Phillies 16, Mets 6 nightcap

The Phightins gave a crowd of 43,000 plenty to cheer about on fan appreciation night, routing the Mets 16-6 in the final regular season home game of 2005.

The Phils tallied a season-high 20 hits and 16 runs, blowing the game open in a seven-run eighth inning.

Every starter notched a base hit and scored a run. Leading the way was Chase Utley, who went 3-5 with a three-run homer and five RBIs, raising his season total to 26 homers and 101 RBIs. Incredible.

David Bell and Kenny Lofton each had four hits, and Jimmy Rollins extended his hitting streak to 33 games with a debatable infield single in the first inning.

Shane Victorino hit his second career homer in the eighth, and Pat Burrell made it back-to-back homers with his 32nd of the season.

Beerleaguer take
Ed Wade caught a lot of criticism for dealing for 38-year-old Kenny Lofton over the winter, but he’s been outstanding all season, giving the Phils a solid presence atop the lineup.

Shane Victorino continues to impress me. The Phils should enter next season with several economic and productive options in center field, including a possible job for the Rule 5 pick. I wouldn’t spend a dime on this position, and instead, focus on pitching, pitching and more pitching.

Chase Utley made my choice for team MVP a little easier tonight. With his feet firmly planted in Philadelphia soil - and with all the stories claiming what an outstanding leader he will eventually become - I believe we’re seeing the new face of this franchise.

Finally, tonight may have been the last time we see Vicente Padilla pitch in a Phillies uniform. I have a strong hunch the Phils will part ways with the enigmatic pitcher this offseason. Padilla earned the win tonight, going 6 1-3 innings and striking out seven.

For the season, he’s 9-12 with a 4.71 ERA and was probably the team's best pitcher in July and August. The season highlight came on July 17 when he tripled off Dontrelle Willis, another bizarre twist in Padilla's strange career.

Comments

[sh]

The most interesting stat (I thought) to come out of last night's game was that with Abreu & Utley both reaching 100rbis, it was the first time since 1932 that the Phils had three 100rbi men..

2005
Burrell: 116
Utley: 101
Abreu: 100

1932
Don Hurst: 143
Chuck Klein: 137
Pinky Whitney: 124

Interestingly enough, the '32 squad finished at 78-76 and in 4th place in the NL.

I would like to see what could happen next season with a healthy Thome/fulltime Howard. If either plays the entire season we could see four 100rbi sticks in the lineup.. which of course simply emphasizes the need for PITCHING.

[ksdaniel]

Hey Jason,
I wanted to thank you doing such a great job covering this season. Your inciteful writing has helped to restore my interest in baseball. It was a difficult prospect moving back to Philadelphia, and getting excited about a team with such questionable ethos. It was great to see the young guys become the leaders in the second half of the season. You are the Chase Utley of the Philaelphia Phillies blog circuit.
-Daniel

[J. Weitzel]

Thanks, Daniel. And by all means, keep stopping by in the offseason. I update almost daily and enjoy writing about trades and the young players on the farm.

[Matt]

Ok--my thought on Howard/Thome was to try and keep both unless they could unload Thome without eating too much contract.

Couldn't we move Burrell back to third (his natural position even though he hasn't played it in a few years) and put Howard in Left? I know he wouldn't be much of a left fielder in terms of speed, but Boston certainly gets away with it with Manny Ramirez. Granted, he has one of the worst fielding LFs in the AL.

The other issue of course would be the extra Ks in the lineup. Could we afford to have Burrell Thome Howard and Abreu all in there? That's a lot of Ks. The other 4 guys in the starting 8 would need to be really patient at the plate.

I echo the sentiments of a previous commenter--Beerleaguer is a must read. Kudos.

[gr]

matt-

burrell can't move hardly, putting him at third would make phils fans long for david bells defense. as for howard playing LF, how many 6-4, 260 lbs outfielders can you name in baseball?

what they probably need to do is move thome, whether by playing him healthy for a month or before the season once he shows he's healthy, plus move either burrell or abreu for pitching. i vote for burrell, since he'll probably fetch you more due to his younger age and solid year. you still need a #1 starter and most probably a closer for next year and having both burrell and abreu in the lineup has a double-barrled non-cluth middle of the order.

bottom line is, you need to change the makeup of this team somewhat. they need picthing and another solid hitter or two against lefties.

[Tom Durso]

As impressive as Utley's physical talents is his mental makeup. He doesn't take a pitch off, and he plays in the moment as well as anyone in the majors. And Phillies fans notice -- Utley is practically boo-proof, because everyone knows that the kid busts it on every play.

[Ken]

Moving Burrell to another team is an even better option. I was really impressed by the way Lieberthal played in aug/sept, hopefully his lingering knee issues improve...i was VERY unimpressed by burrell..he kills the mets historically and had multiple chances to hurt them in the series including a very sad check swing to end that first game

this team has all the hitting it needs it needs character and pitching... lots of lively debate over abreu's "clutch/no clutch" hitting but i think over the last week he and burrell pretty much closed the book on that..

bobby had a good nite yesterday despite his horrible injuries and burrell got us that 10 run lead we needed..(sarcasm off)...

in the end its pitching and we all might have over-rated our staff , especially the pen, which gave up a ton of 2,3,4 spots in the 7th and 8th innnings this yr to lose ballgames. wags was excellent, we had some good games from the young starters and lieber, myers, lidle were servicable..

i hope phils mgmt has a plan other than letting wagner go, picking up a 5th starter and hoping for a floyd, hamels, myers type rotation