Tagged: All-Star
Farewell to The Big Piece
The Phillies did right by Ryan Howard on Sunday by honoring his 13 years in Philadelphia before the final game of the season. Everyone entering the stadium received Howard’s head on a stick for full participation in the ceremony. Mike Schmidt also made an appearance.
This all had the potential to be quite awkward considering Howard still has an option left on his contract which it is obvious will not be picked up. But the Phillies and the fans did a great job honoring the former MVP and All-Star. Howard spoke to the crowd and got pretty choked up; a lone tear could be seen streaming down his cheek as he realized his time in Philly was done.
Howard did not have the final game he envisioned, though. He went hitless in the game, but the Phillies still beat the Mets so I am sure that made his final goodbye a bit easier. Several guys went hitless as well, but Maikel Franco and Andres Blanco finished strong with 4 and 3 hits, respectively.
Plus, Jerad Eickhoff pitched very well, allowing only 1 run over 6 innings.
So the Phillies finish a very up and down season in 4th place with a record of 71-91. The Phillies offense finished dead last in all of baseball with only 610 runs scored. As such, and as is seemingly a Phillies tradition, Phillies hitting coach Steve Henderson got the ax right after the game.
There may be more fallout in the days to come. In the meantime, here is the full Photo Album from the game and pre-game ceremonies.
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Photos by Jenn Zambri
July 4th Offensive Fireworks
The Phillies celebrated Independence Day on Monday afternoon with an 8-2 win over the Braves. The game included a 7-run 2nd inning and plenty of celebrations.
Both Odubel Hererra and Maikel Franco homered in the inning. And today, Herrera made the 2016 All-Star team; as of this moment, it looks like he will be the only Phillies player in attendance.
Jerad Eickhoff had another great start, allowing 2 runs in 7.2 innings while striking out 8 batters. And the defense played a clean game behind him.
Here is the full Photo Album from the game.
The Phillies are playing game 2 against the Braves right now and are leading 3-0 in the 5th inning. Go Phillies!
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Photos by Jenn Zambri
Pitching Brings Phillies back to Earth
Today, with the bases loaded, 2 outs and Ryan “Steroids” Braun at the plate, friggin’ Aaron “I hang ‘em, you bang ‘em” Harang gave up a grand slam home run. The Brewers were them up 0-6 by the 5th inning. And this is a perfect example of how bad Phillies pitching has been.
Sure, the Phillies had the best record in baseball coming out of the All-Star break up until about a week ago. Well, they have now returned to earth, mostly thanks to crapping pitching. After sweeping the Padres last weekend, the Phillies lost 2 of 3 to the Diamondbacks and will now get swept by the Brewers (they are losing 0-6 in the 7th as of the time I post this). Aaron Harang is a large part of the problem, with a 7.75 ERA in his last 7 games prior to today’s game.
But he is not the only one. Jerome Williams, although better his last few starts, still has a 6.00 ERA in his last 15 games. David Buchanan was finally sent down to the minors with a 9.00 ERA, also in his last 15 games. After allowing 25 earned runs in 3 games, I am not even sure he belongs in the minors; perhaps bagging groceries is in his future? Rounding out the starting pitching nightmare are Aaron Nola and Adam Morgan, who have been okay, as far as rookies go.
A few guys in the bullpen look awful as well. Justin DeFratus is pitching himself back to the minors with an 8.68 ERA in 7 games. Adam Loewen has a 15.43 ERA in his first two appearances for the Phillies, prior to today. Luckily, the rest of the pen has been ok, but with all the starters leaving games early, that may change due to exhaustion. And while the offense is still racking up hits, they are suddenly having trouble scoring those runners. The bad starting pitching has put more stress on the hitters and they are shrinking under the pressure, which is not unusual for a young team. 
But what really has me stressed out is the impending departure of my favorite player, Chase Utley. Nothing is certain yet, but it does look like a lot of teams are bidding on him since he cleared waivers. Since coming off the disabled list, Utley is batting .500 with 5 doubles, a homer and 5 RBI in 26 at-bats, proving he is healthy again and upping his trade value. Sure, trading him is the right thing to do so he will have a shot at another championship, but it doesn’t make it suck any less. I have been admiring Utley for 13 years; this team will not be the same without him. But for now, he is still here…stayed tuned!
The Phillies are off on Monday and then play two games against the Blue Jays starting on Tuesday. Game time is 7:05pm.
Phillies Head to All-Star Break at .500
It was a very weird weekend for the Phillies heading into the All-Star break today. Sunday’s game commenced a 3-game series with the White Sox that included a postponed game turned into a doubleheader, during which another rain delay occurred. All 3 games went extra-innings, with the teams playing 24 innings total in one day; each game on Saturday lasted exactly 3 hours, 53 minutes, excluding the 41 minute rain delay. In the midst of all that, Ben Revere broke his foot by fouling a ball off it; he will be out for about 6-8 weeks. Very sad news for the Phillies :O(
Sunday’s game went 10 innings, 3 hours and 26 minutes. Jonathan Papelbon blew his 5th save of the year in this one, denying Cole Hamels yet another win. But Hamels pitched very well, allowing just 2 runs over 8 innings, which is what kept the Phillies in line for the win.
The offense started strong, but sputtered again later in the game, which has become a pattern with this team. Still, they managed enough runs to get by. Hamels, in addition to pitching well, led the team in hits with two; he also had a fabulous sacrifice bunt and a crucial RBI in the 4th inning.
The defense was a bit better on Sunday, although Chase Utley still had a blunder. Luckily, no damage was done.
The only real damage was Papelbon’s blown save. However, his teammates got him off the hook. Utley redeemed his previous fielding error by leading off the 10th inning with a double. And John Mayberry Jr., getting playing time since Revere is on the DL, singled the winning run in for a 4-3 victory.
Prior to the game, the Phillies All-Star’s, Cliff Lee and Domonic Brown, got their jerseys:
This win was a nice way to send them off to New York and finally put the Phillies at the .500 mark.
The Phils are now 6.5 games out of 1st place and a half-game behind the 2nd place Nationals. But whether or not they can make a run at the playoffs still seems like a long shot after watching their struggles against a last place White Sox team this weekend.
In 3 games, they left 25 men on base and went 6-for-28 with runners in scoring position. In Saturday’s 1st game loss, the Sox practically handed the game to them. But with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs in the 9th, they failed to score. That just cannot happen. Similar situations played out in the 10th and 11th innings with the same result. It was gut-wrenching; very difficult to watch.
Now with Revere gone and the bullpen situation still tenuous, there is no way to know how the 2nd half will play out, but the odds are certainly stacked against the Phillies.
While we all wait and see, here is the Photo Album from Sunday’s game. Enjoy!
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Post All-Star Break Baseball Starts on a Sour Note
If anyone was really hoping that the second half of the season was going to be a positive turning point for the Phillies, all hopes were dashed quickly after a depressing 6-2 loss to the Rockies last night. But it really only took 1 at-bat to see that things were still not going well, as lead-off hitter Jimmy Rollins popped out to start the game.
Did you know that Rollins is in 5th place in all of baseball in fly-outs (does not include line drive outs) with 115? Shane Victorino is in 7th place with 112. Hey, at least they are in the top 10 of something, right?
Here are some more not-so-fun stats: Chase Utley has played the field in 9 games this year and has committed 2 errors so far. The error last night led to an unearned run for the Rockies. He is also batting just .216. Ryan Howard, also fresh off the DL, is batting .182. These guys need more time to adjust to playing every day, but time is running out fast…
The rest of this team, however, is out of excuses. They are not hitting, playing bad defense and the pitching…well, that has been a disaster. The bullpen imploded again yesterday as rookie Michael Schwimer gave up 3 runs.
Are you as depressed about this season as I am? Not sure? Here, take this test:
We are all pretty much out of reasons for hope at this point. Now all we can do it hold our breath and wait for the other shoe to drop. That shoe may collectively include losing Victorino, Cole Hamels, and according to a recent report, maybe Placido Polanco too.
No one really knows what is in store for this team, but we can reasonable surmise, it will not be good. Continue tuning in to see the train wreck progress! Game 2 with the Rockies starts at 8:10pm tonight.
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Ryan Howard Interview for Phillies Phollowers
Thanks to the State Farm initiative, Go To Bat, I was able to get a video interview with Ryan Howard while he was in Kansas City for the All-Star break helping promote the charity. And I am very happy to share it with all of you!
If you want to support these great charities – Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Teach For America, American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity – go to State Farm’s online Go to Bat game and swing for the fences! Just by playing, you have a chance of winning tickets to the 2012 World Series. Once a week, for 10 weeks, State Farm will randomly select the name of one contestant and make a donation of $18,000 to the charity that person chose to support, and that contestant also will win a trip for two to the 2012 World Series.
My sincere thanks to Ryan Howard and to State Farm for the interview opportunity! That was seriously awesome!
The Phillies are off tonight, but they will be back Friday at 8:40pm in Colorado to face the Rockies. Cliff Lee is scheduled to pitch. Let’s see if the Phillies can get off to a hot start in the 2nd half!
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Phillies All-Stars Contribute to NL Shut-Out Win Over the AL
In an 8-0 win over the American League, 3 Phillies All-Stars made big contributions for the National League. Cole Hamels pitched a perfect 7th inning, probably driving up his free agent value a little bit more. Carlos Ruiz caught the final 4 innings and had one at-bat, a fly-out to left field. And Jonathan Papelbon recorded the final out of the game, sealing the NL victory.
Here are a few MLB photos from the game:
And this next set of MLB photos show Ruiz holding his glove and then the glove R.A. Dickey gave him to use in order to catch his crazy knuckle balls. That glove is almost as big as Chooch! There is also a nice shot of Papelbon and then more adorable Chooch getting a hug from the Nationals teenage rookie, Bryce Harper:
Melky Cabrera of the Cardinals got the MVP award for the game. He had 2 hits, including a homer, and 2 RBI. Some rare events occurred during the game, including 3 triples, 5 rookies playing in the game, and the first shut-out during an All-Star game since 1996, when the game was played in Philadelphia.
The biggest blunder of the game came from 19-year old Harper who lost a routine fly ball in the outfield, which eventually landed behind him. He also got caught leaning too far off base in a fielder’s choice and was tagged out.
So now we wait until the Phillies return on Friday to see if they have any gas left to rescue their dreadful season. Roy Halladay will make a rehab start tomorrow so, hopefully, that means he will be back very soon.
In the meantime, here is a fun blast from the All-Star past. These are a few of my favorite All-Star photos from 2008. The top one will never get old…it is Dan Uggla goosing Chase Utley to the surprise of many around them, as you can see by my marker edits. Below that is Utley and Brad Lidge, who appear to be trying to club David Wright. And then there is Mike Schmidt standing up in a moving vehicle (next to Utley) during the All-Star parade to point me out and say hello. I was one Phillies jersey in a sea of Yankees jersey’s so I was easy to spot and he was clearly excited to see a Phillies fan! Utley yelled out to me right after that as well. And yes, that was one of the highlights of my simple existence ;o)
By the way, I am hoping to have my video interview with Ryan Howard posted in the next few days, so stay tuned for that!
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2012 photos by MLB; 2008 photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Stumble Into All-Star Break With Little Hope to Save Their Season
The Phillies were swept by the Braves today in a depressing 4-3 loss. There was not even a little comic relief, as in Saturday’s loss when Hunter Pence bowled over 3rd base coach Juan Samuel while rounding the bases towards home. That bit had everyone except Samuel laughing to the point of tears.
The only laughs today came before the game started:
After that, absolutely nothing was funny. Even the presentation of All-Star jersey’s to Carlos Ruiz, Jonathan Papelbon and Cole Hamels was somehow lacking in enthusiasm.
And then fans learned that Shane Victorino was pulled from the line-up at the last moment, prompting rumors of a possible trade or injury. But what actually happened, according to Charlie Manuel, was that Shane was feeling “down” and had “a lot on his mind…” And so, Charlie took him out in favor of Jason Pridie.
That turned out to be the only good move of the day. Pridie hit a 2-run homer and a double, which accounted for all 3 Phillies runs in the game.
Vance Worley battled through 6 innings, allowing 3 runs, which was a nice improvement over his last start where he have up 6 runs in 4 innings. But despite the quality start, not much was going the way of the Phillies.
There were some nice defensive plays:
But the offense was lackluster, despite having both Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the line-up. The top 4 in the line-up went 1-for-16 collectively, although Jimmy Rollins did go 3-for-3 in pop-fly outs. I am not sure that is a stat to be proud of, but at least he is consistent (note my sarcasm, in case you missed it).
Ultimately, Raul Valdes gave up a solo homer to who else, but Brian McCann, giving the Braves a 1-run lead that the Phillies failed to overcome.
So the Braves had a nice visit to Philly, complete with attempts to steal young Phillies fans. Here is ex-Phil Chad Durbin and Dan Uggla before the game playing nice with one of the kids chosen for the traditional Sunday Starting 9:
Actually, it was very sweet. But Durbin was always that kind of guy; his presence is still missed on this ballclub.
So the Phillies go into the All-Star break in the midst of a complete disaster. They have won only 1 of their last 12 games and sit in dead last in the NL East, 14 games out of first. Get ready fans; I am afraid change is coming, and not the good kind.
For a pleasant distraction, check out my Photo Album from the game; just pretend they win and the photos look even better!
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Get Wrecked by the Mets for 6 Straight Loses
An 11-1 loss against the Mets tonight was a complete and utter disaster on all sides for the Phillies. The pitching stunk, the offense was invisible and the defense phoned it in too.
Vance Worley had the worst start of his career, allowing 6 runs in only 4 innings. When Raul Valdes took over, he left 2 runners on base in the 6th before being pulled with 2 outs recorded. Why was he pulled? Because apparently, he was not giving up enough home runs. So the Phillies brought in Brian Sanches from our minor-league bullpen to take care of that. David Wright thanks him for the 3 RBI.
Behind the pitchers, the defense was not great either. John Mayberry Jr. missed a fly ball he should have caught. Chase Utley made a mistake on what could have been a double play ball. Instead, both runners were safe. And Placido Polanco was charged with a throwing error.
But the offense was even worse. The Phillies managed only 3 hits and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. The only Phillies run in the game was a solo homer from Carlos Ruiz in the 2nd inning.
Folks, this is as bad as it could possibly get right now. This game was the epitome of this horrible season, now more than halfway over. We could all try chanting the insurance jingle, “Like a good agent, State Farm is there…with a 10-game winning streak! Poof!” But I have a very bad feeling that even that will not help.
Instead, you could go to blast some virtual home runs online at statefarm.com/gotobat for the chance to win two tickets to the World Series. So even if the team doesn’t win, you can get back that feeling of good baseball, even if it is just a virtual version.
I mention that because the Go To Bat charity has offered me a video interview with Ryan Howard! I will be posting that sometime next week during the All-Star break; Ryan will be in Kansas City promoting the charity and I have a few fun questions for him.
So there is a little bit of good news in the midst of a whole bunch of bad.
The Phillies will try once again to conjure a win tomorrow at 1:10pm. Start praying for a 4th of July miracle!
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Utley photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
No Doubt, Chase Utley Has Returned!
Chase Utley is back! Even better, he is healthy and looks like the All-Star player we have known him to be. Utley announced his return in his first at-bat of the year with a huge bang. His fairy tale comeback began with a monster home run to center on a 2-2 count amidst 45,000 fans cheering wildly.
The ballpark exploded with joy from the upper levels down to the dugout where teammates showered Utley with man-hugs, high fives and ear-to-ear grins. It appears the Chutley magic has returned!
As if that moment were not amazing enough, Carlos Ruiz made it even more special with another home run right after Utley’s and while the crowd was still celebrating the first one. This had to be sign of better things to come for the Phillies. For one inning, it felt as if the world was right again.
In honor of Utley’s amazing comeback, here is a montage of some of my favorite photos I have taken of him over the years:
Three cheers for Chase! And 3 hits as well; Utley went 3-for-5 in his first game of the season.
But the elation of the moment was soon squashed by the Phillies dreadful bullpen, which ruined the day. Short a starter because of the rain-out last weekend, the Phils were stuck with a bullpen game. Raul Valdes started and, in the 1st inning, things looked promising. But by the 2nd, things began to unravel quickly.
Valdes allowed a 3 run homer with 2 outs and the pitcher on deck. Joe Savery took over in the 3rd and managed one clean inning before things got much worse. He ended up with 5 runs allowed, two of which scored after Michael Schwimer took over with 2 outs in the 5th. Savery was sent back to the minors after the game.
But the drama did not end there. The Phillies actually mounted a comeback and cut the 8-2 deficit to 8-7 by the 7th inning. It looked like they might actually still have a shot to win, which along with Utley’s return, would have been a massive boost for this team.
But the bullpen even managed to ruin that possibility. That’s right…Chad Qualls strikes again. Only he hardly threw any strikes. Once he walked the first batter, it was clear that a large load of crap was about to hit the fan…again. Sure enough, Qualls gave up 3 runs, including a 2-run homer. That handed the Pirates an 11-7 win.
So we are left with three cheers for Chase and about three-hundred boo’s for the bullpen. If this pen sucked any worse, it would be a little league pen. Folks, this is BAD. If the Phillies do not find some better arms soon, it won’t matter how many 3-for-5 games Utley has. And I am pretty sure that Brian Sanches, called up in place of Savery, is not the answer.
Ryan Howard is starting a rehab assignment today, which should have him back with the team at least after the All-Star break. But again, the Phillies still need a more solidified bullpen if he is going to be able to make an impact.
The final game of this series begins early, at 1:05pm. Kyle Kendrick, who has been basically dreadful of late, is starting. Cross all your fingers and toes that he snaps out of whatever funk he is in so the Phillies can win this 4-game series!
UPDATE: Chad Qualls is outta here! The Phillies cut him today (“designated for assignment”) after many disasterous pitching efforts. Excuse me for a moment while I do the happy dance… Ok, I am back. Filling his spot will be lefty Jeremy Horst, a rookie aquired in the Wilson Valdez trade. I do not know much about him except he posted a 2.11 ERA in 26 games in Triple-A and he has to be better than Qualls. We shall see…
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Phollowers 