Sometimes I wish I could erase all the memories I have of the Phillies, or at least go back in time and change my rooting destiny. Tonight was one of those nights. After I got home from work, my wife and I watched "Peggy Sue Got Married" on one of the outer Cinemax channels. We watch old movies on cable quite a bit, or at least I do. If "All The President's Men" is on, I'll drop whatever I'm doing, enraptured.
Back to the game. Right after Kathleen Turner woke up in her hospital bed still married to Nic Cage, we went out for pizza and ice cream (I think they call that the Bruce Froemming Diet), and I missed the top of the first. Wolfie had his usual lack of success against the Marlins, giving up a homer to journeyman infielder Damion Easley, and then a two-run shot to Juan Encarnacion. On the radio on the way home from the ice cream place, I heard my man Miguel Cabrera launch an upper-decker off Wolf to give the Makaira nigricans a 4-0 advantage. Resigned to another wasted evening, I watched my backlog of DVR shows, hoping the Phils would stage a comeback, but it was 5-1 when I checked back in. The Marlins added another run to make it 6-1 before my other man, the Chaser, hit a dinger to bring the Phillies within 6-2.
About that time, "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" started up on Cinemax. I'd been waiting for a while to see this flick, nearly buying it on Pay-Per-View a few times. This is the film where Jim Carrey signs up with a company to completely erase all the memories of his girlfriend, played by Kate Winslet. Like I mentioned earlier, what happened in the eighth and ninth innings made me wistful for such a procedure. Philadelphia drew to within two when Jim Thome hit a laser beam over Juan Pierre in center with the bases loaded to score Michaels and Rollins. That put runners on second and third with only one out. Pat Burrell, still nursing his leg injury but in the lineup, couldn't make contact, and whiffed, leaving it up to the Chaser. Trader Jack McKeon smartly walked Utley and brought in former Phillie Todd Jones to face the far less dangerous David Bell. Jones wasn't worth a damn when he was with us, but he managed to get Bell on a meek pop-up to center to snuff out the rally.
Then came the ninth. Lieby actually got a hit, and with one out, Rollins smacked what should have been a sure double down the first base line. Lieberthal had to hold up at first to make sure Carlos Delgado didn't catch the liner, and then ran with his usual sloth toward third. Meanwhile, Rollins hesitated rounding first as Lieby hauled his burgeoning girth around second, not sure if he could make it. Once Rollins saw that Lieby was going to be safe at third, he finally sped up and headed toward second. Damion Easley took the cut off from Encarnacion, whirled around and saw that Rollins was nowhere close to second, and fired to Gonzalez covering to nail him. NO! Two outs. Why isn't somebody with functioning legs running for Lieberthal there? We've still got Pratty on the bench to come in and catch. Actually, it looks like we were out of players. Ok, why are we out of players in the ninth inning? I think Manuel just blew that one. In any case, Polanco came up next and walked, bringing the winning run to the plate in Bobby Abreu. For some reason, McKeon left Jones in there, even though Guillermo Mota is their closer. Bobby took a strike, fouled off another, took a ball, and then went down swinging. Ball game. We lose to the Marlins again.
You can't really say we blew that one. 6-4 is not exactly the score of a game you let get away. Still, we could have won with some better managing decisions, better baserunning, and certainly, better pitching from Wolfie. Tonight it's the D Train against (oh no) Padilla. I think I'll be wanting to forget tonight's game, too. So, where do I sign up for that memory erasing thing?
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Friday, April 29, 2005
NO BALL TODAY
I spent my evening away from baseball at Quest For Tech, where I secured two tickets to a Wilmington Blue Rocks game this Saturday via their DSL connection. The person to whom we give out this computer will probably be very confused as to how www.bluerocks.com got into their Internet Explorer history. One of the founders also had me look up ticket availability for a QFT outing later in the year to Citizens Bank Park. This will probably be the only time I go this year, since my wife, being a genteel Southern lady, hates Philly fans. She does like the QFT people, though, and even volunteers with me. She likes going to Blue Rocks games as well, since Delaware people are almost Southern, for all intents and purposes, and behave far better than the puerile denizens of Broad and Pattison.
I'm also looking forward to my first MLB game of the year in two weeks at Don't Call It Enron Field in Houston, where the Astros will take on the Giants, sans Barry. My wife and I are heading to Houston, me on business and she visiting family. I've been to D.C.I.E. Field twice before. The concourses are huge and spotless, and the grass is a noticeably bright green compared to the old Astrodome, but the fans are the same old transplant idiots who can't show up on time, can't stay in their seats for more than an inning and can only cheer when the scoreboard tells them to. Still, it's a pretty park, and I can't wait to see a real major league game again. My next foray into the majors will be at, of all places, Oakland Coliseum, scene of the '73 Mets' final curtain. My wife and I have booked a vacation to the Bay Area for late June/early July, and a ball game was my only prerequisite. The Athletics will face the Mariners in what should be, if nothing else, an intra-divisional game if not a heated rivalry. Plus, I'll get to see the traveling circus freak act that is Ichiro, or "Ichiro!", as Baseball Prospectus calls him. Aside from these two games and the QFT outing to Citizens, I'm hoping to get down to RFK for at least one game this year. They sell killer french fries at the concession stands there, and there are no bad seats in that venerable old dump.
A day off for Baseball Dreaming. Ain't it great?
I'm also looking forward to my first MLB game of the year in two weeks at Don't Call It Enron Field in Houston, where the Astros will take on the Giants, sans Barry. My wife and I are heading to Houston, me on business and she visiting family. I've been to D.C.I.E. Field twice before. The concourses are huge and spotless, and the grass is a noticeably bright green compared to the old Astrodome, but the fans are the same old transplant idiots who can't show up on time, can't stay in their seats for more than an inning and can only cheer when the scoreboard tells them to. Still, it's a pretty park, and I can't wait to see a real major league game again. My next foray into the majors will be at, of all places, Oakland Coliseum, scene of the '73 Mets' final curtain. My wife and I have booked a vacation to the Bay Area for late June/early July, and a ball game was my only prerequisite. The Athletics will face the Mariners in what should be, if nothing else, an intra-divisional game if not a heated rivalry. Plus, I'll get to see the traveling circus freak act that is Ichiro, or "Ichiro!", as Baseball Prospectus calls him. Aside from these two games and the QFT outing to Citizens, I'm hoping to get down to RFK for at least one game this year. They sell killer french fries at the concession stands there, and there are no bad seats in that venerable old dump.
A day off for Baseball Dreaming. Ain't it great?
Thursday, April 28, 2005
TOP TEN REJECTED GEORGE W. BUSH NEW ENERGY PLAN IDEAS
- Build refineries on the site of crumbling inner-city schools
- Home nuclear kits
- All-coal-powered Internet
- Have Halliburton build a pipeline to the Sun
- Encourage hillbillies to dig for oil, move to Beverly
- Recover biodiesel from Tom DeLay's hair
- Off-shore drilling wherever we don't have a vacation home or we aren't governor of
- Build refineries on the site of polling places in the Blue States
- Saudi America!
- And the number one rejected George W. Bush new energy plan idea is:
When driving your Hummer a half a block down the street to pick up a DVD for your monster new home entertainment system and to buy some ice cream to put in your new giant freezer and to buy some more refrigerant for your central air conditioner, consider also picking up some light bulbs for the three spare bedrooms in your new $600,000 house so you don't have to make two trips
SUN STROKE
"Thank you, Pierre L'Enfant!" is what Esteban Loaiza and Brett Myers should be saying this morning. The master planner of Washington D.C. layed out the National Mall and the Capitol Building in an West-to-East fashion, and left a perfect spot due east of the Capitol for RFK stadium. Of course, yesterday's starters should also thank the more recent architects of RFK itself, the calendar, the schedule maker, and the weatherman for conspiring to leave a bright patch of sunlight out behind the centerfield wall directly in line with home plate and the pitcher's mound for at least eight innings, making it nearly impossible to pick up a pitched ball. Home plate ump C.B. Bucknor's enormous strike zone didn't hurt either. It was all goose eggs, and a whole lot of called third strikes, yesterday afternoon as the Phils and Nats wrapped up their three game set. I didn't tune in until I was making a chicken run to KFC after coming home from work and then going to the gym. I'm not even going to try to explain why I work out regularly and then eat fast food, because I couldn't if I wanted to.
Anyway, I didn't miss a lot of offense. J-Mike had a couple of singles, and Myers gave up a couple of safeties, but nothing of any importance occurred until the top of the ninth. By then, I had settled down in front of my 30" High Definition screen, drunk on Extra Crispy. Up stepped J-Roll against a tiring Esteban Loaiza, who had struck out a career-high 11, thanks in part to Bucknor, who was starting to raise his hand about the time Loaiza was starting his windup. I don't think he could see the ball either. Jimmy worked the count to 2 and 1 before Loaiza hung a cutter on the inside corner, fat as Bruce Froemming (speaking of umpires). By that point, the shadows had covered just a fraction of the batter's eye, making the ball look extra juicy to Rollins, and he didn't miss, depositing it in the Phillies bullpen for a 1-0 lead. Kenny Lofton followed with a single, and then Frank Robinson brought in lefty Joey Eischen to face Abreu, who singled to right to send Lofton to third. Thome then hit a sharp grounder to first, where BRAAA-AAADDD Wilkerson was filling in, and he caught Lofton straying too far off third for the first out. Damn. With the batter's eye rapidly darkening, and Wags-killer Vinny Castilla due up, we needed more runs. Eischen was still pitching, so Charlie Manuel sent David Bell in to pinch hit for Chase Utley, which forced Robbie to counter with righty Luis Ayala. Bell came through, hitting a broken bat single over third, which Abreu read beautifully to enable himself to score from second with a crucial insurance run. After J-Mike popped out to center, Polanco put the game on ice with a lined single to center, scoring Thome for a 3-0 advantage. Daddy Wags came on for a K-K-flyout ninth, getting his nemesis Castilla for the final out and his fifth save.
All in all, it was a good series, capped by an exciting win in the rubber match. We're back at CBP after an off day for three with the first-place Marlins, and then head to Shea for a three game set before finally getting outside of our piranha-tank-like division for a while. We still sit alone in last place, but only three games back of the Marlins, who could very easily have put us in a hole the size of Tom DeLay's ethical problems if they had hit more. Myers looked good today, although Gavin Floyd could have looked like Curt Schilling in today's conditions. We need to take two of three at home against the Fish. Any worse, and last place could start getting comfortable.
Anyway, I didn't miss a lot of offense. J-Mike had a couple of singles, and Myers gave up a couple of safeties, but nothing of any importance occurred until the top of the ninth. By then, I had settled down in front of my 30" High Definition screen, drunk on Extra Crispy. Up stepped J-Roll against a tiring Esteban Loaiza, who had struck out a career-high 11, thanks in part to Bucknor, who was starting to raise his hand about the time Loaiza was starting his windup. I don't think he could see the ball either. Jimmy worked the count to 2 and 1 before Loaiza hung a cutter on the inside corner, fat as Bruce Froemming (speaking of umpires). By that point, the shadows had covered just a fraction of the batter's eye, making the ball look extra juicy to Rollins, and he didn't miss, depositing it in the Phillies bullpen for a 1-0 lead. Kenny Lofton followed with a single, and then Frank Robinson brought in lefty Joey Eischen to face Abreu, who singled to right to send Lofton to third. Thome then hit a sharp grounder to first, where BRAAA-AAADDD Wilkerson was filling in, and he caught Lofton straying too far off third for the first out. Damn. With the batter's eye rapidly darkening, and Wags-killer Vinny Castilla due up, we needed more runs. Eischen was still pitching, so Charlie Manuel sent David Bell in to pinch hit for Chase Utley, which forced Robbie to counter with righty Luis Ayala. Bell came through, hitting a broken bat single over third, which Abreu read beautifully to enable himself to score from second with a crucial insurance run. After J-Mike popped out to center, Polanco put the game on ice with a lined single to center, scoring Thome for a 3-0 advantage. Daddy Wags came on for a K-K-flyout ninth, getting his nemesis Castilla for the final out and his fifth save.
All in all, it was a good series, capped by an exciting win in the rubber match. We're back at CBP after an off day for three with the first-place Marlins, and then head to Shea for a three game set before finally getting outside of our piranha-tank-like division for a while. We still sit alone in last place, but only three games back of the Marlins, who could very easily have put us in a hole the size of Tom DeLay's ethical problems if they had hit more. Myers looked good today, although Gavin Floyd could have looked like Curt Schilling in today's conditions. We need to take two of three at home against the Fish. Any worse, and last place could start getting comfortable.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
BAD BRAD
I hate Brad Wilkerson. He's getting to be right up there with Chipper. Too bad he doesn't have a juvenile nickname so I could taunt him by yelling out his real name in an elongated fashion. "BRAAA--AAADDDD" just doesn't work.
Yes, the Phillies lost to the Nationals last night, 3-1. One lousy run! It was scored before I started watching, by Placido Polanco on a Thome single, in the first. Bud's boys got the run right back in the bottom of the first, of course, when Larry Bowa's nephew Nick Johnson hit a solo jack. Bowa will be haunting us all year that way, I think. Lieber and John Patterson settled down after that, until BRAAAA--AAADDD hit a two run shot in the fifth to put the game hopelessly out of reach for these impotent Phillie bats. The Phillies had two on with one out in the 8th, but Mike Lieberthal continued his sucktastic ways by grounding into a 4-6-3 double play. God are we terrible. Start hitting, you losers! We're now at .252/.340/.369 as a team. A .369 team slugging percentage? Just terrible. We're being outhomered by double, not to mention out-doubled and out-tripled. If it wasn't for the league-leading 90 walks, we'd be 6 or 8 games out at least. Actually, that last stat is encouraging. You don't tend to suddenly stop drawing walks, but it's a lot easier to stop hitting extra base hits. If we can start hitting for power, which we've done in the past, and keep up the plate discipline, the wins should follow. Soon, I hope.
It's a 4:35 PM start in DC this afternoon. Myers is taking on former Yankee washout Esteban Loaiza. This is as good a time as any to get the bats going before we head home.
Yes, the Phillies lost to the Nationals last night, 3-1. One lousy run! It was scored before I started watching, by Placido Polanco on a Thome single, in the first. Bud's boys got the run right back in the bottom of the first, of course, when Larry Bowa's nephew Nick Johnson hit a solo jack. Bowa will be haunting us all year that way, I think. Lieber and John Patterson settled down after that, until BRAAAA--AAADDD hit a two run shot in the fifth to put the game hopelessly out of reach for these impotent Phillie bats. The Phillies had two on with one out in the 8th, but Mike Lieberthal continued his sucktastic ways by grounding into a 4-6-3 double play. God are we terrible. Start hitting, you losers! We're now at .252/.340/.369 as a team. A .369 team slugging percentage? Just terrible. We're being outhomered by double, not to mention out-doubled and out-tripled. If it wasn't for the league-leading 90 walks, we'd be 6 or 8 games out at least. Actually, that last stat is encouraging. You don't tend to suddenly stop drawing walks, but it's a lot easier to stop hitting extra base hits. If we can start hitting for power, which we've done in the past, and keep up the plate discipline, the wins should follow. Soon, I hope.
It's a 4:35 PM start in DC this afternoon. Myers is taking on former Yankee washout Esteban Loaiza. This is as good a time as any to get the bats going before we head home.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Maybe we should play with 22 guys every night. Due to minor injuries to Pat Burrell and Kenny Lofton, Charlie Manuel was forced to play career infielder Placido Polanco in left field for last night's game against the Nationals. Ryan Madson was also unavailable due to the three innings he pitched on Sunday. None of this seemed to matter, as the Phils prevailed 5-4 in a game that was much closer than it should have been.
The Phillies took an early lead in the second. Jason Michaels drew a one-out walk, and then the Chaser singled him to third. Bell bounced an easy double play ball to Vinnie Castilla, who relayed to Jose Vidro at short. The Chaser had other ideas, though, and took Vidro out with a textbook double-play exploding slide, forcing Vidro to throw the ball into the Nationals dugout. That scored Michaels and put Bell on second. Cory Lidle then helped his own cause (isn't everyone on the team helping their own cause on every play? What, are some of them trying to lose? Don't answer that.) with an RBI single to plate Bell to make it 2-0. You've got to love the Chaser. He's a dead duck on an inning-ending double play, and he ends up causing two runs to score. That was pretty.
Utley came through again in the third, smacking a one-out bases-loaded hit to score Abreu. Unfortunately, Thome was clogging up the bases behind Bobby and had to stop at third, and then Bell and Lieberthal went down easily to kill the threat. Montreal South got on the board in the bottom of the inning when Brad Wilkerson, who just kills us, hit yet another extra base hit, a ground-rule double, to score Christian Guzman.
The game stayed that way until the sixth. The Chaser started it off with a walk, and moved to second on a Guzman error, which would eventually turn out to cost the Nats the game. After Lieberthal lined out (God he sucks this year), Lidle bunted the runners over, and Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked. That brought up emergency left fielder Polanco, who ripped a big two-out single to score the Chaser and Bell to make it 5-1. The Nats-pos tacked on a couple more in the bottom of the sixth on an unlikely two-out triple by catcher Brian Schneider. Lidle hung a ball on the inside part of the plate when the entire outfield was playing Schneider away, and he managed to hit a liner all the way to the fence in right center, scoring two.
Despite that bad pitch, Lidle looked good last night. He gave up eight hits and a walk, and three runs, but almost everything was down in the strike zone. If he can maintain that level of performance, the Phils have a shot to stay competitive. Cormier came in and pitched an uneventful seventh, and then Worrell once again attempted to set-up Billy Wagner, with middling results. Vidro hit a ball to deep right that Abreu should have caught, but he got all turned around, lost track of the wall, and made a feeble leap at the last second and missed it for a triple. Jose Guillen immediately sac-flied him in to make it 5-4, and after Worrell got Vinny "Fastballs R Me" Castilla, Manuel brought in Daddy Wags for a four-out save. Wags got pinch hitter Gary Bennett and the first two batters in the ninth before Brad Wilkerson made us all nervous again with another hit. Nick Johnson battled Wagner hard, taking the count to 3-2 and fouling off a few pitches before he also singled, sending Wilkerson to third. Uh-oh. The 18,000 or so (sans Tim Russert) at RFK were stomping their feet, bouncing the lower deck up and down as best they could, as Jose Vidro stepped up. Vidro apparently failed Drama class, though, swinging at the first pitch and lofting an easy fly to Jason Michaels, who had replaced Polanco in left field. Game over, and did we ever need that one.
I guess Placido will be patrolling left again tonight. He looked OK, better than Ryan Howard anyway. He fielded everything hit to him, none of which were more difficult than the average batting practice shagged fly. Comcast named Polanco the player of the game for driving in the last two runs and for not getting himself killed in the outfield, I suppose. I don't know you can overlook Utley for that honor. He almost single-handedly caused the first two runs to score with a classic take-out slide, drove in the third run, and scored the fourth run, plus was flawless in the field. I think the Chaser is making his move to be my new favorite Phillie. It's always been Abreu, because he's on my Strat team and he can do everything, but I love the way Utley plays.
Tonight we're back at RFK, with the ace, Jon Lieber going for his fifth win against John Patterson, who just two-hit the Braves for seven innings in his last start and four-hit the D'Backs for seven before that. Another win would get us back to within a game of .500, and with a sweep we can get to the break-even point before having to face the awesome Marlins pitching staff again. Let's hope we have full roster by then. Or maybe not.
The Phillies took an early lead in the second. Jason Michaels drew a one-out walk, and then the Chaser singled him to third. Bell bounced an easy double play ball to Vinnie Castilla, who relayed to Jose Vidro at short. The Chaser had other ideas, though, and took Vidro out with a textbook double-play exploding slide, forcing Vidro to throw the ball into the Nationals dugout. That scored Michaels and put Bell on second. Cory Lidle then helped his own cause (isn't everyone on the team helping their own cause on every play? What, are some of them trying to lose? Don't answer that.) with an RBI single to plate Bell to make it 2-0. You've got to love the Chaser. He's a dead duck on an inning-ending double play, and he ends up causing two runs to score. That was pretty.
Utley came through again in the third, smacking a one-out bases-loaded hit to score Abreu. Unfortunately, Thome was clogging up the bases behind Bobby and had to stop at third, and then Bell and Lieberthal went down easily to kill the threat. Montreal South got on the board in the bottom of the inning when Brad Wilkerson, who just kills us, hit yet another extra base hit, a ground-rule double, to score Christian Guzman.
The game stayed that way until the sixth. The Chaser started it off with a walk, and moved to second on a Guzman error, which would eventually turn out to cost the Nats the game. After Lieberthal lined out (God he sucks this year), Lidle bunted the runners over, and Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked. That brought up emergency left fielder Polanco, who ripped a big two-out single to score the Chaser and Bell to make it 5-1. The Nats-pos tacked on a couple more in the bottom of the sixth on an unlikely two-out triple by catcher Brian Schneider. Lidle hung a ball on the inside part of the plate when the entire outfield was playing Schneider away, and he managed to hit a liner all the way to the fence in right center, scoring two.
Despite that bad pitch, Lidle looked good last night. He gave up eight hits and a walk, and three runs, but almost everything was down in the strike zone. If he can maintain that level of performance, the Phils have a shot to stay competitive. Cormier came in and pitched an uneventful seventh, and then Worrell once again attempted to set-up Billy Wagner, with middling results. Vidro hit a ball to deep right that Abreu should have caught, but he got all turned around, lost track of the wall, and made a feeble leap at the last second and missed it for a triple. Jose Guillen immediately sac-flied him in to make it 5-4, and after Worrell got Vinny "Fastballs R Me" Castilla, Manuel brought in Daddy Wags for a four-out save. Wags got pinch hitter Gary Bennett and the first two batters in the ninth before Brad Wilkerson made us all nervous again with another hit. Nick Johnson battled Wagner hard, taking the count to 3-2 and fouling off a few pitches before he also singled, sending Wilkerson to third. Uh-oh. The 18,000 or so (sans Tim Russert) at RFK were stomping their feet, bouncing the lower deck up and down as best they could, as Jose Vidro stepped up. Vidro apparently failed Drama class, though, swinging at the first pitch and lofting an easy fly to Jason Michaels, who had replaced Polanco in left field. Game over, and did we ever need that one.
I guess Placido will be patrolling left again tonight. He looked OK, better than Ryan Howard anyway. He fielded everything hit to him, none of which were more difficult than the average batting practice shagged fly. Comcast named Polanco the player of the game for driving in the last two runs and for not getting himself killed in the outfield, I suppose. I don't know you can overlook Utley for that honor. He almost single-handedly caused the first two runs to score with a classic take-out slide, drove in the third run, and scored the fourth run, plus was flawless in the field. I think the Chaser is making his move to be my new favorite Phillie. It's always been Abreu, because he's on my Strat team and he can do everything, but I love the way Utley plays.
Tonight we're back at RFK, with the ace, Jon Lieber going for his fifth win against John Patterson, who just two-hit the Braves for seven innings in his last start and four-hit the D'Backs for seven before that. Another win would get us back to within a game of .500, and with a sweep we can get to the break-even point before having to face the awesome Marlins pitching staff again. Let's hope we have full roster by then. Or maybe not.
Monday, April 25, 2005
GOING PLACES
You know those incredibly annoying black and white oval stickers that people who own gigundo SUV's put on their rear window to show all the exciting places they've been? Well, not all of us are able to travel so much, so I've come up with a set of oval stickers for the rest of us. Click here, here, here, and here and collect all four!
Sunday, April 24, 2005
BOSSED WEEKEND
What has it been, Wednesday since I posted? Seems like a month. I've spent most of the last four days installing chair rail and crown moulding in our formal dining room with the assistance, for the most part, of my lovely wife, for whom this project has been seemingly a life-long dream. Boy, have I learned a lot! Mainly, I've learned that I never want to install chair rail and crown moulding ever again, and that I should keep that feeling to myself.
The Phils, meanwhile, have been stinking up the joint while I've been making joints. Chair rail and crown moulding joints, I mean. I could use the other kind about now. They actually started off my long weekend of home improvement hell with a win against the even sadder Rockies. Jim Thome finally hit a homer, and Jon Lieber, the only pitcher we've got other than maybe Myers and Billy Wags worth a damn so far, got his fourth straight win, 6-3.
Turner Field has never been particularly kind to the Phillies of late, and this recent three-game set was no exception. On Friday, the Phils got a first-inning run off Mike Hampton, but then gave it right back in the bottom of the first, and three more in the fourth. Brett Myers, who had heretofore been outstanding, looked like vintage Myers tonight, in this case meaning terrible. He was rushing his delivery and looking fidgety, as if everything he had picked up from ace Jon Lieber was left back in the Citizen's Bank Park bullpen. Hampton continued his dominance, going 8-2/3 until giving way to Danny Kolb for the final out to quell a minor Phillies rally. The Braves won 6-2, and the Phillies were below .500 for what may be a very long time.
The Braves pressed their advantage Saturday, roughing up Wolfie early for a five-run first and knocking him out after four full innings. Enter the spectre of Gavin Floyd, the latest Wade untouchable to suffer a dastardly fate. Floyd went walk, double, walk, single, fly out, single, walk, sac fly before being mercifully pulled and sent straight to Scranton/Wilkes Barre to sort things out. When the carnage ended, the Braves had a 10-1 lead on their way to an easy 11-1 win. Tim Hudson recorded his second win as a Brave, going six innings before turning it over to the back of the Braves bullpen.
This Floyd debacle shows how the Mind Of Ed Wade works. Any other GM faced with the dilemma of one too many starters would trade one of them to get a legitimate setup man or another middle reliever, but Wade wants to have it both ways. He wants to keep Floyd up with the big club, but not give him a rotation spot and pitch him in relief, which would be fine if he gave him a set role and stuck with it. But now that Floyd has been raked twice in a row in that role, he panics and ships him down to S/WB to "get in some starts". Make up your mind, Ed! Who cares if the kid gets bombed in a couple of blowouts? Keep at it. Give him a chance. Either that or trade Padilla or Lidle or Wolf for somebody you can actually use. One or the other, Ed. Now, we have Floyd pitching meaningless innings in northeastern PA, and Geoff Geary, who hasn't done squat in several chances, malingering in the pen. I just don't get it.
More of the same on Sunday. I veged out all afternoon, exhausted and with too many coping saw injuries to count, and completely missed this one. I'm glad I did. John Thomson, who took a break from churning out deck sealant, shut down the Phillies already anemic offense to the tune of 4-0. Padilla made it all the way to the fourth inning this time before giving way to Ryan Madson. Madson, Cormier, and Terry "The Thing" Adams actually pitched shutout ball for five innings, so that was encouraging. Nevertheless, this third straight loss drops the Phils to 8-11, three games back of Florida. Well, we have the same record as the Yankees, and you know they'll win the division. Oh yeah, they have good players. Almost forgot.
The Phils, meanwhile, have been stinking up the joint while I've been making joints. Chair rail and crown moulding joints, I mean. I could use the other kind about now. They actually started off my long weekend of home improvement hell with a win against the even sadder Rockies. Jim Thome finally hit a homer, and Jon Lieber, the only pitcher we've got other than maybe Myers and Billy Wags worth a damn so far, got his fourth straight win, 6-3.
Turner Field has never been particularly kind to the Phillies of late, and this recent three-game set was no exception. On Friday, the Phils got a first-inning run off Mike Hampton, but then gave it right back in the bottom of the first, and three more in the fourth. Brett Myers, who had heretofore been outstanding, looked like vintage Myers tonight, in this case meaning terrible. He was rushing his delivery and looking fidgety, as if everything he had picked up from ace Jon Lieber was left back in the Citizen's Bank Park bullpen. Hampton continued his dominance, going 8-2/3 until giving way to Danny Kolb for the final out to quell a minor Phillies rally. The Braves won 6-2, and the Phillies were below .500 for what may be a very long time.
The Braves pressed their advantage Saturday, roughing up Wolfie early for a five-run first and knocking him out after four full innings. Enter the spectre of Gavin Floyd, the latest Wade untouchable to suffer a dastardly fate. Floyd went walk, double, walk, single, fly out, single, walk, sac fly before being mercifully pulled and sent straight to Scranton/Wilkes Barre to sort things out. When the carnage ended, the Braves had a 10-1 lead on their way to an easy 11-1 win. Tim Hudson recorded his second win as a Brave, going six innings before turning it over to the back of the Braves bullpen.
This Floyd debacle shows how the Mind Of Ed Wade works. Any other GM faced with the dilemma of one too many starters would trade one of them to get a legitimate setup man or another middle reliever, but Wade wants to have it both ways. He wants to keep Floyd up with the big club, but not give him a rotation spot and pitch him in relief, which would be fine if he gave him a set role and stuck with it. But now that Floyd has been raked twice in a row in that role, he panics and ships him down to S/WB to "get in some starts". Make up your mind, Ed! Who cares if the kid gets bombed in a couple of blowouts? Keep at it. Give him a chance. Either that or trade Padilla or Lidle or Wolf for somebody you can actually use. One or the other, Ed. Now, we have Floyd pitching meaningless innings in northeastern PA, and Geoff Geary, who hasn't done squat in several chances, malingering in the pen. I just don't get it.
More of the same on Sunday. I veged out all afternoon, exhausted and with too many coping saw injuries to count, and completely missed this one. I'm glad I did. John Thomson, who took a break from churning out deck sealant, shut down the Phillies already anemic offense to the tune of 4-0. Padilla made it all the way to the fourth inning this time before giving way to Ryan Madson. Madson, Cormier, and Terry "The Thing" Adams actually pitched shutout ball for five innings, so that was encouraging. Nevertheless, this third straight loss drops the Phils to 8-11, three games back of Florida. Well, we have the same record as the Yankees, and you know they'll win the division. Oh yeah, they have good players. Almost forgot.
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