phrustrated philly phan

• In the Astros loss, Charlie Manuel butchered the seventh inning. He is not a match-up manager. He has his set pitchers for certain innings and never strays from that until Monday versus the Astros. He used an uncountable amount of pitchers only to see three runs given up and a loss. Why not just go with Rick White for the inning because that is what he has done for the rest of the year.
• Shame on Rollins, Vic, and Utley for not finding any way to get Ryan Howard up in the ninth inning last night. I know they may have hit the ball hard but they still needed to get Howard up.
• The entire offense tonight for not getting a clutch hit early in the game when they could have knocked out Ramon Ortiz. Unacceptable and its too bad the Phillies of June reared its ugly head in the last week of the season
• The Nationals announcers for being terrible. Since I am in South Carolina, I must watch the games on MLB.tv so I get whatever feed they choose. Over the weekend I got the Comcast feed so I heard Harry and the gang. Tonight I got the Nationals feed with their announcers. Although Kalas may not be what he once was he is still much better than most announcers. Listening to the Nationals' announcers has given me a new appreciation Kalas, Graham, Wheeler, and Anderson. The Nationals' announcers openly pull for their team and have no knowledge of the Phillies whatsoever. I had to turn off the tv feed and listen to it on mlb.com.
• Brett Myers for not dominating tonight. Yeah he may have pitcher decently but that is not acceptable. He walked batters in the critical third inning and walks lose ball games. Myers once and for all is not an ace but will be a good number two behind Cole Hamels.
• Charlie Manuel again for butchering the starting lineup and substitutions tonight. Why is Pat Burrell starting versus a right hander with David Delluci on the bench. Delluci should have been in the sixth hole behind Conine. He substitutions also were terrible. The Phillies do not have a strong bench so I see no need to pinch hit for Mike Lieberthal who has been swinging a hot bat lately. Just awful.
• Micheal Bourn for oversliding a bag. What is this, Little League. Every member of Winthrop's baseball team helps coach a fall league with kids age 9-12 and that is what happens in that league not in the majors. Hopefully, Bourn gets plenty of sliding practice in spring training next year because that is inexcusable and embarrassing.
• Shame on us the phans for believing that maybe this is the year something good happens. Have the last 23 years not taught us anything. Yes we may get close but the Curse of William Penn will always rear its ugly head and break our hearts.
• Chase for making an error in the bottom of the 8th to let the game become a two run lead. Yes I love Chase but I must call him out on this.

As you can tell I am obviously pissed and with the Dodgers probably winning tonight the Phillies will fall to a game behind with five to play. I said after Monday's game that 5-1 definetly gets you a playoff spot and 4-2 probably earns you a playoff game. Everything bad about the Phillies has been revealed in the past two days. Poor managerial decisions, terrible bullpen, poor bottom of the lineup have all lead to their downfall. The wild card was in their reach and all they had to do was reach up and grab it and they fumbled kind of like Kurt Warner on Sunday in the Cardinals game. A fumbled snap, that is what the Phillies have done the past two days. I thought this year was different but I must have forgotten that I cheer for a team from Philly. I guess it is time to start pulling for the A's and Twins in October. I am devasted and thats all I can say. Plain and Simple.

# posted by dane @ 9:35 PM