Phillies jump on top of Braves early

Bottom 2nd, 4-1 Phillies: About the only thing going right for Jorge Sosa and the Braves are their nifty throwback-style unis. The Phillies batted around for a four-run second inning, keyed by a two-out, two-run double by Mike Lieberthal. A fielding error by Edgar Renteria led to two more on Aaron Rowand's grounder up the middle. [box]

Phillies 7, Braves 5
Cory Lidle pitched six strong innings, giving up three runs on 10 hits with seven strikeouts to lead the Phillies to their second win of the season.

Lidle became the first Phillies starter to earn a win, and did so in prototypical Cory Lidle fashion. He'll give up hits, as he did tonight, but rarely gets burned. Seven strikeouts is impressive.

Lidle's supporting cast helped him with four in the second, recapped above. Phillies hitters stranded just five batters. Aaron Rowand hit his first homer of the season, scoring Jimmy Rollins, who went 2-for-5. J-Roll continued his hot-hitting, raising his average to .396. Pat Burrell followed Rowand's shot with a solo homer, his second of the season.

Tom Gordon earned his first save as a Phillie, sitting them down in order in the ninth.

The Braves sported vintage jerseys, and several players looked like throwbacks themselves. Adam LaRoche looked like a player from a semi-pro dairy team. If he played a character in a David Halberstam book, his teammates would call him "Frenchman." The Braves also rolled out junkball left-hander Chuck James, an Atlanta native. He'd play the naive rookie getting needled by Birdie Tebbetts. In the ninth, veteran southpaw Mike Remlinger got into the act. Remlinger might fill the token role of hard-living reliever who doesn't take guff from managers. If Ted Williams played today, he'd list Remlinger as one of the three toughest pitchers in baseball. The list would go Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, then Remlinger.

Comments

[RickSchuBlues]

Ahem...how 'bout that Mike Lieberthal. Could be the hit that changes the season around!

Burrell's a ^#^@(*$ bum.

[J. Weitzel]

Lieberthal has hit well this season. He's been hitting the ball pretty hard.

Through five, Lidle has had his typical, predictable outing. Lots of hits - 10 hits - but not badly burned.

[Ego74]

I was looking for the Phils to jump on Sosa early as they did, and not let up. Letting ATL back in this one, hopefully they can open itt up against Atl''s putrid bullpen

[Adam]

Charlie Manuel's itchy trigger finger strikes again. Is there a reason for him to take out Lidle after 6 IP and 89 pitches? I mean, I guess it's not entirely unreasonable, but over the course of the last 2 innings he only needed a total of 17 pitches, and he was pinch hit for to lead off the inning. With the early starting pitching woes of the Phillies, getting another inning out of Lidle probably would've been a good idea.

[Adam]

Especially now that we've just unloaded on Chuck James, and have a 4 run lead.

So Pat Burrell is a bum, eh?

[Steve T.]

"Burrell's a ^#^@(*$ bum."

HA!

[RickSchuBlues]

Solo homer #3...I'll take it. But he's still a bum.

Taking Lidle out was the right move. His start was the best for a Phils pitcher this year, but he typically doesn't fare well if he makes it to the later innings.

[Ego74]

Burrell is FAR from being a bum. :)

[RickSchuBlues]

I'll give you this: when there's no pressure, Burrell's a hell of a hitter.

[RickSchuBlues]

Hmm...why Cormier and not Rhodes in the 8th?

[J. Weitzel]

Franklin has been tough out of the bullpen. He has more pitches than your typical reliever and has kept hitters off balance. Tonight was his fifth appearance. Hard to make a case that any pitcher on this team has been more useful, and effective, than Franklin. His ERA now stands at 1.50 after tonight's shutout inning.

[RickSchuBlues]

And yet his penchant for serving up homers worries me. I was glad they had a four-run lead when Franklin was in there.

Let's see if they can grind this one out. The Phils need a win like Francoeur needed that hit...

[RickSchuBlues]

Rhodes and Gordon get the job done. Curious stat from Braves' announcers: Atlanta has yet to get a win from a starting pitcher this year.

[That Dude]

I could go either way on taking Lidle out. I think generally speaking Foghorn has too quick a hook with SP's, but Lidle is know for having the wheels come off the wagon pretty quick. Kudos to my favorite whipping boys the Black Hole for coming through nicely. (gotta give credit where it's due)

btw two other things...J-Roll REALLYis the mvp of this squad. Wtach him closely, he really is doing a ton of the little stuff right.
ALso, why didnt the Phils break out the throwbacks? They looked dumb not participating.

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I was at the game tonight and it was fun to watch! I was about 20 rows up behind CF and had a terrific view of the Rowand to Rollins to Lieberthal relay to the plate to cut down the runner early in the game. One move that left me scratching my head was with 2 runners on and 1 out in the 8th, why not bring Rhodes in instead of Cormier. I know Cormier can get you a ground ball, but I really thought that situation called for the setup man to be brought in and not a middle reliever, which is all Cormier is at this point.

They may be 2-6, but with tonight's win, Philadelphia is only 1.5 games behind Atlanta, which is all that matters in my book. Sure the Mets are doing well, but most teams would do well facing the awful Marlins and underhitting Nationals. As long as they keep pace with the Braves, they'll be fine.

[J. Weitzel]

Thanks for the update from Atlanta, H.E. That's a positive way of looking at it.

[RickSchuBlues]

Rheal Cormier should not have been on that mound in the eighth inning, period. I'm not advocating inflexible roles for the bullpen pitchers, but Cormier is not a guy you can trust that late in the game, even with a decent cushion.

Regardless of what kind of uniform he's wearing, doesn't Marcus Giles look kind of like a deranged serial killer?

[Carson Book]

Marcus Giles looks like a sawed-off twit!

Dude can play baseball though.

Good win Phillies! Now can we starting a winning streak?

[H.E. Pennypacker]

By the way, here's a good panorama I took last night of Turner Field and Philles batting practice:

Turner Field Panorama

[kuff6]

I'm not getting the Burrell hating. Only comes through when there's no pressure? Last year in late inning pressure situations with runners on he went for .313/.439/.531. Those are *excellent* numbers - what exactly is it that he should be doing more than that? You can't criticize a guy for failing to put up a 1.000/1.000/4.000 line.

[Tom Goodman]

The hell with the game analysis, Jason. Great work on throwback uniforms and the book and movie rights.

[J. Weitzel]

Defense was a major part of last night's game. The Renteria miss led to two runs on Rowand's hit, and Rowand, and especially Jimmy Rollins, helped save a run with a relay to the plate.

Mike at phillesblog.blogspot.com had the same take this morning, and also has a post on Pat Burrell.

[Steve T.]

Dude, what's with the Burrell thing?
What, since it's obviously wrong to criticize Abreu at this point, we now have to move to Burrell?
You are very wrong on this, sorry. st

[RickSchuBlues]

Are you watching the games or reading a bunch of numbers from a cereal box? I'm oh so happy about Burrell's three solo homers. What about popping up with the bases loaded in the second? Or his double-play off a struggling Villereal in the first game of the series, and his classic, bat-on-shoulder strikeout, taking two identical fastballs on the outside corner with men on base earlier in that game? The guy is a different hitter in pressure spots. When there is a big situation in the game, he is about the last guy I want to see coming up. I'm surprised no one else seems to perceive him this way. I know I've said all this before, but I thought that earlier in his career, through '02, Burrell looked like a big-game player. Something's changed in him, and despite that impressive RBI total last year, he does not instill confidence in tight situations.

[RickSchuBlues]

Just read the defense of Burrell that Jason referred to...I dunno. I never thought it was ever "Phillies Phans vs. Burrell". Burrell never gets booed, really. Compared to at least three other guys in the lineup, I think he gets pretty good treatment all considered. I think he's actually a decent left fielder, good arm, makes some nice plays. Pat Burrell is not a bad player, obviously. But his presence does not translate into winning baseball games. He's a homegrown Phillie, a number one draft pick. I don't root against him. He seems like a nonentity as far as personalities go, but I don't even hold that against him.

But look: I do watch most of these games. I know that doesn't make me right or make my perception absolute. But my take is that Pat Burrell is not as good a player, not nearly as good as all those fancy Prospectus numbers try to tell me. And it isn't just that he isn't *great* that I don't care for him; I think it's harmful to a team to overrate a player based on these statistics and not the kind of intagible things a winning player provides. To the Phils' credit, I think they recognize this about Burrell, and it's noticeable how he has not been marketed nearly in the same light as Howard, Rollins, Abreu, and Utley. It would be a shock if he was a Phillie much longer.

[That Dude]

I still like Burrell, but to a small extenet I would agree with Rickschu on late game situations. Too many time he apperas to be Pat "I wonder which groupie I'll hook up with, oops caught looking" Burrell

[Corey]

are there any phillie that are good in "pressure spots?" probably not, yet burrell, a guy whose numbers last year were respectable in "clutch" situations, gets railed for it. also, sometimes you have to depend on stats, because perception is decieving. for instance, when derek jeter hit a go-ahead homerun the other day to beat the royals, it was only the third time he got a hit that drove in the tying or go-ahead run after the eighth inning in his career! but the perception is, jeter is clutch. fact (or opinion) is, we see these guys fail more than succeed and that is how our views are shaped......that being said, they have to take burrell out of the 4 hole, he's killing them with K's and popouts.

[Deanna]

I have to admit that I keep thinking Adam LaRoche reminds me of a movie star -- some movie star -- I just can't place who. But I always think he looks like he should be in a movie about baseball in the 1930's or something.

As I've been saying elsewhere, to Ryan Franklin's credit, he's currently got the second-best ERA on the staff, the second-best groundball ratio, the second-best WHIP... that groundball ratio is the really important part, I think. I'd love to see him keep it up (well, or down, as the case may be) but who knows.

As for Lieby... sigh. Shame the Pirates don't have David Ross to get rid of anymore, I guess.

[kuff6]

RSB: I don't understand how you just dismiss the numbers so casually. They are what they are: late inning pressure situation with runners on, Burrell hit .313/.439/.531 last year. I'll admit, that's a *LOT* better than I thought it was, but I think, instead of finding fault with the numbers or dismissing them out of hand as "Baseball Prospectus numbers," we instead have to chalk it up as further support for the fact that over the course of 162 games, visual impressions are not at all reliable.