That series was great on so many levels…
- Open up a 4 game lead on the Mets, who now have to face the Yankees in Yankee Stadium while rolling out Livan Hernandez and TBD-minor leaguer in the first 2 games.
- Not only beat them 2 out of 3, but won both games in extras, after coming back from several runs down. There is no way that team is in good spirits right now.
- After finding a new level of dislike for K-Rod following his over-the-top save celebration in Game 1, we found that despite his addition, the Mets are still the Mets. I hope K-Rod is realizing this now.
- Jayson Werth’s catch and David Wright’s subsequent helmet toss.
- Chase Utley’s HR(s).
- David Wright playing “team leader” and going up to Ken Takahashi to give some encouragement right before Raul Ibanez hit the game winning, 3-run bomb.
- Raul Ibanez sticking it to stupid bloggers like myself.
- Watching a frustrated Santana jaw with Jerry Manuel on the mound after we hit 3 HRs off him. Bad for his confidence, good for ours in future match-ups.
- The Mets complete lack of organizational depth is on display right now because when they have injuries, they are more or less screwed because they have traded away all viable prospects. When we have injuries, we’ve got Happ, Bastardo, Carrasco, Mayberry, Donald, Marson and so on and so forth. In a 162 game season, quantity can sometimes be almost as important as quality.
I could go on and on – but I think it’s fair to say there is no team, and has never been a team, I enjoy beating more than the Mets.
2009: 35-23
2008: 33-25
2007: 29-29
Player of the Series: Chase Utley (5 for 13, 3 HR, 5 RBI)
Goat of the Series: Cole Hamels (5 IP, 11 H, 4 ER)
The Good News
- A lot of this was discussed above, so this will be a little shorter than normal…
- The unsung hero of this series is the bullpen. The reason we were able to get to extra innings in the last 2 games was that the bullpen let up zero runs in ten innings in those 2 games. For the series, they had a 1.47 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. A walk-off win in either of those 2 games would have been a huge boost for the Mets.
- Ryan Madson is filthy. Had 2 of the easiest saves for the Phillies this season in a 2 big games.
- Jamie Moyer put in his 5th straight good start. The biggest difference I’m seeing? Only three walks during that stretch. This tells me his control is back to where it needs to be. The rest of his numbers look like this: 31 IP, 3.77 ERA, 1.10 WHIP. Unreal.
- Though JA Happ had his worst outing of the year on Tuesday, he showed me something in that he was able to get out of a really rough patch and then battle enough to get through 5 innings. He didn’t lose his head or his confidence. That’s a great sign for me.
The Good News – Chase Utley edition
I talked a little about Raul Ibanez last time, and I want to give Chase Utley some print here as well. Utley might be finally putting together that full season of greatness. He’s either hit cold streaks or gotten injured in each of his seasons, but he seems to be both healthy and consistent this year. How good could his season be? Here are some stats…
- Only HOFers Rogers Hornsby and Nap Lajoie (both playing mostly before 1930) have had a higher single-season OPS at 2B than Utley has right now (1.026).
- Utley is on pace for .300 BA, 43 HR, 120 RBI and 123 runs. Only Rogers Hornsby, who did it once in 1922, has ever done that at 2B.
- Chuck Klein is the only Phillie to ever put up those numbers in a season.
- Since 2000, only Bonds, Helton and Pujols have put up those numbers, while striking out less than 100 times, which Utley is also on pace for.
The Bad News
- Hamels didn’t show up (11 hits in 5 innings!?) for his biggest start of the year thus far. We bailed him out, but yesterday’s game would have a HUGELY different feel if a Mets win would have tied them for first.
- Charlie has made a couple decisions recently (not bunting Feliz in the 9th in game 1, hitting Bako in game 2, playing Bruntlett in RF last series) that really baffled me. He hasn’t really done that in awhile.
- The general reaction I’m reading from people who know more than me about who the Phils picked in draft was “blah.” Not many upside guys, and several of those who we picked need a lot of help with hitting, a la 1st rounder Anthony Hewitt last season. The one player I want them to sign is RHP Brody Colvin, their 5th round pick who is a top-50 prospect in the country, but has a strong commitment to LSU. It’s going to take mid-1st round money to make him change his mind.
Series Preview: Boston Red Sox at Phillies
Things don’t get easier for the Phillies after that Mets series as the Red Sox come into town. I picked the Red Sox to win the World Series this year, and I still think that they are the favorites. But hey, we are playing well, and the we are the defending champs, and aren’t scared of anyone, right? …uhhh…right…? Here’s the problem: the Red Sox own us. Since 2004, we have 5 series against them and won a grand total of 3 games. That’s a 3-12 record. For whatever reason, we haven’t been able to put together any sort of string of good games against them and/or they play exceptionally well against us. Could this be the series that bucks the trend? We reversed our fortunes against the Yanks, maybe we can do the same against the Sox.
Three Questions for the Series
- Will the Red Sox pitchers pitch up to their reputation? Or their current ERAs (Lester – 5.09, Dice-K – 7.33)?
- How will Bastardo and Happ handle one of the deepest and most patient line-ups in the league?
- The Phils have a chance to really run and hide and expand their lead before the all-star break. Can this too-good-to-be-true scenario really come to fruition?
Prediction
The Red Sox are the one team in baseball right now who I think are better than us. I don’t particularly like the pitching match-ups, and I think that they are exactly the type of team (veteran, patient hitters) that will get to young pitchers like Happ and Bastardo. I’m predicting the Sox take 2 of 3, but the Phils maintain their 4 game lead over the Mets, who have an even tougher match-up.
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
add to bad news:
Eyre on 15-day DL, Kendrick called up.
Why not Escalona? or even Majewski or Chacin? I don’t get these call-ups. Kendrick is a starter, and we have a long-reliever in Park.
Yeah that bothers me too that they called Kendrick up instead of one of those other guys…onething that bothered me about the Mets series that wasn’t mentioned was Tim Redding’s continued dominance over our lineup…a lefty heavy lineup like our should kill an average righthanded pitcher (and average righty is all he is what he pitches like against every team besides the Phils) like Redding, yet every time we have faced him the last couple of years he has owned us and I don’t understand why….
jurnee-
I just saw that Kendrick was called up. I don’t get it either. When I read about Eyre this morning I immediately thought we’d be seeing Escalona replace him.
This is another head scratching move, IMO. First Bako, now this. Maybe Kendrick is Bako’s personal pitcher and since Bako was called up they decided to call up Kendrick so Bako would get some playing time (I’m not serious). Are we going to move Bastardo to the pen and put Kendrick in his spot in the rotation? I hope not. Are the Phils trying to showcase Kendrick before they move him in a trade? Just thinking out loud here.
All will be revealed in due time, but I’m starting to worry about the decisions being made by our braintrust.
Jurnee.….Redding throws a sinker. Not a particularly devastating one like Webb or a really good one like Lowe, but that doesn’t really matter. We always have trouble against anyone who throws any kind of sinker, period.
I think that explains why we chased so many high fastballs, too, as we were overaggressive in going after any ball that was up and more hittable than the sinker.
“Are we going to move Bastardo to the pen and put Kendrick in his spot in the rotation?”
Listening to the game on the radio. Franzke and Andersen were going bananas when Victorino made that catch to end the top of the 3rd. I’ll have to catch the highlights. It’s gotta be a web gem, right?
Franzke and Andersen were also talking about Kendrick. They said that Happ only pitching 5.1 innings on Tuesday + Hamels only pitching 5 innings (of an 11 inning game) on Wednesday + Moyer only pitching 6 innings (of a 10 inning game) yesterday + Happ and Bastardo pitching on back to back days against the Red Sox = a very thin bullpen that needed someone with experience who could throw multiple innings if needed.
That’s why they went with Kendrick. No need for violence, Pete. Remember, “serenity now!”
its really, really annoying to me that they have been off on their strikeouts for the last 2-3 innings or so.
I stink and add no value.
gee- it’s almost like we all said Kyle Kendrick shouldn’t be in the majors.
Cool Friday night wasted watching this game.
Ugh, Kyle Kendrick is so bad. Soft-tossing righties are useless, especially if he can’t throw strikes. Brings up bad memories of lousy bullpen arms of Phillies teams of past.
That Dobbs foul should have been reviewed.
I want to rip those “We <3 the Sox” signs up that those women are holding behind home plate. The Red Sox rival the Mets and Yankees for my least favorite fans (well, Mets are far and away #1).
Hopefully this Bard rookie can’t find the strike zone or just throws cheese down broadway.
Man that was ugly!
5 hits in 13 innings.
20 strikeouts (including, I believe, 4 innings where all 3 outs were strikeouts) out of 39 total outs.
Top 4 in the order: 1 for 21 with 10 strikeouts (ok, they also had 3 walks). Thankfully that one hit was Howard’s bomb to tie it up.
Even with all that we still had our chances.
Maybe MLB will need to institute a rule like the NFL where all plays inside 2 minutes and in overtime are automatically reviewed in the booth and they can call down to the field to reverse a call. Otherwise we are at the mercy of the umpires, who can just refuse to review any play.
I always feel the same way in extra innings: I hope that they bring in a reliever who just doesn’t have it……before we do, because a lot of the time that’s what ends up deciding these games. When you keep bringing in one reliever after another, it’s almost inevitable that one of them will not be sharp and it’s only a matter of time before you have him in the game.
That’s where only using each reliever for one inning apiece really bugs me. I know Charlie wants to have most guys available to pitch every day, but when you’re in extra innings and you’ve got a reliever throwing well I’d much prefer to have a guy throw 2 innings rather than tempt fate by using every guy in the pen.
It’s unbelievable how situations find guys, isn’t it? Kendrick just gets called up and, bam, he’s right in the thick of it and ends up being the deciding factor in the game.
I know that Kendrick blew it —like we all knew he would (I hate to be unsupportive but come on). However, this is not all on him. I mean, there is a reason he was in AAA, right? The Phils are the ones who called him up and put him in the position to lose the game in the first place. He simply held up his end of the bargain by doing what he does. No surprise there.
The reasoning that Franzke and Andersen gave for Kendrick’s callup was that the Phils wanted a guy with major league experience/experience getting major league hitters out. Problem is, Kendrick’s recent major league experience wasn’t very good. Again, that’s why he was in AAA. Escalona showed, albeit briefly, that he could get major league hitters out. Plus, with Eyre being out it sure seemed like a no-brainer to bring up a lefty to take his spot in the pen.
I really think the fact that we would be facing the Red Sox was the main reason why Kendrick got the nod. I’m thinking that the Phils were worried that Escalona didn’t have enough experience to face the vaunted Red Sox lineup. Too much pressure and no idea how he’d respond.
Good thing they went the way they did, right? If it weren’t for all the major league experience Kendrick has, the Red Sox probably would have scored 10 runs off of him. As it was he kept us in the game by only allowing 3, I say with sarcasm dripping off the screen.
Now we’re in a fine kettle of fish, needing both Happ and Bastardo to pitch well and deep into the game, due to playing 3 straight extra inning games and using the pen hard over the last 4 games now, in order to have a chance in this series.
“I was positive the ball was foul,” Joyce explained. “If I would have had any doubt at all, first of all, I would have went to the crew. And then we would have made a decision to look at it at that point. I was very confident the ball was foul. I’ll be very honest with you. I thought about it after the call. But I was very confident that ball was foul. I even thought to myself, what am I going to see on the replay? It didn’t hit anything.”
Jason Donald is having surgery (out 3-4 weeks) and Lou Marson is on the DL.
Just read about both of those things, Pete.
Hopefully it’s just minor stuff with both Marson and Donald.
As far as Joyce refusing to review the home run, that’s exactly why I suggested that MLB follow an NFL-style policy.
For example, MLB can automatically review ALL controversial home runs calls from the 9th inning on.
I know that doesn’t help with a blown home run call in the 2nd inning, but the team would still have 7 innings to make up for it. Even if it happened in the 8th, the team would still have one more time at bat to overcome a blown call.
Since you can’t assume that a game will go into extra innings, the 9th inning becomes each team’s final at bat/last chance to win the game (this logic carries through for each extra inning as well), so it makes sense to start the automatic review at this point.
It’s not perfect, but at least it would remove the decision of whether or not to review a controversial home run in the crucial late/deciding innings of a ball game from the subjective view of the umpires.
What I took from the mets series is how Charlie outmanaged Jerry.
Jerry brought K-Rod in too early in game two and he had to go 2 innings, eventualiy losing the game and leaving the mets without their closer for the 3rd game. Charlie waited in game two to go to Madson to “close” out the victory, and had him to close again in game three. To me Jerry as much as the players blew the series. Thanks Jerry, no wonder your team chokes. You are the leader!
Pete-
In your opinion is there any chance Kendrick sees any more time in a close game? (please say no….)
My question was just answered…Can’t find a link but Rob Ellis just said on WIP that Kendrick was sent back down to AAA and Escalona was recalled…Thank God…wish they could have done that yesterday afternoon though….
That’ll boost the old confidence, huh? We still believe in you, Kyle, just keep working on your secondary pitches. Think he knows he’s got basically no shot at making it back to the majors with the Phils?
AAAHHHH!!!! Brain farts all around already in the top of the 1st. Just what we need with Bastardo on the mound. The game has started boys. Time to get your heads in it!
Oh man. 2 errors lead to a gift run. Then Bastardo starts getting hit around. A 2-run home run then double (to go along with 3 walks). Down 3-0 already and only 1 out in the 1st. Plus, we don’t have Kendrick to put in there. I’m glad it’s raining. I hope it pours and washes this game out soon.
Et tu, Victorino. I can’t take any more. 3 errors in the top of the 1st and a 5-0 hole before we even come to bat. We need a rainout!
Damn, were playing again. Gotta hope our bullpen completely shuts the Sox down and we start hitting.
Oh well, we did hit some but the bullpen couldn’t hold them down. Another loss at home. Quick turnaround for tomorrow. Not too optimistic that we’ll be able to pick up a win in this series.
At least we were able to pull out a win today. It wasn’t looking so good after that 4-run 2nd inning by Boston. Then they came right back in the top of the 3rd and had a chance to really open it up. Good to see Happ prevent things from blowing apart there.
We got to Beckett pretty good. Can’t figure out for the life of me why he pitched to Howard in the 5th with 2 outs, a base open , and Werth due up next, but I’m glad he did. A mistake with a fastball turned into a 2-run single that Howard hammered through the shift to give us the lead. (Beckett kind of made up for it by hitting a home run in the top of the 6th, ugh.)
That 7th inning was a disaster for the Sox. Rollins’ home run off Beckett, 4 walks, a hit batter, and on and on it went. Bard wasn’t sharp at all and Saito was all over the place. Great to see us make them pay and put the game away.
Since Santana got shellacked today we picked up the game we lost yesterday and still have a 4 game lead over the Mets.
Gotta play better against the Jays and the Orioles and win both of those series this week.