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Phillies going back to the show
The Phillies left no doubt about it tonight as they clinched their third straight division title for the second time in franchise history.
They set various benchmarks, had virtually every starter contribute to the 10-3 score, in a game featuring a rejuvenated Cy Young award winner, an early appearance by a middle reliever who pitched 3 scoreless innings and a beleaguered closer who came in and got the final out in a non save situation. This team appears to be ready for the post season.
The Phillies played small ball, long ball, and all ball as they pounded a home run, two triples and three doubles. They scored in 4 of their 5 final at bats to put this one away and leave no chance for a late inning collapse preventing them from winning the National Laegue eastern division. They still have a shot at home field advantage so there is still some incentive to win their final four games. Unlike last year, the Phillies established themselves early leading the division every day since May 30th.
Rollins and Victorino both scored their 100th run of the season, joining Howard and Utley. This marks the first time the Phillies have had 4 100 run scorers since 1932. Howard drove in his 138th run, to maintain a share of the league lead in that category. Victorino hit his 13th triple to lead the league in that category. Rollins hit his 43th double good for third in the league. Ibanez hit his 34th homerun, a personal career high for him. The Phillies become only the third club in history to have 4 players score 100 runs and 4 players hit 30 home runs in the same season.
The Phillies raised their record to 92-66 to guarantee at least an equal record to their championship season. Manuel may rest some starters, but if the Dodgers lose another game, the Phillies can get home field advantage with best National League record. The Phillies joined the Pirates and Braves as the only two other teams to win three NL titles in a row two times or more. The Braves of course won 14 in a row before the Phillies rose to dominance in the NL east.
The final week of the season will be interesting. The three division winners are set, in the Phillies, Cardinals, and Dodgers, and the Rockies are all but a lock to be the wild card seeing as the Braves lost to Florida after the Phillies had eliminated them. The question is who will play whom ? As it stands right now, the Rockies and Cardinals are tied with 90 wins, the Phillies have 92 and the Dodgers 93, but the Phillies have a game in hand on LA with an equal number of losses, so if they win out, they could equal or surpass the west coast club.
The next few days will certainly be interesting as the managers work on post season matchups and lineups.
The Phillies honored Harry Kalas, who broadcast for the team for over 40 years in the midst of their title celebration.
Now it is time to see if we can add to the three straight division crowns, and add the NL championship and MLB championship to the trophy case. The Phillies are no longer the league laughingstock as perennial losers. Those of us who have been fans for decades with the 1980 whiz kids as the only bragging point can now point to the current team and say with pride, ”These are OUR champion Phillies !”
National League East Winners 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2007, 2008, 2009
National League Champions 1915, 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008.
World Series Champions 1980, 2008, ??
No relief in sight for defending WS champions
The Phillies took another game to the wire tonight. With their magic number down to three, they tried to fight for the victory. Moyer pitched 4 in relief of Kendrick, and seems to be becoming the Phillies specialist in long relief. Now all we need is a closer.
The Phillies continue to be an offensive juggernaut. Howard hit his 43rd homerun, Baku chipped in with his 3rd and the Phillies scored 5 runs in the loss to Milwaukee. Walker came in and proved no pitcher can seem to close effectively for these Phillies by allowing 2 runs and getting nobody out in the ninth inning. If Philadelphia had a closer they could be challenging for the best record in the cities baseball history that goes back over 100 years.
This team had the potential to win 110 games this year but they have blown 18 games now with the closers allowing 8th or 9th inning runs. Lidge is responsible for 11 of these, but Madsen has had 6 blown saves and now Walker was initiated with a blown save of his own this evening. It is a shame that this team with such sound fundamentals, offense and starting pitching gets repeatedly let down by the bullpen. Charlie Manuel needs to address this, and he has about two weeks left to do it or I don’t expect the Phillies to get to the second round of the postseason.
It goes down in the books as a 7-5 loss late in a season where the Phillies have essentially secured a playoff spot, but it all but ensures they will not have best NL record for home field advantage and it strikes a blow on this team’s momentum and confidence with little time left in the season to compensate for another loss that should have been a win.
Phillies get split in Florida Magic # is 5
The Phillies traveled to Florida to play the Florida Marlins a rare double header. Joe Blanton came out and threw another quality start in the first game pitching 7 innings of shutout ball. The Phillies offense secured the win with an assortment of seeing eye hits, good fielding, baserunning and steals.
Ibanez did hit a late home run but that only accounted for 1 of the 9 runs the team scored in the first game, the rest came on singles and groundouts, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly as the Phillies scattered 11 hits overall to beat Florida 9-3 in the opener.
Blanton has had 15 quality starts in his last 16 games, allowing 4 runs or less and raising his record to 11-7. In his last two starts he has pitched 13 consecutive shut out innings and lowered his ERA to 3.82. The Phillies reduced their magic number to clinch to 5.
Howard and Werth both had RBI singles and Jimmy Rollins continued his recent offensive upsurge with a sacrifice fly that scored a run as well. Despite 16 strikeouts and going 2-11 with runners in scoring position and having a lone 1 run home run, the Phillies made the victory look easy.
As the season winds down, the Phillies have little left to prove. The Braves and Marlins who both could have challenged for a wild card spot have all but vanished in the past few weeks when facing the NL East leading Phillies who improved their season record to 88-62 which represents their best winning percentage since 1993.
Jamie Moyer returned from the bullpen to get a rare late season start, but you can be sure Manuel was aware of his numbers in Florida. Moyer had a career record of 13-3 against the Marlins and a 8-0 record with a sub 1.00 ERA at their ballpark. Moyer had a strong outing, allowing 3 runs in 7 innings with 5 strikeouts and a walk, but the Phillies bats fell uncharacteristically silent as Florida rookie Anibel Sanchez pitched a masterful 2 hit shutout through 8 innings and the Marlins dealt Moyer his first loss in their home stadium.
The Phillies evening loss was also the first team loss in Florida all season. Their magic number remains 5, but we all know it is only a matter of time.
No more blown saves in Philadelphia
It appears as if Charlie Manuel finally heard the rest of us. I find it admirable that he stated Lidge was his guy a few months ago when the closer first started to struggle and was staying with him to the bitter end. I can appreciate his attempt at loyalty and integrity. But at a certain point, even Manuel had to recognize as manager of the defending World Series champions, his primary objective should be to win games. Lidge’s difficulties this season were dangerously close to infecting the rest of the team.
Tonight Cole Hamel’s evened his record at .500 by pitching 6+ strong innings of 1 run ball. Manuel then brought Chan Ho Park and Brett Myers in for middle relief. After that, for the second night in a row, he brought in Ryan Madsen to close. Now here is the strange thing, the last two games Madsen has earned the save, but he is also giving up hits and runs !
What is it this year about this pitching staff. If you pitch in middle relief or long relief, you are effective but the moment they place a “closer” designation on you, the balls start to fly off the bat ? Madsen gave up a double and a single and allowed a run on a fielders choice before completing the save. He came in with a three run cushion though. If he only had a one or two run cushion, tonight could have gotten interesting really quick. He still has an ERA near 3, but he hasn’t been in that many save opportunities yet.
A lot of people don’t realize just how difficult it is to close a game. You only face a couple of batters, but they are generally warmed up and in a do or die situation with a lot more on the line. The managers are manipulating the lineup for all they are worth, trying to bring about the perfect mismatch. At that point traditionally, it has always been a relatively thankless job, except for the rare times like Lidge had last year when he was perfect from start to finish and his team won it all. Those seasons come around sometimes only once in a career for a closer. It is much more common for a closer to throw one bad ball out over the plate and become the goat, frequently when he is not solely to blame for the teams loss.
That being said, getting Lidge out of that role is the right thing to do. I feel bad he is in that position, but the same thing happened to Jamie Moyer earlier this year when he was pulled from the starting lineup. Moyer has pitched as well or better since the manager made that move, so maybe Lidge will find a better role to finish out the season and help this team repeat as champions. This is a team that can do it. Tonight they won on defense, solid hitting in the clutch, and a little bit of luck. I admire Manuel more for admitting by his actions that he had backed the wrong horse. Like I said before, it is his job to manage this team so they win ballgames, not to win a popularity contest.
This team will be in the spotlight the rest of the way. The Rockies are on a tear, as are the Cardinals, with their potential triple crown contender in Albert Pujols. The Angels are better hitters statistically, the Dodgers and Giants are better pitching statistically. It is possible the Phillies are only the fourth or fifth choice to win the World Series this year. The fact they were 2008 champions actually hurts them a bit with the pundits and sportswriters. Take the Yankees out of the picture, and only one other team has won double World Series since the Phillies last title, way back in 1980. I speak of the Toronto Blue Jays. Where are they now ? Near the cellar in their division.
It is no longer an easy thing to do in a league with a lot of parity considering there is no payroll equality, and the Phillies did spend some money this year to add to their World Series defending squad to see if they could be the first to do it in the 21st century. For a team in the spotlight, it is time to settle down, play ball, and everybody do what they do best. At this particular moment, Manuel seems to be coaching, which is what he does, and Lidge is NOT closing which at this point is what he needs to do.
Lidge has definitely outstayed his welcome.
Tonight’s headline is not about a Phillies closer blowing another lead. Wednesday was Clippard’s turn to come into a game in the late innings with the score tied and give up two long balls to the first two batters he faced.
The Phillies are back on track. Cliff Lee is still the man. The Phillies continue to crush the long ball just when they need it. After watching another lead vanish in the bottom of the 7th, the Phillies came up to bat in the top of the 8th inning and jumped on Washington’s relief pitcher, Tyler Clippard. The first two batters who faced him, Werth and Ruiz, both went downtown and all of the sudden, the Phillies had a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning.
Tonight it was not the typical 3-4 hitters doing the damage, tonight Ibanez, Werth and Feliz combined to go 6-10 with 4 RBI’s in support of Cliff Lee. Lee pitched 7 more strong innings en route to his 6th win with his new ball club.
The only real fly in the ointment was Alberto Gonzalez who had three doubles in three at bats. For some reason Jim Riggleman chose to pull Gonzalez with the bases loaded in the 8th and sent Orr to the plate instead. I understand wanting to have the right handed batter face the right handed pitcher, but why pull the guy with the majority of your team’s hits and runs with the bases loaded and the game on the line ? For whatever reason, we will thank Riggleman for this win. He is probably just now realizing he over thought his strategy and possibly cost his team the game.
For that matter, why did Manuel have Cliff Lee bat with one out in the top of the inning, only to pull him for Chan Ho Park in the bottom of the same inning ? Wouldn’t that have been a good spot for a pinch hitter ? Maybe Matt Stairs, woefully underutilized this year ?
This was a strange contest where it almost appeared as if neither manager wanted to win it. But at the very least, Manuel resisted trotting Lidge in for the save. I don’t know if my heart could have handled that at this point ! I have been saying Lidge needs to be replaced, just as many of my earlier predictions and comments from the spring and summer are coming true.
J A Happ is missing a start and Jamie Moyer is coming from the bullpen to start in his place.
As I said, Moyer deserves this, he earned it, and has been valuable to this team all year long.
Lidge is self destructing after his perfect season last year, after I commented on how he looked a little scared and tentative even as he helped the Phillies win the world series last year and predicted he would have a much less successful fall in 2009.
The two mid season Cy Young winning pitching acquisitions have combined to go 10-2 with a combined ERA around 3.
The Phillies became the 12th club in MLB history to have 4 30 homer players, and the first to have three left handers achieve the feat in the same season.
The Phillies are in fact the most well balanced over-all scoring machine in this generation. Put their runs, RBI’s and home run totals up against any one and they are better than or equal to the task.
And the Phillies will be going to the World Series again in defense of their title, but I am no longer sure they will successfully defend it. It is nice to know some things I observed have come to pass, I just hope Charlie Manuel stays with Madsen at this point. Having a closer with a 7+ ERA who allows more baserunners than innings pitched will not enable the Phillies to get through the rest of the year and win in the post-season.
Phillies close another close game
The Phillies are back at it again. On a night dominated by the presence of a certain someone playing for another Philadelphia sports team, it is refreshing to note the World Champion Phillies won again. Not only did they win, but they did it without any controversy, or dissent. They did it in much the same way they have won many games of late, with good pitching, solid fielding and a persistent presence at the plate that simply refuses to allow an opposing pitcher to shut them out.
Werth hit his 30th home run, the second Phillie to do so in 2009, and Howard continued his red hot streak and drove in another run. Pedro finally got to pitch deep into a game where the rain didn’t disrupt his rhythm and Lidge pitched the ninth, got a save, and seems to finally have gotten his ERA below 7. This series is all about paying attention to details. It is low scoring and well coached, not allowing for many mistakes. Philadelphia won another series at an important time of year, where the games are magnified in importance. They did this against a San Francisco team that is valiantly fighting for a playoff berth, and at a time when they could probably call in a couple games and not sweat the small stuff. Because this team does indeed sweat the small stuff is precisely why I expect them to repeat as World Series champions.
The Phillies now stand at 77-54. They are 23 games above .500, their best mark of the year, and extended their NL East lead to 8 games. They have the fewest losses in the National League and trail only the Yankees in total losses, The ball is in their court. With the divisional races all but over, it is now a matter of waiting to see who will get the wild card and how the postseason is going to play out. I believe the Phillies have as good a chance as any team in either league to take it all the way this year.
Manuel deserves quite a lot of credit for holding it all together and working with his staff of not quite superstars all season long to get the optimum performance out of them. I mentioned before, the Phillies have no one player that is superlative this year, but 6 starters and 3 or 4 pitchers that all could be considered to be in the top ten or fifteen in the league. I know one thing for sure, I would not want to be the team facing the squad as September rolls to October and things heat up, because it appears the Phillies are hitting their stride at exactly the right time, and they are going to be a force to contend with.
And The Phillies 5th Starter Is…….Pedro Moyer?
I know, I could’ve used Jamie Martinez as well but I think everyone gets the idea here. For the second time in four starts Pedro Martinez had a good performance interrupted by rain. On Friday night in Philadelphia Martinez survived the first 63 minute delay but after play was resumed for all of 7 minutes Pedro’s night was done as the Braves and Phillies waited through a second 45 minute delay.
Enter Jamie Moyer. Making his second relief appearance since being sent to the bullpen in favor of Pedro Martinez, Moyer relieved Martinez after another rain delay and pitched an effective 4 1/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits. He struck out five and walked none. It was also the second time that Moyer earned the win coming in behind Pedro to run his mark for the year to 12-9.
After making some comments in Chicago after the demotion saying that he felt “mislead” by the Phillies, Moyer has been all business in his two relief appearances. His 12 wins leads the Phillies and more importantly his two appearances have saved the bullpen from becoming taxed. I don’t have the stats, but I’d have to say if Moyer finishes the season leading the Phillies in wins after being sent to the bullpen it would certainly be something that hasn’t happened in a long time if ever at all.
And somewhere Charlie Manuel and Rich Dubee are smiling after dismissing the idea of using a six-man rotation. Could Charlie have known that we’d have some rainy nights in August? Could he have pulled out his Farmer’s Almanac and saw this coming? Even if he didn’t he probably should say he did because right now the Phillies are looking pretty smart by sending Moyer to the bullpen. Moyer has pitched some effective baseball, giving up just one run in his 10 2/3 innings of relief while going 2-0. Pedro hasn’t pitched bad and he hasn’t pitched great. The Phillies have given Pedro great run support in Pedro’s non-rain starts which certainly helps. The important thing for Pedro is for him to get stronger with every outing, and should mother nature intercede well, there is always Jamie Moyer.
Manuel On Lidge
Charlie Manuel called in on the Power Alley show on XM radio earlier today and said that Brad Lidge will make a rehab appearance in the minors as early as tomorrow.
SI.com’s Jon Heyman is reporting that the Phillies are a little leery of adding Seattle’s Erik Bedard and that Bedard needs to prove his shoulder is healthy before being one of the top trade options. Heyman reported that Boston’s Brad Penny and Seattle’s Jared Washburn right now are the two most appealing starters on the trade market.
The BigGreek’s take: Penny signed a reasonable contract with the Red Sox and so far has performed well. The problem is that Boston is in a position of strength and Penny isn’t worth overpaying for. Neither is Washburn who is pitching well in Seattle – a very pitcher friendly park after not pitching well the past couple seasons. I’d wait to see if Bedard can prove he’s healthy. He pitched well in Baltimore two years ago in a ballpark that is more hitter friendly and could be productive in Philly.
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