I've been spending most of the last 12 hours berating myself for being so far off on last night's final score. How could I have predicted 10-9? What was I thinking?
So, it was 10-8. Oh well. Nobody's perfect. The Rangers bats did in fact come to life. Dellucci led off the game with a dinger, and Teixeira hit two. Even Mark De Rosa got in on the fun. Fortunately, we kept hitting our singles, doubles and a triple in addition to two homers from Burrell, and one each from Pratt and Thome. Padilla struggled again, and Urbina was horrendous, but Geary and Cormier chipped in some good innings for a change, and Wags did his thing. Ho-hum, another series sweep.
I thought the beanball incidents were handled well by Jerry Crawford. Padilla may or may not have been throwing at Teixeira, who had already taken him deep twice, but to issue a warning to both benches at that point would have deprived the Rangers their opportunity to retaliate in kind. As it was, Michael Tejera plunked Abreu in the arm, the warnings were issued, and the situation was defused. Too many times I've seen the warnings go out after the first hit batsman, and the aggrieved party ends up exacting revenge with a hard takeout slide or a plate collision, which only escalates the potential for injury, or they carry over the dispute to the next game or even a series several months later. Of course, the latter can't happen between these two teams, but I still think it's better to let the players police themselves whenever possible.
The Brew Crew round out the 13 game home stand, starting with Brett Myers vs. Victor Santos. Santos has received deplorable run support lately. In five of his last six starts, the Brewers have scored 2, 0, 2, 1 and 1 runs, losing each game. The only win among those losses was against the putrid Colorado Rockies. Let's hope Milwaukee keeps it going. Wolfie takes on fellow lefty Doug Davis on Saturday, and Lidle faces Big Bad Ben Sheets on Sunday afternoon.
I'll be at Bulle Rock in Maryland to check out the LPGA tournament this weekend. I attended annually when it was at the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, and Michelle Wie is playing, so I don't want to miss that. We'll also we seeing the wondrous Judith Owen again, this time for free at Rodney Square in Wilmington on Sunday. I won't be able to watch it, but I'll be rooting for Afleet Alex in the Belmont. I think they're still playing the NBA Finals, too, although ABC would just as soon show repeats of "Desperate Housewives", or even "According To Jim" at this point.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Thursday, June 09, 2005
U-R-B-I-N-A SPELLS RELIEF
I'm kind of busy today so I'll make it quick. Nice trade, Ed. No, I actually mean it. I give it an A-. Ugie nicely fills our biggest hole, Utley will be playing full time, and we got a bench player to replace Polanco. Now, if Ed had managed to get a bench player who could hit, the deal would be an A+, but we can't always get what we want. Ramon Martinez will suffice for now, unless one of our starters gets hurt. But that's what Ryan Howard is for.
Great 2-0 win last night, as well. I had a feeling Tejeda would be good, but five shutout innings blew away all expectations. As with most Wednesdays, I missed the bulk of this game. It doesn't look like much happened. I see Madson and Wags threw another three innings. Hope you got a good night sleep at Abreu's house last night, Ugie.
We're now in second all alone after losses by New York and Atlanta. Padilla takes on Astacio tonight as we go for the sweep. Look for the Rangers bats to awaken. This could be a 10-9 game. Come on Oakland, show some professionalism and beat the Nationals!
Great 2-0 win last night, as well. I had a feeling Tejeda would be good, but five shutout innings blew away all expectations. As with most Wednesdays, I missed the bulk of this game. It doesn't look like much happened. I see Madson and Wags threw another three innings. Hope you got a good night sleep at Abreu's house last night, Ugie.
We're now in second all alone after losses by New York and Atlanta. Padilla takes on Astacio tonight as we go for the sweep. Look for the Rangers bats to awaken. This could be a 10-9 game. Come on Oakland, show some professionalism and beat the Nationals!
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
THEY DON'T LIKE MIKE
The Rangers had their fun last night, belting three impressive-looking homers, but the Phils' steady samba beat of singles and doubles (and one Abreu blast) allowed them to prevail by an 8-5 score. The Phillies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second. Thome lashed a hard single to center, and Utley drove a double into right field to put runners on second and third. Polanco followed with a liner that tipped off losing starter Ryan Drese's glove, which SS Michael Young tried unsuccessfully to barehand. The ball ended up in short left field, scoring Thome and Utley. Lieberthal reached on an infield hit to second base, and after Lieber whiffed on 3 bunt attempts, Rollins skied one to right center. Lieby forgot that there was only one out and was doubled off. This started a night of Lieberthal-hating that has seemingly been pent up in Phillies fans. I'm not sure exactly why. As someone has noted, Lieby is second in the NL in catcher VORP, or Value Over Replacement Player, which is a cumulative measure of the value of a given player relative to a "replacement-level" player at that position, who is essentially someone you could sign off waivers or out of Triple-A. What it means is, we can't really do much better.
The Phillies added more in the 3rd, on singles by Abreu and Burrell, a walk to Thome, a fielder's choice by Utley, and a single by Polanco. Buck Showalter, once derisively referred to as "the guy who invented the game" by Ozzie Guillen, decided to pitch to Lieberthal instead of putting him on to face Lieber. Lieberthal responded against new pitcher Joaquin Benoit with a two-out hit to score the third run of the inning to make it 5-0. Then the Rangers woke up. In the fourth, Hank Blalock hit a laser beam into the right field stands with a man on, and after a Kevin Mench walk, catcher Rod Barajas homered deep to left center beyond the 385 sign on a Lieber crush-me slider to make it 5-4.
Benoit retired the final 10 hitters to face him before he was relieved by lefty Ron Mahay after a curious move in the top of the 7th. Alfonso Soriano, who had been held out of the lineup with a bad hammy, pinch-hit for Benoit and singled, and Showalter brought in Mahay, his next relief pitcher, to pinch run. I don't think I've ever seen that in all my years of watching baseball. Maybe Buck did invent the game. Mahay was quickly forced at second to end the inning, and then only retired one of the six batters he faced in the bottom of the inning to help give the Phils a four-run cushion. It could have been more but wasn't thanks to boo-magnet Lieberthal, who hit a weak tapper to the mound with the bases loaded. Everybody's second favorite object of derision, Charlie Manuel, then heard it from the crowd when he let Rheal Cormier (third favorite, if you're counting) hit for himself with the bases still loaded and the lead only 8-4. Frenchie weakly struck out, of course, drawing more vitriol from the crowd. I'd hate to hear what it would have been like if we were losing.
As if to validate the catcalls, Cormier went out to start the 8th and gave up an instant home run to Michael Young which barely left the ground. He got the next two batters before Ryan Madson finished off Kevin Mench. Wags walked Mark De Rosa with two outs in the ninth, but struck out Andres Torres to preserve his 15th save.
Everybody else in the NL East won except for Florida, which dropped them into last place by a full game behind us. As I mentioned yesterday, tonight's game looks like a strategic give-away. Instead of pushing Myers to pitch on 3 days rest, we're throwing Robbie Tejeda. It'll be a good test of the roll we're on if we can somehow scrape out a win. Who knows, maybe Tejeda has what Gavin Floyd didn't. He was 2-0 with a 2.22 ERA in 5 starts at S/WB.
The Phillies added more in the 3rd, on singles by Abreu and Burrell, a walk to Thome, a fielder's choice by Utley, and a single by Polanco. Buck Showalter, once derisively referred to as "the guy who invented the game" by Ozzie Guillen, decided to pitch to Lieberthal instead of putting him on to face Lieber. Lieberthal responded against new pitcher Joaquin Benoit with a two-out hit to score the third run of the inning to make it 5-0. Then the Rangers woke up. In the fourth, Hank Blalock hit a laser beam into the right field stands with a man on, and after a Kevin Mench walk, catcher Rod Barajas homered deep to left center beyond the 385 sign on a Lieber crush-me slider to make it 5-4.
Benoit retired the final 10 hitters to face him before he was relieved by lefty Ron Mahay after a curious move in the top of the 7th. Alfonso Soriano, who had been held out of the lineup with a bad hammy, pinch-hit for Benoit and singled, and Showalter brought in Mahay, his next relief pitcher, to pinch run. I don't think I've ever seen that in all my years of watching baseball. Maybe Buck did invent the game. Mahay was quickly forced at second to end the inning, and then only retired one of the six batters he faced in the bottom of the inning to help give the Phils a four-run cushion. It could have been more but wasn't thanks to boo-magnet Lieberthal, who hit a weak tapper to the mound with the bases loaded. Everybody's second favorite object of derision, Charlie Manuel, then heard it from the crowd when he let Rheal Cormier (third favorite, if you're counting) hit for himself with the bases still loaded and the lead only 8-4. Frenchie weakly struck out, of course, drawing more vitriol from the crowd. I'd hate to hear what it would have been like if we were losing.
As if to validate the catcalls, Cormier went out to start the 8th and gave up an instant home run to Michael Young which barely left the ground. He got the next two batters before Ryan Madson finished off Kevin Mench. Wags walked Mark De Rosa with two outs in the ninth, but struck out Andres Torres to preserve his 15th save.
Everybody else in the NL East won except for Florida, which dropped them into last place by a full game behind us. As I mentioned yesterday, tonight's game looks like a strategic give-away. Instead of pushing Myers to pitch on 3 days rest, we're throwing Robbie Tejeda. It'll be a good test of the roll we're on if we can somehow scrape out a win. Who knows, maybe Tejeda has what Gavin Floyd didn't. He was 2-0 with a 2.22 ERA in 5 starts at S/WB.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
RANGERS IN THE NIGHT
Back in last place, and it only took one loss. This is going to be an emotionally draining summer.
Cory Lidle was pounded hard and early by the D'Backs, who put up seven runs in the first two innings. I was forced to watch most of it on the ESPN.com GameCast. Those little blinking dots are no substitute for Harry Kalas, but one does what one must. Lidle made it through three innings before Geoff "White Flag" Geary came in. He allowed a homer to Jose Cruz, Jr.in the 5th, and his successor Aaron Fultz gave up what would be the deciding runs in the 7th, the last of which was driven in by relief pitcher Lance Cormier, who is no relation to Rheal nor would he want to claim to be right now. To their credit, the Phils battled back into the game, scoring three in the fifth on a Burrell double and an Utley sac fly, and four more in the bottom of the ninth on a Rollins double, and singles by Lofton and Utley. Last-man-off-the-bench Todd Pratt left the tying runs on base by succumbing to a 2-2 fastball from Javier Lopez to leave the final score at 10-8. This leaves us at 30-28, tied with Florida at 1.5 behind the confounding Nationals, who have to tank pretty soon, don't they? Please? If I keep saying it, it has to happen.
Interleague plays beckons again. We get the AL West this year, starting tonight with the frightening lumber of the Texas Rangers. It sure would be nice to see the "keep the ball down" Jon Lieber we were promised when he was signed. Otherwise, there could be some sore arms in the bleachers from throwing all those home run balls back. The Rangers have four players (Soriano, Texiera, Hidalgo, and Mench) in double figures in HR's, with Hank Blalock and platoon outfielder Dave Dellucci sitting at nine. It looks like we're going to avoid the methusalan Kenny Rogers and his sub-2.00 ERA, but we will see the 6'10" Princeton grad Chris Young, who is sporting a 3.02 ERA and a 5-2 record, in game 2. That game looks like a sacrificial lamb, since we have Robbie Tejeda making his first major league start, occasioned by the rainout Friday night. Sorry about that. Padilla goes to the hill in game 3 against Pedro Astacio, who I seem to recall gives us fits from his days as a Met (well, not fits necessarily, but he did beat us twice in 2002).
Somebody beat the Nats!
Cory Lidle was pounded hard and early by the D'Backs, who put up seven runs in the first two innings. I was forced to watch most of it on the ESPN.com GameCast. Those little blinking dots are no substitute for Harry Kalas, but one does what one must. Lidle made it through three innings before Geoff "White Flag" Geary came in. He allowed a homer to Jose Cruz, Jr.in the 5th, and his successor Aaron Fultz gave up what would be the deciding runs in the 7th, the last of which was driven in by relief pitcher Lance Cormier, who is no relation to Rheal nor would he want to claim to be right now. To their credit, the Phils battled back into the game, scoring three in the fifth on a Burrell double and an Utley sac fly, and four more in the bottom of the ninth on a Rollins double, and singles by Lofton and Utley. Last-man-off-the-bench Todd Pratt left the tying runs on base by succumbing to a 2-2 fastball from Javier Lopez to leave the final score at 10-8. This leaves us at 30-28, tied with Florida at 1.5 behind the confounding Nationals, who have to tank pretty soon, don't they? Please? If I keep saying it, it has to happen.
Interleague plays beckons again. We get the AL West this year, starting tonight with the frightening lumber of the Texas Rangers. It sure would be nice to see the "keep the ball down" Jon Lieber we were promised when he was signed. Otherwise, there could be some sore arms in the bleachers from throwing all those home run balls back. The Rangers have four players (Soriano, Texiera, Hidalgo, and Mench) in double figures in HR's, with Hank Blalock and platoon outfielder Dave Dellucci sitting at nine. It looks like we're going to avoid the methusalan Kenny Rogers and his sub-2.00 ERA, but we will see the 6'10" Princeton grad Chris Young, who is sporting a 3.02 ERA and a 5-2 record, in game 2. That game looks like a sacrificial lamb, since we have Robbie Tejeda making his first major league start, occasioned by the rainout Friday night. Sorry about that. Padilla goes to the hill in game 3 against Pedro Astacio, who I seem to recall gives us fits from his days as a Met (well, not fits necessarily, but he did beat us twice in 2002).
Somebody beat the Nats!
Monday, June 06, 2005
SNAKE CHARMING
It did continue to rain on Friday, but Padilla took his turn anyway. The D'Backs are only in town this one time, so the teams and the league were forced to schedule a twi-night twin bill on Saturday. Vicente gave up an early run on a Tony Clark homer in the second. As Paris Hilton would say, he's hot. George Steinbrenner is asking, "Where was that in the ALCS last year?" Abreu answered in the third with a two-run shot off Javier Vazquez, who Steinbrenner saw pitch a lot like this last year. The Phils exploded for six runs in the fourth on, among many other hits, Abreu's second homer of the game, effectively putting the game away if not for the continued entertainment value provided by the bullpen. Robbie Tejeda is looking more Adams-like every time out. The Snakes had the tying run at the plate at one one point before Frenchie Cormier got Jose Cruz. Jr. to ground into a rally killing DP to end the 8th. The game 1 final was 10-6, with Jim Thome adding an upper deck homer and Lieberthal singling in a run to complete the Phillies scoring.
The nightcap pitted ace Brett Myers vs. Russ Ortiz, a guy who normally takes four hours to pitch a game, walks about 15, and somehow manages to beat the Phillies almost every time. It goes to the strength of the roll the Phils are on that none of that happened. Maybe it's because Ortiz is not a Brave anymore. The D'Backs got on the board early again on a Luis Gonzalez RBI single. Myers was laboring, looking very Ortiz-like, but he was able to strike out Troy Glaus, and then, after a wild pitch and a Shawn Green walk, Jose Cruz, Jr. and Chad Tracy to wriggle out of the bases-loaded predicament. The Phils tied it on only one hit, a single to center by Polanco after a leadoff walk by Lofton (Rollins was being rested). A couple of fielders choice's later, the game was even at 1-1.
Both pitchers settled down until the 5th, when Alex Cintron and Luis Gonzalez hit back-to-back solo homers off Myers. Myers was out of gas after six, so Charlie Manuel sent up Endy Chavez to hit for him to lead off the bottom of the sixth trailing 3-1. Ortiz was still in there, having retired 15 straight, and more amazingly, walking none since the first inning. Chavez started off the inning with a single, and then scored on Kenny Lofton's triple on one hop off the 365 sign in left center. Placido Polanco even more amazingly, followed with a go-ahead homer, only his second of the year, and suddenly, it was 4-3 Phils. Ryan Madson, who had been spared any game 1 duty, barely, came on to pitch two scoreless innings, and just to prove the first homer wasn't a fluke, Polanco hit another one, this time off the Javier Lopez who didn't use to demoralize us in Atlanta. Billy Wagner came on in the 9th, and the D'Backs killed their own rally by trying a double steal with two outs. Todd Pratt fired to second to get the trail runner Luis Gonzalez by five feet. Thank you very much. The final was 5-3, completing the doubleheader sweep and moving the Phils to 2 games over .500.
Yesterday, my wife and I attended a Wilmington Blue Rocks game in lieu of me napping in front of the HDTV. It was a little warm out there, finally. The best part was that it was "The Dog Days Of Summer", and people brought their pooches to the park. We had a massive German Shepherd at the end of our row, and a little brown poodle named Amber was shading herself under the seats in front of us. The Salem Avalanche players came to the fence and were loving on the puppies, too. The Rocks went out and played like dogs, surrendering an early 2-0 lead and losing 3-2. Rocks manager Dann Bilardello has a very un-Theo like approach to the game that he'll have to straighten out if he wants to make it to the big club. He sent a runner home with one out on a short looper to right. As we know, the Red Sox like to play it station to station unless Damon or someone else reasonably fast is running. Of course, the runner was cut down easily. Later, Dann ordered his cleanup hitter to sacrifice. No thanks, please, we're Moneyball. That move didn't work either, by the way, resulting in a meek pop-up. Get with it, Dann.
As for the Phillies, they sprinted out to another quick lead, 6-0 this time. Mike Lieberthal got the break of the day when his double off the wall was ruled a home run after Charlie Manuel gave the umpires a grounds rules refresher, which only served to help them blow the call. Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin was ejected, and for good reason, since that ended up being the winning run. The Snakes chipped away at the lead against Randy Wolf and the bullpen, especially the bullpen. Our pal Cormier gave up Luis Gonzalez' 300th home run in the 8th to make it 6-5. Pat Burrell hit a bomb in the bottom of the 8th for a 7-5 lead, and Wags held on to barely get the save after giving up an RBI single to who else, Tony Clark, in the 9th for a 7-6 final.
This afternoon's series finale has Cory Lidle facing their putative ace, Brandon Webb. When the NL East merry-go-round stopped Sunday night after the Mets doubleheader with the Giants, your Washington Nationals (?) are now in first place, a half-game better than Atlanta. We're tied with the Mets at 30-27, a game out in third place, and the Florida Marlins (!) are in last place, having lost 8 of 10. I love this. Any team can go 8-2 and take a 3 game lead, or go 2-8 and wind up in dead last. I'd love it more if we keep winning 8 of 10 for a while, and the Braves would lose 8 of 10, of course. Looks like I picked the right year to start blogging the Phillies.
The nightcap pitted ace Brett Myers vs. Russ Ortiz, a guy who normally takes four hours to pitch a game, walks about 15, and somehow manages to beat the Phillies almost every time. It goes to the strength of the roll the Phils are on that none of that happened. Maybe it's because Ortiz is not a Brave anymore. The D'Backs got on the board early again on a Luis Gonzalez RBI single. Myers was laboring, looking very Ortiz-like, but he was able to strike out Troy Glaus, and then, after a wild pitch and a Shawn Green walk, Jose Cruz, Jr. and Chad Tracy to wriggle out of the bases-loaded predicament. The Phils tied it on only one hit, a single to center by Polanco after a leadoff walk by Lofton (Rollins was being rested). A couple of fielders choice's later, the game was even at 1-1.
Both pitchers settled down until the 5th, when Alex Cintron and Luis Gonzalez hit back-to-back solo homers off Myers. Myers was out of gas after six, so Charlie Manuel sent up Endy Chavez to hit for him to lead off the bottom of the sixth trailing 3-1. Ortiz was still in there, having retired 15 straight, and more amazingly, walking none since the first inning. Chavez started off the inning with a single, and then scored on Kenny Lofton's triple on one hop off the 365 sign in left center. Placido Polanco even more amazingly, followed with a go-ahead homer, only his second of the year, and suddenly, it was 4-3 Phils. Ryan Madson, who had been spared any game 1 duty, barely, came on to pitch two scoreless innings, and just to prove the first homer wasn't a fluke, Polanco hit another one, this time off the Javier Lopez who didn't use to demoralize us in Atlanta. Billy Wagner came on in the 9th, and the D'Backs killed their own rally by trying a double steal with two outs. Todd Pratt fired to second to get the trail runner Luis Gonzalez by five feet. Thank you very much. The final was 5-3, completing the doubleheader sweep and moving the Phils to 2 games over .500.
Yesterday, my wife and I attended a Wilmington Blue Rocks game in lieu of me napping in front of the HDTV. It was a little warm out there, finally. The best part was that it was "The Dog Days Of Summer", and people brought their pooches to the park. We had a massive German Shepherd at the end of our row, and a little brown poodle named Amber was shading herself under the seats in front of us. The Salem Avalanche players came to the fence and were loving on the puppies, too. The Rocks went out and played like dogs, surrendering an early 2-0 lead and losing 3-2. Rocks manager Dann Bilardello has a very un-Theo like approach to the game that he'll have to straighten out if he wants to make it to the big club. He sent a runner home with one out on a short looper to right. As we know, the Red Sox like to play it station to station unless Damon or someone else reasonably fast is running. Of course, the runner was cut down easily. Later, Dann ordered his cleanup hitter to sacrifice. No thanks, please, we're Moneyball. That move didn't work either, by the way, resulting in a meek pop-up. Get with it, Dann.
As for the Phillies, they sprinted out to another quick lead, 6-0 this time. Mike Lieberthal got the break of the day when his double off the wall was ruled a home run after Charlie Manuel gave the umpires a grounds rules refresher, which only served to help them blow the call. Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin was ejected, and for good reason, since that ended up being the winning run. The Snakes chipped away at the lead against Randy Wolf and the bullpen, especially the bullpen. Our pal Cormier gave up Luis Gonzalez' 300th home run in the 8th to make it 6-5. Pat Burrell hit a bomb in the bottom of the 8th for a 7-5 lead, and Wags held on to barely get the save after giving up an RBI single to who else, Tony Clark, in the 9th for a 7-6 final.
This afternoon's series finale has Cory Lidle facing their putative ace, Brandon Webb. When the NL East merry-go-round stopped Sunday night after the Mets doubleheader with the Giants, your Washington Nationals (?) are now in first place, a half-game better than Atlanta. We're tied with the Mets at 30-27, a game out in third place, and the Florida Marlins (!) are in last place, having lost 8 of 10. I love this. Any team can go 8-2 and take a 3 game lead, or go 2-8 and wind up in dead last. I'd love it more if we keep winning 8 of 10 for a while, and the Braves would lose 8 of 10, of course. Looks like I picked the right year to start blogging the Phillies.
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