shane saves it, werth wins it

A Technicolor sunset filled the sky at Citizens Bank Park last night. Fireworks came later.

Both Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth had three hits in last night's 12-inning win over the Diamondbacks. Victorino got a 'save' in the 8th, with an almost-spectacular catch that prevented a home run, then an assist, getting the ball in to Jimmy Rollins, who threw out the advancing runner at 3rd. In the bottom of the 8th, Victorino brought in the tying runs with a triple. It stayed 5-5 till the 12th, when So Taguchi (finally!) led off with a single. Rollins was then intentionally walked. Jayson Werth then singled to right and Taguchi scored standing.

It was fireworks night and most of the crowd of 45,000+ was still on hand for the exciting finish. I had to leave after the 7th and got home at 11, just in time for Werth's single. In the 2nd, Ryan Howard (or Howie, as Werth called him) sent the first pitch he saw from D'back starter Doug Davis soaring deep into the left field stands for his 28th homer of the season. Scoring stayed there till Arizona tied it in the 6th. The Phillies immediately went back up 3-1, on a wild pitch, then a delayed double steal that scored Victorino. In the 7th, though, the Snakes got three, then tacked on another run in the 8th. The Phillies left two on in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th, stranding a total of 16! Credit 2nd baseman Orlando Hudson of the D'backs with some nifty defense.

Pedro Feliz laid down a key sacrifice bunt in the 8th. Mike Cervenak of the IronPigs got his first major league at-bat in the 11th, lining out sharply. And once again the Phillies won a game started by Kyle Kendrick. It was a grind but they did it.

hey hey a series win

Final this afternoon: 4-1 Phillies, thanks to a sterling seven innings of one-run ball by the ever-amazing Jamie Moyer, who has not given up more than three runs in his last 10 starts, and thanks to two homers by Ryan Howard. Yes, I dare say that he is back. His first was a 2-run shot in the first to give the Phillies what has been of late an elusive early lead. Ryan Madson pitched the 8th and into the 9th but J.C. Romero (who has shaved off all of his beautiful hair!) had to come in to get the last two batters. Negative highlight: a cheapshot take-out at 2nd base of Jimmy Rollins by the "sliding" Chris Duncan. He also made a borderline cheapshot play on Chris Coste Tuesday night at home. But that's not why I dislike the Cardinals. They're one of those teams that look all alike. Couples who look alike bore me out. So do teams.

J.A. Happ was sent down to Triple A this morning and journeyman infielder Mike Cervenak recalled. Now don't get all in an uproar, a laughing Charlie Manuel told the media, things are gonna work out fine for Mr. Happ. It's just that there's no need for a 5th starter till the week after the all-star break and he can get some starts meanwhile with the 'Pigs. For the 31-year-old Cervenak, a temporary option off the bench, it's a first-time call-up. Pretty exciting for him.

Corey Hart and Evan Longoria won the Final Vote selections for their respective leagues. Too bad, Pat. Four fans voted for 53 straight hours at the ballpark, two buildings in Philadelphia had the number 5 illuminated on them, and Vote for Pat T-shirts were everywhere but Burrell finished 3rd in the joke balloting.

Speaking of All-Star non-invitees, what about the NL's leading home run hitter (27) and RBI leader (83)? Yes, that would be Mr. Howard.

happ and howard get it done

A recent IronPigs program featured Jason Jaramillo, my favorite on the team. And I'd just been thinking about J. D. Salinger.

Lots of drama in last night's much-needed win for the Phillies. Mark Mulder threw just 16 pitches in his first start for the Cards in about two years, then left with an apparent shoulder injury. In his second start this season (third of his career), J.A. Happ went 6.1 innings and left with a shutout. Two inherited runners, however, scored off Chad Durbin to tie the game at 2-2. The Phillies had got their scoring started in the 5th, with a single by 1-for-25 (or was that infinity) Carlos Ruiz, who scored on a triple by Jimmy Rollins. Chase Utley brought him home. On to the 8th, when Ryan Howard, with a 0-2 count, smacked a homer to right. (He's now got 25 homers and 80 RBI.) Two batters later, Pedro Feliz homered to left to make it 4-2. Brad Lidge came on for a nail-biter ninth but with two on struck out the dangerous Rick Ankiel on three sliders. In the postgame interview, Lidge said of his upcoming All-Star appearance, "I'm looking forward to it but we've got to get Pat in there. He deserves to be there." Voting ends today at 5 p.m.

hamels in vain

Sometimes it's all about the funnel cake, as it was for this young fan at an early season game in Reading.

Nothing sweet, though, about last night's 2-0 loss to the Cards down at the ballpark in Philadelphia, the 9th Phillies home loss in 11 games. Cole Hamels vs. Joel Pineiro. And sure enough, once again Hamels sparkled and got no (as in zero) run support. It's happened too often in Hamels' starts. Maybe he should pull a Johan Santana and throw his teammates under the bus. But Hamels hasn't done that, though the offense is just awful. For a month now it's been just awful. So what if Ryan Howard leads the league in RBI and Chase Utley in homers? Since his ankle injury, Rollins has not been right and is rarely on base. Maybe it's the swirling trade rumors that are keeping Victorino more off than on. Without those two setting the table, not much happens. It's been a month of dismal play. And now Flash is lost to the DL with a tender elbow, J.C.'s got a nagging groin pull, and the team is in sore need of some R&R. They need to find that "fun" Brett Myers says he's looking for. Everyone's jumped on Myers for that comment but I'm assuming he's talking about winning.

Tough luck for the A's, maybe even worse luck for the rest of the NL. Charlie Manuel called Harden's shutout effort against the Phillies last month the best game pitched against them all year. Isn't it a tad surprising, though, that the A's seem to have given Harden up for nothing much in return? The recent megabucks signing of Michel Inoa, the hot Latin pitching prospect, though, should make A's fans happy. So much of baseball is about living in hope.

Just Like That The Season's Over

Rich Harden - Gone! Chad Gaudin - Gone! Joe Blanton - Almost Gone! Houston Street - Next on the Block! I suspected Harden was on the block because they were so cautious with him with pitch count (can't have our precious commodity break before the transaction!). I knew that losing 2 to the Angels pretty much sealed the A's fate but it's sad to see the A's give up on contending halfway through the season.

have a guinness and vote for pat burrell!

Once I found the Guinness stout stand (oh, happy day) at the Oakland Coliseum during the trip there in June, this congenial vendor became my favorite. She was sweet enough to let me take her photo.

So pour a glass of Guinness, put some Thelonius Monk or whomever on the player, and start voting for Pat Burrell for the National League's final man at next week's All-Star game. Burrell has had an impressively consistent career and his numbers this year again make him worthy of All-Star status. Under the silly system used for All-Star voting, you can vote online till those proverbial cows come home--or at least until 5 p.m. Thursday here on the East Coast. Vote now! Vote often! Vote for Pat!

To vote, go to http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com and click on VOTE for BURRELL and a ballot will pop up.

breakdown!

OK, so the bullpen, stellar all season, has had two breakdowns in the past two days. Galling that both came against the Mets' brittle offense. And speaking of offense, where oh where is it! It's not just the bottom of the order (you, Geoff Jenkins, Carlos Ruiz, and on-again, off-again Pedro) that's dragging, it's everyone from the top on down that's been sketchy for almost a month now. Thanks to the lackluster play, the rest of this stinky division is still hanging around. Do hope that the Phillies are not morphing into the mediocre Metsies!

After Saturday night's sad performance, Tom Gordon was put on the DL with a tender elbow. Get well soon, Tom. We need you!

On Sunday, the Phillies announced---hip, hip, hooray---a three-year extension with sexy dude closer Brad Lidge. That means that Brett Myers is either coming back as part of the rotation or being shopped as part of a trade. Said GM Pat Gillick of Myers' perceived desire to be a closer, we don't always get to do what we want, but meanwhile we are getting paid to do a job, which in Brett's case is to be a starter.

Yesterday journeyman pitcher Les Walrond threw a 17-strikeout shut-out for the IronPigs against the visiting Louisville Bats. I saw most of the game on TV and Walrond was definitely in a groove. Many of the strikeouts were on four pitches. Afterwards, Walrond gave kudos to catcher Jason Jaramillo, who had called the game. Wow!

more happ-ening

Back to J.A. (pronounced Jay) Happ, making his second major-league appearance last night against the team that roughed him up a year ago in his debut. Happ fared much better last night, despite starting the game with a walk to Jose Reyes, who ended up stranded at 3rd. After that Happ was solid, retiring the Mets in order and pretty much matching Johan Santana. Only in the 5th did he run into trouble, allowing walks to the light-hitting Endy Chavez to load the bases, then to David Wright (who was out to all but the umpire). The Mets scored only two weak runs, on a ground-out and that walk to Wright. After the 5th, they were held to just one hit.

With his nervous-looking mom and dad in the stands, the lefty Happ went 4.2, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks, and striking out 3. He did what he was asked to do: keep his team in the game. The fabulous Phillies bullpen did the rest.

FWIW, my mother has seen J.A. Happ pitch several times this season with the IronPigs. About a month ago, she said out of the blue, "That kid Happ is going to do well in the majors."

happy belated 4th

So it was the 4th of July and where was baseball on TV? Except for the Phillies and a local minor league game, here it was nada. C'mon, folks, baseball on the 4th is a given! Also shocking: the scant 17,000 who showed up in Tampa for a Rays game. Gosh.

As fireflies danced through lowering fog, I listened in the dark to the thrilling end of the Phillies game. Last night's game paired minor league call-up J.A. Happ against Johan Santana of the Mets. Happ was effective for four, then lost his command and walked three in the fifth. With 2 outs, the bases loaded, and 2 runs in, Happ gave way to Chad Durbin, who struck out Carlos Beltran. Durbin, who has been a revelation in the 'pen, went on to strike out 5 of the 6 men he faced in the next two innings. The Phillies came back to tie the game in the 6th on two RBI singles by Howard and Burrell, and there it stayed till the 9th. Sanatana too was effective, while the Phillies bullpen continued to be spectacular. In the 9th, Santana, who had thrown just 95 pitches, gave way to Douaner Sanchez. He struck out Howard and Burrell, then gave up a sharp double to Pedro Feliz. With a 1-2 count on Victorino, the flyin' Hawaiian laced a single to right. Feliz scored standing, guys jumped the rail, the Phillies won 3-2. Fireworks!

Charlie Manuel, by the bye, was looking good in the special dark-blue caps worn by all teams for the 4th of July.

Salute

The game at AT&T on Wednesday started with a salute to the military. Too bad the Giants lost to the Cubs. Tonight, I listened to the tail end of the A's vs White Sox game and cheered my team to a 7-1 win over the Sox. Considering the A's are dropping like flies with various injuries, winning 2 games in a row over the hot White Sox was encouraging. It's that time of the season when there's talk of trading away and acquiring players. Talk was generally on the acquisitive side for the A's until the injuries started to pile up (Chavez, Crosby, Gonzalez, Thomas, Mark Sweeney) and losing two games to the Angels recently. Now I fear our marketable players will be traded away. Please win A's. And pox on the Angels.

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.