hamels (almost) finishes atlanta sweep

We turned the tables on this fanfoto guy at one of the Phillies-A's game last week. It was a treat to see the Phillies' batting practice, though the bats were pretty much dead during games.

It smelled like rain last evening and I passed on the IronPigs game. Sure enough thunderstorms ended up suspending the game---and making the radio here crackle. Between static outbursts, I listened to the great game Cole Hamels was throwing down in Atlanta, against the Braves' outstanding rookie Jair Jurrjens. On a night when the back of the bullpen was out of gas, Hamels came up--what else?--aces. Jurrjens lost his hitless streak in the 1st, off a Chase Utley solo homer. Even over the radio, the sharp crack of his bat instantly conjured up Utley's short, compact swing. Hamels went 8.2 innings, giving up one run in the 9th. Tom Gordon came in for the save, which he got with one pitch. Final: 4-1. Another Phillies' sweep in Atlanta, and the first series win since the Phillies last swept there earlier in June.

Howard and Feliz also had solo homers. Good sign: Howard's was again to the opposite field. The night before Howard hit his 150th HR, making him the fastest to reach that mark. Pat Burrell, meanwhile, became the 2nd Phillie to hit 20 or more homers eight years in a row.

myers in allentown

Brett Myers warms up before last night's game in Allentown between the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

Despite the afternoon's heat and humidity, at game time the weather was simply perfect. Brett Myers took the mound for the 'Pigs and went five innings. He was solid for four, then gave up three runs in the fifth. He looked pretty much like a guy working on things. He did it in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,000, which included some loudmouthed Mets hecklers. The guy behind me was a Yankee fan with the irritating habit of saying "good pitch" after almost every pitch made by a pitcher on either side. The woman next to me asked, "Is he always at the games?"

The 'Pigs played a sloppy game. Jason Jaramillo, most uncharacteristically, had three throwing errors. Tons of media people were on hand to monitor Myers' outing. This morning's Inky had a fascinating account by Jim Salisbury about how this whole stint in the minors came about. It was hard to check on Myers' velocity. When it was noticed that he was checking his speed after pitches, the team turned the display off. Postgame, Myers said that one of the things he was working on was getting his swagger back.

kendrick does it again

Fans leave the game after Kyle Kendrick posts a shutout win last Wednesday night in Oakland.

Last night in Atlanta, Kendrick did it again. As usual, it was with a little help from his friends. Kendrick held the Braves scoreless through six, while a Pat Burrell solo homer, a Shane Victorino 2-run shot, and some savvy baserunning put the Phillies up 5-0. After the Phillies left the bases loaded in the 7th, the Bravos finally broke through for 3. The Phillies again left the bases loaded in the 8th but Tom Gordon held the score at 5-3. In the 9th, the Phillies again loaded the bases and this time tacked on 3 more. Final score: 8-3, in a much-needed win.

Kendrick, an absolute godsend since his callup last June, is 8-3 this season. The Phillies are 14-3 in his starts. His stuff is far from dazzling, but he works fast, pounds the strike zone, and is fearless and tenacious. Yes, he benefits from run support (an average of 6 per game), but part of that, I think, is that guys like to play behind him. I'm sure that the team also likes playing behind ace Cole Hamels, who receives less support. But then he's perceived as needing less. Too bad about those hard luck losses, Cole. Baseball is a funny sport.

Tonight it's Adam Eaton, tomorrow Cole Hamels. Myers' replacement still TBA. Meanwhile, soft-tossing lefty R. J. Swindle (he makes Jamie Moyer look out of control) has been called up from Triple-A to replace Clay Condrey, on paternity leave for the birth of his first child. It's a boy and Condrey, the outdoors type, has camouflage diapers ready for the kid.

Carlos Carrasco is pitching tonight for Reading. Unless he goes only three, I guess it's unlikely that he'll be taking Myers' spot. So, J.A. Happ?

myers to lehigh valley

Kyle Kendrick in the dugout before last Tuesday's game in Oakland. The next night KK pitched a swell game against the A's, the only one that the Phillies managed to win. Watching all three games with my co-blogger was fun. Gotta say thanks to her husband for giving up his tix for the series and for making a super fava bean/corn/turkey bacon salad for us for one of the games.

On the day that the Phillies signed 19-year-old shortstop Anthony Hewitt, their top draft pick, the big news turned out to be Brett Myers. He was optioned today to Lehigh Valley to get himself together, we hope, at the Triple A level. It's a stunning development. I give lots of credit to Myers, who could have rejected the move, for doing this. For whatever reason, his transition from closer to starter has been a disaster. Maybe at Triple-A he'll be able to work on his mechanics and regain his confidence. So, who pitches in Myers' spot on Thursday? Who takes his place in the rotation? Carlos Carrasco? J.A. Happ? Someone else?

Phillies v A's Interleague

One of the rare occasions when co-blogger Jacqueline and I got together to watch our favorite teams play. It was a nice duel in the first game between Jamie Moyer and Joe Blanton; in the second game Kendrick terrific, shutting out the A's 4-0 and in the final, Harden shut out the Phillies, 5-0. Yesterday, the temps were in the mellow 70's but it was weird to have overcast skies from the fire in Napa.

Vida Throwback Jersey Day

The first 10,000 fans got cool yellow retro jerseys in honor of Vida Blue. He threw out the first pitch, then the A's beat the Fish 7-1, winning the series. Duchscherer was totally in command, even after giving up a solo homer in the first inning. His teammates helped by being aggressive on the bases. The Marlin's pitcher was a tall, willowy fellow by the name of Andrew Miller. He threw a lot of pitches early on and he was soon out of the game. I was looking forward to seeing Uggla, who hit 2 homers yesterday, but his bat wasn't talking today. Weather was bright and temps were in the low 70's. At game time, the UVA rating was 10, extremely high.

oh so taguchi bad

Speaking of So Taguchi, I tuned into today's Phillies game in the bottom of the 9th. Two on, two out, trailing by a run. So Taguchi, the only guy left on the bench, comes to the plate to pinch hit for Brad Lidge. Swinging for some dumfounding reason on a two-ball count, Taguchi popped out in foul territory off third. Game over, Phillies lose five in a row for the first time since May of 2006. What were you thinking, So? You may be nice and hardworking but sayonara.

gopher balls again doom myers

Joe Saunders of the Angels taking warm-up tosses between innings at last night's game in Philadelphia.

If Eric Bruntlett had curbed his aggressive base-running instincts in the 7th, Brett Myers never would have made it out for the fatal eighth. But Bruntlett was thrown out at 2nd and the inning ended. Both starters kept it a fast-paced game through seven, with Myers giving up only three hits. Two of them, alas, were solo homers to Phillies Killer Vlad the Bad, who has homered more times (31? 32?) against the Phillies than any other active player. And he's now in the AL! The Phillies came back to tie the game at 2 in the 7th but Bruntlett, playing for the slumping Utley, ran them out of a potential go-ahead run. With 2 out in the 8th, Myers gave up a single to Chone Figgins (love the name, the player), then a silly 2-run homer that just cleared the right field pole to the light-hitting Erick Aybar, a 2nd-inning replacement for injured shortstop Maicer Izturis. Another error by So Taguchi allowed the Angels to tack on two more in the 9th. Taguchi is turning defensive replacement into an oxymoron. I keep trying to find some words of praise for this guy, but he's been brutal in the field and at the plate.

Of course, if the offense had been anywhere in sight, the sell-out crowd of 45,000+ at Citizens Bank Park would have been a lot happier. Instead, the slump continues and it's salvage time again. Two lanky guys with hair match up today. I'd take Hamels over Weaver, but Hamels has already been burned several times this season by spluttering offensive support. Go, Phillies!

stumbling and bumbling

The foul ball parking zone at the Reading ballpark on a mellow evening not too long ago.

In Philadelphia, the mood is more foul than mellow after last night's 7-1 whacking at the hands of Ervin Santana and the Angels. I guess the Angels really are offensively-challenged: They managed only 7 runs on 17 hits. Meanwhile, the team known for its offense mustered 2 hits and 1 unearned run. No hits after the second inning. Vladimir Guerrero used to kill the Phillies as an Expo. His 2-run homer in the 1st off of stumbling starter Adam Eaton was just the first of three hits. Ervin Santana meanwhile mesmerized the boys in red pinstripes. Despite a sac fly ribbie, Utley's slump continues. No one else is stepping up.

Barry Zippo

That's what the Giants fans are starting to call poor BZ. He only went 2 innings (56 pitches) today against the Tigers and his pitches were so fat it was like batting practice. Bochy went to the mound in the middle of Barry's misery in the second and the fans booed when he decide to keep him on. Fortunately, that inning was the last. The rest of the game was tediously long as the Giants never got close to catching the Tigers.

0 for 12 shut-out

A crisp breeze was blowing last night at Citizens Bank Park. Some people wrapped themselves in blankets. It almost felt like October.

When the heart of the order, Utley, Howard, and Burrell, go 0 for 12, not much is likely to happen. And that's exactly what did happen in a 3-0 shutout at the hands of lefty Jon Lester and the back end of the Sox bullpen. Okajima threw a scoreless 8th and Papelbon came in to blow away Howard, Burrell, and Werth to the delight of the Red Sox fans in attendance. With little command, Jamie Moyer labored mightily for five innings, giving up just 2 runs on 4 hits, but one of those was a 2-run homer to the light-hitting Coco Crisp. The bottom of the Sox order got it done. Both teams had 7 hits, but the Phillies never converted. Utley, now in the worst slump of his career, looks all out of sorts. He now leads both leagues in All-Star votes.

daisuke delivers but cole is king

Dice-K goes into the wind-up last night at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA.

Word was that Matsuzaka was on a pitch count of 75. For the first four innings of last night's game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Lehigh Valley IronPigs a complete game shut-out seemed to be looming. It took Matsuzaka 39 pitches (31 for strikes) to dispatch the first 12 'Pigs he faced. Only in the 5th did the home team, led by an Andy Tracy single, make a small stand to string three hits together for two runs. Matsuzaka, who looked very, very good in his first (maybe only) minor league rehab stint, was finished after five. He threw 65 pitches. The PawSox won the game 9-6.

The announced attendance was 8,803, a sell-out. Despite a two-hour rain delay, most seats were filled when the game finally started at 9:15, largely because of Dice-K. Last night he was definitely worth the wait.

During the delay, the first five innings of the Red Sox-Phillies game in Philadelphia was shown on the big screen at the park. It was all Cole Hamels. Other highlights: Jimmy Rollins' lead-off homer, followed by a 2-run homer by Ryan Howard. The big guy added a solo homer in the 3rd to give the Phils a 4-0 lead. In the 5th, Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew had back-to-back homers, but they turned out to be the only Sox runs in an 8-2 loss. Pat Burrell tripled in the 5th but was stranded at 3rd. (Wake up, Geoff Jenkins!) Burrell's gallop round the bases convulsed Hamels in the dugout. Later, Ryan Howard added a triple of his own. (What a week for Howard, lol, a triple and a stolen base!) Sox starter Bartolo Colon's at-bats were priceless. The guys on his bench were falling all over themselves.

A's Sweep Giants

On a beautiful summer's day, the A's completed their sweep of the Giants, 5-3. Dana Eveland pitched well for the A's and Kevin Correia wasn't too bad for the Giants except in the 6th inning where a line of A's got on base with singles and scored 4 times. The Giants tried a similar tack in the 8th, loading up on bases but their 2 runs couldn't make up the difference.

phils hand it to cards

One thing about today's frustrating loss---it made me forget yesterday's. Color me pessimistic. Today the Phillies left 15 men on base, leaving the bases loaded four times, including in the 8th when they scored twice on walks to tie the game 6-6. Utley flied out to end the 9th, again with the bases loaded. Earlier in the inning Eric Bruntlett was called out on a play at home that ended up sending Card catcher Yadier Molina to the hospital on a stretcher. (Initial tests indicated that Molina was OK.) The Phils' bullpen was again outstanding. Until the fatal 10th, that is, when Tom Gordon got two quick outs, then he and Utley played dipsy doodle on a couple of dead-easy plays that handed the Cards the game. The first error, an errant throw by Utley to Gordon covering first, put the winning run on 2nd. The second, this time on Gordon, who flat out missed the throw, was on an almost-identical play. Ball game over. But if you leave the bases loaded 4x, do you deserve to win? Again, color me pessimistic, but this is not the way to head home and into Interleague play with Red Sox and Angels.

Jimmy has got to get his stroke back, his timing back or this team is going nowhere.

Tale of Two Pitchers

Andy Pettitte at the Mac
Barry Zito at the AT&T

First the Yankees at McAfee - Andy Pettitte was in superb form, mowing down the youthful A's. Joe Blanton was doomed by Matsui's happy birthday grand slam especially since, true to the games he's pitched this year, he's had virtually no run support by his teammates. To Blanton's credit, he buckled down and pitched well the rest of the way. Still, no win. Then the Friday the 13th interleague game versus the Giants (weird to see the A's wearing road grays), the A's had Greg Smith going against Barry Z. Smith was wobbly but nothing compared to Barry, who simply couldn't place his pitches. It was really sad to see Zito pitching like that, sad too, to hear all the boos when he left the game after 5-2/3 innings.

20/21 phils clobber cards back-to-back-to-back

For the second time this season, the Phillies pounded out 20 runs, this time on a season-high 21 hits. I was running errands and missed the first inning in St. Louis, when with 2 outs Utley, Howard, and Burrell went deep in succession. I got back in time for the hit parade 4th, with the Phils up 4-0. Pitcher Kyle Kendrick got the hits rolling with a double; his second time up in the inning he singled. By inning end, the Phillies had scored 9 runs. Howard, who likes hitting in front of his hometown crowd, added a 3-run homer in the 6th. Catcher Carlos Ruiz, in a bit of a hitting drought, ended up with 4. Final score: 20-2. Infielder Aaron Miles pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th for the Cards and got a standing ovation from the fans. It was the only inning where the Phils went down in order. Kyle Kendrick went a strong seven and got his 6th win of the season, on the first anniversary of his unexpected call-up to the bigs. The Phillies are 10-1 in Kendrick's starts this year.

But for urgent errands, I would have been at the IronPigs game. The 'Pigs beat the Bisons to take 3 of 4 in the series and climb, at least for a day, out of last place. Something else though was making the 'Pigs announcers giddy: Daisuke Matsuzaka will be rehabbing Monday night at Coca-Cola Park during the PawSox-'Pigs series.

Rajai

One of the many young players on the Oakland A's, Rajai was a snatch from the Giants. He doesn't get to play everyday but he's often a runner in the late innings. He'll be used more frequently during interleague games.

amazing moyer

Last night's IronPigs' game had its share of rallying "oink, oink" calls but they didn't keep the team from going down 5-4 to the Buffalo Bisons. I got home from a long day and went to the game on the spur of the moment. All of the scoring came off the two starters. When the two bullpens took over, nothing much else happened. I left at the end of the 7th and listened on the way home to the Bisons' broadcast on radio.

When I left the 'Pigs, the Phillies were leading 2-0 in the 6th down in Florida. By the time I got home, Jamie Moyer had just finished throwing eight innings of 2-hit ball (yeah, he's 45) against the high-octane Fish and the Phillies were up 3-0. Moyer is simply amazing. This year he may just be on a mission. I caught the 9th on TV. In the top, the Phillies loaded the bases in vain; in the bottom, Brad Lidge, looking tall and serious, notched his 18th. The Phillies scored two of their runs off one wild pitch by Marlins' starter Scott Olsen. Jimmy Rollins dashed in from 3rd when Olsen bounced one that careened away from the catcher. Shane Victorino, who was on 2nd, then scored on the catcher's errant throw to Olsen, covering home. The third run was a conventional RBI.

Everybody else in the division lost. Oh, happy day.

ugh-a-lugga

Tuesday night it was Brett Myers and his fatal predilection for gopher balls. Last night it was Tom Gordon giving up a grand slam to Dan Uggla in the bottom of the 9th of a 2-2 ball game. Cole Hamels went 8, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits, and striking out 13. But in the top of the ninth, with the bases loaded and 2 outs, Jayson Werth tried inexplicably to lay down a bunt. Maybe Jayson's time on the DL clouded his brain. Maybe south Florida is just too hot for the Phillies? Jorge Cantu already has about 100 home runs in the series. Seems to me that every June in recent memory has featured a disastrous trip south. Tonight it's salvage mode with Jamie Moyer up against loose-cannon Fish ace Scott Olsen. Ugh.

By the bye, rookie lefty Andrew Miller, who came over with Cameron Maybin from the Tigers for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera, was also fab. That trade is starting to look lopsided.

And the IronPigs swept a doubleheader last night from the Buffalo Bisons at Coca-Cola Park. Go, 'Pigs.

digging the heat, sweeping the braves

On another hot day in Atlanta, the Phillies pulled off another 9th-inning win. Both starters, Jorge Campillo (5.1 innings) and Adam Eaton (6 innings), gave up three runs early and that's where the scoring stayed till the top of the 9th, when the Phillies plated 3. Shane Victorino, who had an exciting series, was in the thick of things. Ryan Howard chipped in with his 3rd double of the day, for 2 more RBI. Make it 6-3, Phillies. Brad Lidge needed only 7 pitches to notch his 17th save in 17 tries. The Braves had been 25-8 at home before the weekend. It was the first time this season they were swept at home. On to Miami and more heat.