Friday, August 18, 2006
A Bad Night
The Phillies faltered behind their second consecutive poor outing by their starting pitcher. The Phils lost tonight 6-4 to the last place Washington Nationals. Brett Myers dublicated his earlier outing from June 9th also against the Nats. Tonight he went 3 1/3 giving up 9 hits, 6 runs, and 4 walks taking the loss. On June 9, he lasted 3 innings surrendering 7 hits, 6 runs, and a walk. Two bad outings both against Washington. This rough stretch has now reached four straight starts for Brett Myers and it is inherent that he rights the ship quickly if the Phillies want to make a real run at the wild card. The bullpen was terrific tonight pitching 5 2/3 innings without giving up a run. Brian Sanches recorded five outs all via the strikeout. Geoff Geary and Aaron Fultz both pitched a scoreless inning, with Rick White pitching 1 1/3 innings and Arthur Rhodes pitching 2/3 out of the bullpen. The last two games have taxed the bullpen and the Phillies will turn to Cole Hamels and hope that he can go deep into tomorrow's game.
Offensively it took awhile but the Phillies did put pressure on the Nats. In the sixth, Pat Burrell's double scored Chase Utley and Mike Lieberthal's double scored both Burrell and Aaron Rowand. In the eighth, Mike Lieberthal stroked a solo home run. Tonight, Lieby passed Red Dooin for the most games at catcher with the Phillies. The top of the lineup- Rollins, Delluci, Utley, and Howard- went a combined 0-14 to hurt the Phillies chances of winning tonight.
A few other notes from tonight's game. I am beginning to wonder whether Myers' is hiding an injury. His location has been way off and his velocity is down a few mph. From personal experiance, I recently had labrum surgery, I knew my arm was hurting me when I could not locate my pitches. I lost only 2-3 mph on my fastball but was having problems throwing strikes. Brian Sanches had a good outing tonight which is a very positive sign. Sanches will probably be a larger part of next year's bullpen. To put everything in perspective from the past three weeks, the Phillies were struggling, trade many veteran players, began focusing on 2008, began playing much better including 3 of 4 from the Mets, and have fought back into the wildcard race. More on that sometime tomorrow.
Tip of the Cap- Mike Lieberthal for catching his 1,125th career game and passing Red Dooin for first on the Phillies all-time record. He also went 2 for 3 including a single, double, and solo home run and 3 RBIs. He also threw out Brian Castro and Alfonso Soriano on attempted steals. A big congratulations to Mike Lieberthal.
Wag of the Finger- Brett Myers, who needs to get his act together immediately. He is really hurting this team and needs to return to the "ace" he was earlier this year. If Myers could get going the Phillies would have a fair chance of winning the wild card.
Tomorrow's Game- Cole Hamels takes the mound looking to be the stopper for the Phillies. He faces Ramon Ortiz who is 9-10 with an 4.88 ERA. Hamels is 5-6 with an 4.50 ERA and has pitched much better recently. Game time is 7:05. Hopefully the Phillies get back on the winning path behind a solid outing from Hamels.
Offensively it took awhile but the Phillies did put pressure on the Nats. In the sixth, Pat Burrell's double scored Chase Utley and Mike Lieberthal's double scored both Burrell and Aaron Rowand. In the eighth, Mike Lieberthal stroked a solo home run. Tonight, Lieby passed Red Dooin for the most games at catcher with the Phillies. The top of the lineup- Rollins, Delluci, Utley, and Howard- went a combined 0-14 to hurt the Phillies chances of winning tonight.
A few other notes from tonight's game. I am beginning to wonder whether Myers' is hiding an injury. His location has been way off and his velocity is down a few mph. From personal experiance, I recently had labrum surgery, I knew my arm was hurting me when I could not locate my pitches. I lost only 2-3 mph on my fastball but was having problems throwing strikes. Brian Sanches had a good outing tonight which is a very positive sign. Sanches will probably be a larger part of next year's bullpen. To put everything in perspective from the past three weeks, the Phillies were struggling, trade many veteran players, began focusing on 2008, began playing much better including 3 of 4 from the Mets, and have fought back into the wildcard race. More on that sometime tomorrow.
Tip of the Cap- Mike Lieberthal for catching his 1,125th career game and passing Red Dooin for first on the Phillies all-time record. He also went 2 for 3 including a single, double, and solo home run and 3 RBIs. He also threw out Brian Castro and Alfonso Soriano on attempted steals. A big congratulations to Mike Lieberthal.
Wag of the Finger- Brett Myers, who needs to get his act together immediately. He is really hurting this team and needs to return to the "ace" he was earlier this year. If Myers could get going the Phillies would have a fair chance of winning the wild card.
Tomorrow's Game- Cole Hamels takes the mound looking to be the stopper for the Phillies. He faces Ramon Ortiz who is 9-10 with an 4.88 ERA. Hamels is 5-6 with an 4.50 ERA and has pitched much better recently. Game time is 7:05. Hopefully the Phillies get back on the winning path behind a solid outing from Hamels.
