Not going to live-blog tonight, but I’m going to write a few thoughts as the game goes along.
- My first thought on Jamie Moyer’s rough start is this: Can we throw him out there again? Right now, he would be in line to pitch Game 7 of the NLCS, and I don’t think you can put him out there after his two playoff starts. He wasn’t just bad in both, he was atrocious. 5.1 IP, 8 ER, 13 base-runners. That’s 16 outs and 13 base-runners.
- We just aren’t able to play small ball. Howard gets a lead-off double, and we promptly hit two deep fly balls. Thankfully, Feliz got him in, but right now we need more than 1 run.
- OK, well this little Victorino/Kuroda thing is going to be all anyone talks about tomorrow. Here’s my take: It was fine for Kuroda to throw at someone; whether Myers meant to or not, he threw behind Ramirez. It was also fine for Victorino to point out the unspoken baseball rule of not throwing at someone’s head. What I didn’t like? Russell Martin smirking at Victorino like he had accomplished something and Manny Ramirez running out and all of a sudden pretending he’s tough. What was he going to do if his teammates hadn’t held him back (like he knew they would), hit Brett Myers with one of his braids? He’d probably quit mid-fight anyway.
- Why exactly did we cut off that throw? We had Manny dead to rights at home plate, and Ruiz could have lowered his shoulder and leveled him in a collision. We can’t be trading runs for outs right now.
- McCarver keeps talking about how good it is for the Dodgers that they threw at Victorino and blah blah blah. If it’s that important, why didn’t someone TELL Billingsley to do it? Do they really need a fracas to get themselves pumped up for the NLCS? Could it be they didn’t want to start something in Philly because of the very real possibility that the fans would storm the field and kill them all? Who knows.
- Speaking of the announcers (this game has been obscenely boring since the brush back, I got nothing else to talk about), it will be a great day when Fox loses the rights to baseball and football. In this particular series, it’s nauseating to hear them talk constantly about the Dodgers, play “I love L.A.” during every break and pretty much act as though the Phillies are here by accident. Then again, this is the same network that STILL think the football playing robots are a totally awesome, bad ass intro to watching football games. Their graphics are hokey, their k-zone is wildly inaccurate, the camera in front of the plate is incredibly useless, their announcers are bad, and the overall coverage stinks. Get the World Series back on NBC with Bob Costas, where it belongs.
- Maybe we give Happ a start. He’s been solid all year as a starter. Why exactly did we take him out?
- Let me ask you this… after watching Moyer tonight and knowing that Blanton is going tomorrow, would you entertain trading Ryan Howard in the off-season for a quality starter? We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it I guess.
- Buck just mentioned that teams that go up 2-0 in a series have a 16-3 record. Why did that just make me more nervous?
- We’ve got to be more patient tomorrow night with Lowe.
- 1st and 3rd, no one out. If we are going to make a move, this will be it. Let’s see what we do. If nothing else, a couple runs here would get some confidence back into our line-up… result? 1 run. Not what I was looking for.
- Another example of terrible Fox coverage? Jayson Werth just had a huge strike out in that inning on a very questionable check swing call, and we didn’t get one angle that showed whether he swung or not.
- The way our offense is going tonight, it’s looking like it really didn’t matter how Moyer pitched. Rollins, in particular, looks lost. Just swung at terrible pitch for a strike-out.
- Really just not much to talk about tonight. All the excitement was taken out of the game in the first inning, and the rest was just boring and frustrating. I didn’t get charged up once this entire game. Seemed like it was over before it started.
- I don’t like our chances tomorrow night. Dodgers have momentum. Lowe pitching at home. Not confident with Blanton despite his NLDS performance.
- What’s on everyone else’s mind after this game? No big deal or a huge momentum swing?
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Had a bad feeling about this game. As crafty as Moyer is I didn’t like him even a little bit tonight against this line-up.
Couple questions:
its not uncommon for Moyer to be shaky in the first inning. Once Charlie saw the shakiness was extending to the 2nd, he pulled him.
I understand that. To me, shaky would have been giving up the two runs and hitting a batter. But then making the pitch to get DeWitt out with the bases loaded to keep it at a 2-run deficit. Giving up the bases loaded triple went beyond just shaky for me.
It was interesting when the telecast put up the keys for the right-hand Dodgers batters to take Moyer to right even though you can clearly get around on his pitches. And then immediately after they showed that Blake did just that singling to right when Moyer made a good pitch down and away. Wasn’t a good sign.
How do you guys feel about this series? It was going to be a dogfight as expected but I think the Phillies can get through. A majority of teams that go 2-0 in the NLCS, advance to the World Series and the Phillies are the resilient type!!
Very bad game for the Phils last night. You had to expect the Dodgers to come out swinging, but not to that extent. Moyer has boggled my mind for 2 years now with the way he pitches and the results he gets. The way the Dodgers beat him up last night is the way I think every team is gonna hit him in every game, but it just doesn’t happen. Tonights game with Blanto/Lowe is the biggest game we have had. Up 3-1 or tied at 2-2 is a HUGE difference right now. Hopefully the Phils can rebound like they did after game 3 in Milwaukee. It scares me to think that LA can tie the series and any momentum the Phils have with a win tonight. Has there been any discussion regarding Hamels throwing tonight and Game 7?
Just to keep it all in perspective, here’s how the Mr. Met is handling his offseason
http://www.theonion.com/content/from_print/mr_met_takes_frustrations
j dubbz-
it has been discussed here and im sure it was discussed within the Phillies. but the sense is this: Hamels has never done it, and is a pitcher that has a great deal of routine between starts and they don’t want to mess it up. Furthermore, he’s been an injury risk throughout his career, and they don’t want anything to go wrong there. It’s a lot easier for a sinkerball pitcher to go out on three days rest.
That being said, I certainly wish he was out there tonight (and more importantly, Game 7), and in the NLCS, you shouldn’t be thinking about future injuries.
Perhaps there are other reasons he’s not out there. But I haven’t read much about it.
Yeah I guess its a good idea from our standpoint, but we aren’t being paid by the Phillies to make these decisions.
How great would it have been if Manny and Big Bad Brett Myers slugged it out last night with their fists? Or Manny and Pat the Bat? That would have been quality tv on Fox.
Are we just banking on 4 wins from Hamels and Myers in this series? That’s what it looks like to me. Those guys will go out on normal rest and do enough to win the 4 games we need. If we get to a game 7 I gotta assume we are tossing Blanton out there and not Moyer again. Then hope the offense can out bomb the Dodgers in that game.
Is anyone confident in Blanton tonight?
Dannie: I feel somewhat confident about Blanton. About as confident as LA should feel sending Lowe out on just 3 days rest. I think Lowe V. Blanton is +/- a push, with a slight lean towards LA’s favor.
Nice blog… i heard that J Dubbz character is quite the ladies man too… but seriously… Trading Howard??? That’s loco talk amigo. Did anyone see the stats they put up last night on Howard in the last three years? He had like 100 more RBIs than the second closest dude. I’m sorry but you can’t replace that production especially from a pitcher who is only going to get out there every five days for ya. You need that bat.
What is your feel on this series, especially if Ryan Howard does not get into a flow?
Why do the middle three games have to be in Los Angeles? That gives the underdog a tremendous advantage.
Ryco-
I hear ya… funny that you would mention Sorano… my buddy last night, Big T, was saying around the third inning that he was thinking of getting Jabu a cigar and some rum for Howard!
Morty…I agree. Lowe made 2 mistakes in game 1, and we hit both of them out of the park. I’m hoping that pitching on short rest will affect him enough so that he will not be as sharp and will make more mistakes.
I think a key for us will be to stop taking our CBP swings in Dodger Stadium. We had several warning track fly balls last night that probably would have been home runs at CBP. Unfortunately, we were not playing there.
I said before that I think Dodger Stadium is the perfect place for Blanton to pitch. He is a fly ball pitcher who loves to go right after hitters and challenge them with high fastballs. Dodger Stadium will allow him to pitch to his strength.
Rob….I don’t think the 2-3-2 format gives the underdog an advantage. On the contrary, I think it puts a lot of pressure on them. Think about it. It is tough to sweep a 3 game series during the regular season. During the playoffs, it is that much tougher. The underdog must already win 1 game on the road in order to win the series. If they drop one at home, they must win 2 games on the road. I think all of this puts a lot of pressure on the underdog to win all 3 of their home games in the series.
Look at this series specifically. We played the Dodgers 8 times during the regular season. Each team won all of their 4 home games. Since the Phils won the first two games at home and the Dodgers have won their first game at home, we see that this trend has continued to hold so far in this series also.
The Dodgers know that they must win at least 1 game in Philly. They also know that they are 0-6 in Philly this year. So, no matter what they say, the Dodgers are feeling pressure to win all 3 games in LA.
Tonight is a huge game for us because winning the first game in LA has lessened the pressure on the Dodgers a bit. They can now see an opening where they can not only get right back in this series, but also take the lead and put the pressure back on us.
I really hope that Blanton is sharp and that Rollins and Howard wake the heck up, because I don’t relish the thought of this series turning into a best of 3 with momentum shifting to the Dodgers and a sleepwalking offense.
I guess it is the different degrees of “pressure”:
For the Dodgers, it is them trailing 2-1 in the series, the obvious pressure.
For the Phillies, it is the pressure to stop any Dodgers momentum and regain their momentum, with them leading the series 2-1, the mental pressure.
Let’s hope that Joe’s as cool as he’s been in a Phillies uniform!!
Heartened by the late season success of Joe Blanton, Pat Gillick has taken leave for Alabama and is in the midst of talks with Eric “Butterbean” Esch, a 5′11″, 416 lb. righthanded starter and finisher. Esch’s agent touts him as a souped-up version of JB.
One wrinkle in completing the deal is determining his cap size.
Also in the works, from the rumor mill: The Sunday ‘giveaway’ menu for next season includes a Joe Blanton Chia Pet Day. Watering cans, without the express written consent of the Phillies, will be prohibited. As the organization has insisted through 10,000 losses: “The fun starts at home.”
Is there tension in La-La Land?
How do both pitching staffs respond to the brush up between Kuroda and Victorino in Game Three? What happens in Game 4 tonight!?
Check out this Game 3 recap: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/68388-dodgers-win-game-three-tension-in-la-la-land
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