempt to get the media to talk about anything other than the worst Phillies season in a long time, the Chase Utley 3rd base experiment has been deemed “over.” He will not play 3rd base.
- Speaking of 3rd base, the Phillies have absolutely no idea who will play there in 2013.
- Last night, Roy Halladay pitched fewer than 6 innings for the 6th time this season and gave up more than 3 runs in a game for the 9th time, unofficially announcing to the world that getting old sucks.
- For the 6th time in his career, Jimmy Rollins will end the season with at least 100 runs scored. However, he will also finish having batted well under .250 for 4 out of the 6 months of the season. He also came in 4th in all of baseball in fly ball outs and 2nd in the National League.
I think those were enough depressing thoughts for the day. On a happier note, despite Halladay allowing 4 runs in 5 innings last night, the Phillies did pull out a 9-5 win over the last place Marlins. 5 players had a multi-hit game, including Utley who picked up 3 RBI.
The win puts the Phillies dead-even at 79-79 for the season with 4 games to go. The goal in these last several games should be to finish above the .500 mark. They will go after the Fish one more time today at 1:10pm.
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Head shot by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Playoff Hopes: Fool’s Gold or the Real Deal?
Out of the 9 Phillies Opening Day 2012 starters, 6 have landed either on the disabled list or with another team at some point during the year. And that does not even include Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, who started the year on the DL. So basically, 8 out of 9 regular starters missed a lot of time this year. The only one who avoided either a trade or the DL was Jimmy Rollins.
It is fitting then that a 2-run shot from J-Roll last night led the team to a 3-game sweep of the Miami Marlins. Cliff Lee did his part as well, allowing just 1 run, which was unearned due to an error, over 7 innings.
The win has placed the Phillies only 3 games back in the Wild Card race, which is something not many people saw coming. This team was beaten up so badly throughout most of the year and played so poorly that a possible playoff run, until now, seemed impossible. Here is a look at the Wild Card standings:
But even after a 7-game win streak, is all this new playoff hope just fool’s gold or can the Phillies really sneak in the backdoor? Consider this: 6 of those 7 games in the streak came against two of the worst teams in baseball, the Marlins and the Rockies. Just a few weeks ago, the Phillies lost a series to the Mets, who are also pretty bad.
Then again, the momentum of a 7-game win streak could be enough to help elevate the Phillies performance and confidence to the point where they can start stomping on good teams as well. But we are not going to know if that is possible for a while as the Houston Astros are next on the agenda. With a record of 45-98, the Astros are by far the worst team in all of baseball. Losing even 1 of the 4 games against the Astros would be a tragedy.
So maybe this series could be a descent barometer after all. Because if the Phillies struggle against the Astros, I think the faint light of playoff hopes would be markedly dimmed. But if they beat the crap out of the Astros, as they very well should, then go ahead and keep the light of hope burning. Then we can all say, “Watch out National League! Here come the Phillies…”
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The Chase’s Are Wild as Phillies Trump the Fish
The Wild Card chase is back on for the Phillies who have won 6 in a row. They now sit only 4 games out of a potential playoff spot. The other Chase, that being Chase Utley, is starting to look like the guy we all remember. Despite a costly error in the game against the Marlins, Utley went 3-for-3 last night with 2 walks and an RBI. He reached base in all 5 of his at-bats.
Juan Pierre also continues to produce; he also had 3 hits in the game, plus an RBI. And Jimmy Rollins took advantage of a huge error by the Marlins catcher who dropped what appeared to be Jimmy’s 5,000th or so pop-up this year. Ok, maybe I exaggerate…but J-Roll followed the dropped pop-up with a 2-run homer on the next pitch. Rollins ended the night with 3 RBI on 2 hits.
But as the runs continued to pour in, Phillies pitchers continued to give them right back. Roy Halladay did not look great again, allowing 5 runs in 6 ½ innings while walking 3 batters. Just when it looks like Halladay is doing well again, he has a game like this.
But the bullpen was not much better. Manager Charlie Manuel had to use 4 pitchers to get though the 7th inning as it seemed no one wanted to get the final out. Halladay and the pen combined to allow 4 runs that inning.
In the bottom of the 7th, things got progressively weirder. After Rollins collected his 3rd RBI of the night, the Marlins manager apparently suffered a momentary lapse of reason. Ozzie Guillen, already considered one of the strangest men in baseball, made yet another move to solidify his crazy-man reputation. He ordered an intentional walk of Kevin Frandsen to pitch to Utley instead.
To break it down, Guillen decided he wanted to pitch to a guy who already had 3 hits in the game instead of a guy with a stress fracture in his left leg. Forget the left-handed, right-handed theory; a broken leg VS. 3-for-3…and broken leg won. Wow. Utley wound up walking as well and no damage was done, but that was a seriously weird chain of events.
The 9-7 put the Phillies back at the .500 mark for the season so far. That is a small miracle considering how bad most of the season has gone. Could a large miracle be in the works? It is a long-shot, but if the Phillies keep winning, who knows?
Game 3 with the Marlins starts early today at 4:05pm. Let’s go for the sweep!
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
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