Tagged: Rockies
Phillies Sweep the Rockies
The Phillies swept the Rockies yesterday, collecting their 4th straight win and prompting “Wild Card” talk around town (Don’t hold your breath though…the Dodgers are up next). The day started out on a positive note. Placido Polanco signed with the team for the day so he could retire and then threw out the game’s first pitch. Later, fellow alumni Randy Wolf helped the Phanatic shoot hot dogs at the fans.
Once the game began, the intense heat appeared to be baking player brains. It was a sloppy affair, for sure. Odubel Hererra gave a clinic on how not to catch a baseball:
Cesar Hernandez missed an easy tag in the 3rd, which led to a run for the Rockies. And Adam Morgan, recently called back up due to an injury to Zac Eflin, was not terribly sharp. He racked up a high pitch count early and then managed to get whacked in the arm with a line drive. Morgan exited after only 3 innings and then Severino Gonzalez took over. Gonzalez immediately balked runners into scoring position (*sigh*).
But the Rockies had their share of heat-induced blunders as well, which the Phillies took advantage of. And Hererra made up for his earlier gaff with a home run saving catch later in the game.
The offense scored in every inning from the 2nd to the 6th, which was nice to see. Also very nice to see was some Ryan Howard hustle around the bases. He seems to have new life suddenly.
Buy the big bangs of the day came from an unexpected source, Jimmy Paredes. He went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and raised his average from below .200 to .226 in one game.
The 9th inning, however, was quite an adventure. Jeanmar Gomez gave up 2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs making it a very close game at 7-6. Luckily, he got out alive and the Phillies held on for the win. We will chalk that up to the heat as well.
Here is the full Photo Album from the game.
By the way, CHASE UTLEY returns to Philly on Tuesday night!! And I will be there, right behind home plate, cheering him on (sort of…lol). I shall return with photos
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Photos by Jenn Zambri
Beckett No-Hits the Phillies
Phillies pitcher A.J. Burnett had a bad day against the LA Dodgers on Sunday. Yet, it really didn’t matter. Because the Phillies offense could not hit the broad side of a barn. And Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett took full advantage in the no-hitter and the Phils’ 7th shut-out loss this year.
Not to take anything away from Beckett, but the Phillies just plain sucked. Even when Beckett was having issues throwing strikes and the Phillies collected 3 walks, they still could not make anything happen. After one of the walks, Domonic Brown stepped to the plate and swung at the first pitch he saw, flying out to center.
When that stupidity was not happening, the Phillies were just swinging and missing.
By the 5th inning, I was nearly in a coma due to extreme boredom. The only thing keeping me awake was an annoying 6 year boy next to me who kept kicking me in the leg. And he was a Dodgers fan…thanks, kid. Thanks to your ignorant parents as well.
So while the Phils got beaten on the field and I got beaten by a small child, the Dodgers just kept hitting. At least the Phillies defense was kept busy, I guess. Bright side? ….Nah.
The sky may actually be falling. Cliff Lee is on the DL and today, Cody Asche joined him with a hamstring injury. It also looks like Burnett may be having more issues with that hernia, judging from his last two outings. With a 21-26 record, things are not going well for the Phillies. Understatement? Yup, probably.
Care to relive today’s no-hit massacre? Check out the full Photo Album. At least I got some pre-game shots of new rookie pitcher David Buchanan, so it was not a total loss.
The Rockies are in town tomorrow. Game time is 5:05pm.
Happy Memorial Day everyone!
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Rocky Mountain High and a Bunch of Lows
The Phillies just barely escaped Colorado last night with a win to avoid the 3-game sweep against the Rockies. The first two games of the series were utterly pathetic as the Phils went down by scores of 1-2 and 1-3, respectively. The Sunday night 10-9 win was a welcome sigh of relief.
The Phillies offense had been so bad going into this game, they officially recorded 131 at-bats in a row without an extra-base hit. In baseball terms, that is an eternity. And it was the worst mark for the franchise since 1968.
Not quite as awful as that, but still very bad, the Phils pitchers blew the lead in last night’s game 3 times. And Roberto Hernandez still has yet to pitch a full 6 innings. He was pulled from the game after only 75 pitches. This is not promising.
But the better news is that Ryan Howard may have found his pre-ankle injury swing again. He sort of, but not officially, hit for the cycle. The last hit was not scored a double as many contend it should have been; it was marked as a single with a 1-base error. The Phillies will appeal the call to MLB to see if they can get that double for Howard. Honestly, I’d have loved it to be a cycle. But I do not see MLB overturning the call…the outfielder should have gotten that ball.
Everyone else hit as well. Jimmy Rollins had 3 hits and both Ben Revere and Marlon Byrd had 2 hits each. Even more amazing, no one committed an error in the field. Yippie!
Speaking of offense, remember way back on Opening Day when Cody Asche had 3 hits? And the next day manager Ryne Sandberg sat him? And then remember when I said what a bad idea that was, sending Asche the wrong message, killing his momentum, etc…? Yeah well, guess who has had only 6 hits in his last 42 at-bats (the entire month of April)? Yup, Cody Asche. And he’s had only 2 hits in the very last 23 at-bats. That is a .087 batting average. Yikes.
Asche has been losing playing time as a result. Obviously, that Game 2 benching may or may be contributing to the massive slump, but it is still an interesting observation. The question now is, can he bounce back? I have not yet heard if he will be in the line-up tonight against the Dodgers, but this is one story line you may want to keep an eye on.
Game time is 10:10pm EST. Yuck…West Coast swings make me sleepy. Hopefully, the Phillies offense will keep me awake!
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Howard Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Weird Week
The Phillies finally squeaked out a win against the Braves yesterday. Whew! But that 1-0 win was not the only oddity of the week.
For starters, the Phillies lost by the exact same score the night before. Cliff Lee pitched a gem and the Phils could not bother to score a single run. Ugh. Here are a few other weird notes from the week:
– A.J. Burnett, Thursday’s winning pitcher, claims that his newly formed hernia is helping him pitch better. Maybe the offense should start straining themselves to achieve a similar injury and then they can score more than 1 run per game? Genius!
– Speaking of genius, Jonathan Papelbon does not see pitch velocity as an issue. Granted, he has been much better of late. But really? Can I pitch then? I can probably hit around 60mph on the gun and since speed does not matter, I should do just fine against major league hitters. Put me in, coach!
– In other Pap news, Crossing Broad had reported that the Phillies closer not only went off verbally on the media about his velocity, but that he actually aimed a fart in their direction. Monty Python, Holy Grail fans are loving this (”I fart in your general direction!”) If you have never seen this move, I highly recommend it.
– In the same article, Crossing Broad also claims that Cliff Lee belched at the media. It seems there is a lot of hot air in the Phillies locker room.
– It looks like whoever yells the loudest really does win. Because after Brewers manager Ron Roenicke complained that Logan Schafer’s 8th inning at-bat on 4/9/14 was not scored a hit, MLB overturned the error originally given to Ryan Howard. Wow.
– And while this is not Phillies news, I am sure all Phillies fans will enjoy it. The new book, Yes, It’s Hot in Here: Adventures in the Weird, Woolly World of Sports Mascots, reveals that the Secret Service actually threatened to kill Mr. Met, the Mets bulbous-headed mascot. Seriously. That may be the best story ever in the history of baseball. You will have to read the excerpt to believe it.
The Phillies start a 10 game West Coast road trip tonight against the Rockies. Game time is 8:40pm.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Sandberg Gets First Managerial Win
Well, it took a few days, but the Phillies finally squeaked out a win for interim manager Ryne Sandberg. The 3-5 win over the Dodgers ended yet another long losing streak for the Phils who are now solidly in 4th place in the NL East, 2.5 games behind the Mets for 3rd place.
Getting this win against the hottest team in baseball was going to require a combination of things to occur. Pitcher Cole Hamels had to be good, which he was. Hamels went 7 innings, allowing just 2 runs.
The Phillies offense had to produce. And although it was not at all pretty at times, 7 hits and 3 RBI did the trick. Carlos Ruiz, who has struggled lately, went 4 for 4 and Darin Ruf smashed a solo homer in the game.
Defensively, the Phillies were coming off a game in which they committed 3 errors. On Sunday, they managed to cut that down to 1 error. Ah, progress!
And for once, the bullpen did not implode in late innings. Both B.J. Rosenberg and Jonathan Papelbon pitched scoreless innings to maintain what was at that point a 2-2 tie game.
And in the bottom of the 9th, a little bit of luck was in order to seal the Phillies win. Two errors by Dodgers shortstop, Hanley Ramirez, allowed the Phillies to walk off with the victory. Michael Young got the game-winning RBI as Ramirez fumbled his grounder with the bases loaded. Casper Wells scored on the error and Ryne Sandberg finally got a win!
Here is the full Photo Album from the game, which includes some fun shots of the Dodgers as well. Fun stuff like this right here:
Is he pitching or trying some new form of karate? I cannot decide.
The Rockies come to town for a 4-game series tonight. Game time is 7:05pm.
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Home, Sweet Home for the Phillies
After an abysmal road trip where the Phillies lost 7 out of 10 games, this team had to be relieved to be back in Philadelphia last night. They took an absolute beating from the Brewers, Twins and the Rockies. If you Google the meaning of “bad baseball,” this road trip should be used as an example.
But things looked a tad brighter after last night’s 5-4 walk-off win against the Nationals. John Lannan returned to the rotation after a knee injury and pitched well; Ryan Howard finally broke out of his home run drought; and Domonic Brown seems to be getting hot again. He even delivered the game-winning RBI single in the 9th.
Despite the win though, I simply cannot stop thinking about the awful road trip. In particular, I am greatly disturbed by the events that have taken place at and around third base and home plate lately. Most of these little disasters seem to revolve around veteran third-baseman Michael Young.
I hate to keep picking on Young, who seems like a very nice guy, and maybe some of this is not his fault at all. Did you notice that Young got thrown out at home plate THREE times in the last 6 games of the road trip? My question is, does he run home on his own or is Ryne Sandburg sending him? I understand being aggressive, but Young is one of the older and slower players on this team. This is not the guy you send on a close play.
I have begun leaning towards Sandburg’s lack of experience coaching third base as the issue, especially after last night. Because it appears he got Howard into a similar jam. He was sending Howard home and quickly changed his mind, signaling for Howard to stay at third. But his momentum was already heading home and Howard got tagged out at third. Sandburg is a Hall of Famer…I get that. So he should know that you cannot stop a moving train. Either make the decision quicker or take your chances that Howard will bowl over the catcher at home.
Then again, guys have been getting tossed out on the base paths all over the place all by themselves. Young also got thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double last Tuesday. He also had a bad fielding error and hit into 2 more double plays on this road trip.
None the new players Ruben Amaro Jr. brought in this year, including Michael Young, are holding up their end of the bargain. Delmon Young is hitting only .231; Mike Adams has a 4.13 ERA and cannot seem to pitch a clean inning; Ben Revere has started out super slow, although he is improving. And Revere is young so he has a lot to learn yet. Lannan has been ok, but the injury was a huge setback.
As for the returning Phillies, too many of them are hurt or under producing. I hate to be such a downer after a rare Phillies win, but this team is just so frustrating! Who are they? Are they going to get any better? Will some of these guys ever be healthy? Your guesses are all as good as mine.
Maybe another win tonight will improve my mood? Hope so!
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Playoff Hopes: Fool’s Gold or the Real Deal?
Out of the 9 Phillies Opening Day 2012 starters, 6 have landed either on the disabled list or with another team at some point during the year. And that does not even include Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, who started the year on the DL. So basically, 8 out of 9 regular starters missed a lot of time this year. The only one who avoided either a trade or the DL was Jimmy Rollins.
It is fitting then that a 2-run shot from J-Roll last night led the team to a 3-game sweep of the Miami Marlins. Cliff Lee did his part as well, allowing just 1 run, which was unearned due to an error, over 7 innings.
The win has placed the Phillies only 3 games back in the Wild Card race, which is something not many people saw coming. This team was beaten up so badly throughout most of the year and played so poorly that a possible playoff run, until now, seemed impossible. Here is a look at the Wild Card standings:
But even after a 7-game win streak, is all this new playoff hope just fool’s gold or can the Phillies really sneak in the backdoor? Consider this: 6 of those 7 games in the streak came against two of the worst teams in baseball, the Marlins and the Rockies. Just a few weeks ago, the Phillies lost a series to the Mets, who are also pretty bad.
Then again, the momentum of a 7-game win streak could be enough to help elevate the Phillies performance and confidence to the point where they can start stomping on good teams as well. But we are not going to know if that is possible for a while as the Houston Astros are next on the agenda. With a record of 45-98, the Astros are by far the worst team in all of baseball. Losing even 1 of the 4 games against the Astros would be a tragedy.
So maybe this series could be a descent barometer after all. Because if the Phillies struggle against the Astros, I think the faint light of playoff hopes would be markedly dimmed. But if they beat the crap out of the Astros, as they very well should, then go ahead and keep the light of hope burning. Then we can all say, “Watch out National League! Here come the Phillies…”
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Doubleheader, Double Wins as Phillies Sweep Rockies
After a ridiculous 3 hour rain delay on Saturday, the Phillies finally settled on a Sunday doubleheader to finish off the Rockies series. Cole Hamels started the Day Game and allowed only 2 runs in 7 innings.
Chase Utley had his hands in a number of plays, including a hit, a walk and a very entertaining run scored:
The defense was solid, but the highlight was watching Ryan Howard hold onto the ball for an out after getting bowled over at 1st base by a Rockies player. He also had 2 key RBI in the game.
The bullpen did not allow a run, setting up a 2-2 tie game going into the bottom of the 9th.
With the bases loaded and 1 out, John Mayberry Jr. connected for a game-winning, walk-off single.
The excitement continued in the Night Game, which turned out to be a comedy of errors for the Rockies. They fumbled, dropped and just plain missed a lot of balls hit their way. 5 errors helped keep the Phillies alive after rookie starter Tyler Cloyd gave up 4 runs in 4 inning.
With the early exit, the Phillies wound up using 7 pitchers, none of whom allowed a run except Cloyd:
As it turns out, all the Phillies needed for the win besides pitching was Carlos Ruiz. Fresh off the DL, Chooch got a standing ovation when he stepped in to pinch hit. And he promptly added to the Phillies fever with a single in the 6th that led to 2 runs and a Phillies lead.
Chooch stayed in the game to catch. Ruiz was 2-for-2 with an RBI in his return, coming in cold off the DL, not having played a single inning in over a month. No rehab start…nothing. Just pure Chooch. This guy is incredible. Chooooooooooooooch!!!
The Phillies went on to win by a score of 7-4 to complete a 3-game sweep of the Rockies.
I have photos of both Game 1 and Game 2; just click the links. Yes, it was a long day, but worth it!
The Marlins are up next….and a run at the postseason??? Hmmmm…..
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Photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
9th Inning Walk-Off Gives Phillies a Win Over the Rockies
The start of Friday night’s Phillies game against the Rockies was painful to watch. Cliff Lee did not start off very well, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits in the 1st inning. Michael Martinez made an error at 3rd base, which extended the inning. In all, not a great beginning.
But Lee settled down after the 1st inning snafu. However, the Phillies offense seemed content to keep blowing opportunities. Ty Wigginton got a rare start at 1st base, but the rust from sitting on the bench was very apparent. He struck out in all 3 at-bats, twice when there was 1 out and a runner on 3rd base. Worse, Juan Pierre was on base both times and managed to steal 2 base the second time around. Still, Wigginton could not get the runs home.
Clearly not his night, manager Charlie Manuel decided to pinch hit for Wigginton in the 7th. That move proved to be a momentum changer as Laynce Nix smashed a 2-run double to tie the score. Then 4 bullpen guys held the lead from the 7th to the 9th inning, giving the Phillies a chance to win.
In the bottom of the 9th, Jimmy Rollins worked out a lead-off walk and Pierre, already with 3 hits on the night, put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runner over. The Rockies intentionally walked Chase Utley and Nate Schierholtz stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter. A wild pitch moved Rollins to 3rd and Schierholtz then singled to right, scoring Rollins for the walk-off win.
This has been a tough year for Schierholtz who got traded here from the Giants mid-season, giving him hope of more playing time and a chance to prove himself. But a broken toe sidelined him in mid-August, just as he was getting comfortable in the line-up. Schierholtz was activated off the DL on September 1st and had not had a hit since returning until last night. That walk-off single had to be quite a relief for him.
The Phillies have two more games with the Rockies; Cole Hamels will pitch tonight and then Tyler Cloyd on Sunday. I will be attending both games and hope to return with some photos if the weather cooperates. Game time tonight is 7:05pm.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Halladay Strong in Phillies Win Over the Reds
This has not been an ideal year for anyone in the Phillies organization, especially Roy Halladay. After landing on the disabled list earlier in the year, Halladay struggled to regain his usual form.
In a 6-2 win over the Reds, Halladay finally looks like he is healthy again and back on his usual game. Over 7 1/3 innings, Halladay allowed just 1 earned run and struck out 5 batters. The offense provided him with some runs to seal the deal.
The two big blasts of the day came from Erik Kratz and Chase Utley. Kratz smashed a 3-run homer in the 2nd inning and Utley added 2 more runs with another bomb in the 3rd inning. Kratz now has 9 homers in only 38 games with a slugging percentage of .611. How this guy was stuck in the minor leagues for so long is a mystery.
Another mystery, at least to certain sports talk show hosts, is John Mayberry Jr. With another multi-hit game against the Reds, Mayberry continues to hit at a torrid pace. Critics are always on him, saying he is not an everyday player. But he is showing us right now, as he did at the end of last season as well, that he is an everyday guy. Why? Because when he starts every game, like he does now, he hits.
In contrast, when the Phillies used Mayberry as a platoon guy, like they did at the start of last year and this year, he struggles. When he plays regularly, he hits. Mayberry hit .271 in July and .290 in August because, after the Shane Victorino trade, he has become a regular in the line-up. Now this is just my 2-cents, but I say let the guy play center next year. He has earned it.
And there is my rant for your Phillies off-day. Play resumes tomorrow at 7:05pm when the Rockies come to town.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Phollowers 