Game chat: Phillies try to rebound from 13-0 licking

It's been 36 innings since the Phillies held the lead in a ballgame. They'll try to mount an attack against left-hander Noah Lowry in the second of four games with the Giants tonight at 7:05 p.m. ET.

Preview: The Phillies are sinking like stones against left-handed pitching. Team OPS against the lefties is .702 and some of the worst offenders are the right-handed hitters (Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand, Carlos Ruiz, Wes Helms). Lately it seems they’re scoring most of their runs late or when the game is lost. They actually lead all of baseball in runs scored from the seventh-inning on with 96.

Yesterday, they suffered their worst loss of the season score-wise, and it was Adam Eaton’s shortest outing in a Phillies uniform. The big blow came off the bat of Fred Lewis, a grand slam just over the short porch in left-center, helping chase Eaton to the showers after two innings. It isn’t the kind of game the Phillies had in mind when they signed him to a lucrative deal this off-season. His ERA now sits at 6.28 and he couldn’t find the strike zone again. Under different circumstances, he’d be in danger of losing his job. No chance of that happening here.

On top of it, the Phils banged out two hits, one from Ruiz, one from Shane Victorino. Matt Morris pitched very well, but not that well. He caught an offense laboring through its worst patch of the season.

Noah Lowry (5-4, 3.08 ERA) has been very consistent and a big reason why is he’s allowed only two home runs. Hardball Times is showing 50 percent of his batted balls are ground balls. Fellow left-hander Cole Hamels (7-2, 3.74 ERA) has about 50 more strikeouts than Lowry; 86 trails only Jake Peavy’s 92. Unlike Lowry, Hamels has given up the long ball; he's tied with Eaton and Jamie Moyer with 10 of them, fourth most in the NL.

Lineups are set: Barry Bonds is in the lineup as he continues his chase of Hank Aaron. Phillies go with Jayson Werth in right field, batting second. In limited opportunities, Werth is one of the few Phillies that has hit left-handed pitching well (25 AB, 1.088 OPS, 2 HR). Rod Barajas starts behind the plate. Abraham Nunez, hitting .364 against left-handers, starts at third (shades of David Bell’s 2005 when he had that high batting average against left-handers). [Live Boxscore]

Phillies sign college closer
Northern Illinois pitcher Matt German is now a member of the Phillies, reports Beerleaguer spring correspondent Billy Mac. As a fifth-year senior, German was allowed to sign with the Phillies before next week’s draft. He is NIU’s career saves leader with 26. This year, the lefty was 5-2 with 13 saves and an ERA of 1.76. He will report to the Phillies' spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla. [Article]

Comments

[J. Weitzel]

I should create a regular feature called "Best of the Message Boards" where I scour the Phillies boards for the most outrageous entries. Here's a dandy comment on the Phillies signing back Randy Ruiz:

"I've always been one of the biggest RR fans there is (when he's not getting banged for using steroids...). I maintain that he and Jacobs could platoon at 1B in the big leagues and give better production that about half the big-league teams get from that position."

[Reed]

Just thought I'd re-post this:

How about this one. A buddy of mine is friends with Matt Morris and told him that I was a huge Phillies phan. Matt told him to tell me that he wishes he could make every start for the rest of his career against the Phils. He joked that the Phillies offense is a joke. He also said that the Phillies shouldn't worry about Barry in the cleanup spot...they should worry about him batting cleanup.

Fortunately, these were voicemails and needless to say, I did not call back.

Talk about puring salt in wounds.

[J. Weitzel]

Can we officially call Wes Helms a bust now? No homers, can't get a start over Nuni against left-handers. .609 OPS. Bat looks slow. Glove is horrible ...

Is there a market for him? Yankees wanted him and now Giambi is down ...

[bathtubhippo]

j, i believe the "official" gauge for evaluating whether a player is a bust is whether or not they are losing time to abraham nunez.

[Chris]

Would that be the VOAN stat?

[joe l]

(Offtopic) Check out the Braves' minor league coach: http://wbztv.com/video/?cid=51&id=32168@wbz.dayport.com

I've never seen such meltdown innovation. Watch out, Bobby Cox.

[mark goldentyer]

my wife and I saw tough guy Matt Morris get knocked out cold in a bar back in 1997. The best part was that his teammates just stood around and didn't seems to do much about it.

[RSB]

I seriously doubt Morris said anything like that about the Phillies. They handed it to him on a Sunday night game last season at CBP.

A market for Helms? Sure - how 'bout a 33 year-old AAA pitcher who will never pitch with the Phillies, then be released and get snapped up by Atlanta and go 9-2 in the final two months.

[Reed]

I was at that game when Morris got whiplashed (Bonds' 713 sailed over my head too).
He did say it, though.

I would have loved to seen him get knocked out in the bar.

[RSB]

3 sac flies tonight...some crisper baseball. Of course, Hamels helps that cause more than a little.

Giants are set up to have the best starting staff in the league for the next few years. Why aren't they better?

[Phila Fan In DC]

Yankees might have a need for a 1st baseman. Mientkiewicz was taken off the field after the back of his head met with Lowell's hip. Doug was on the ground for several minutes.

SF announcers made a great point: Phils have had three opportunities to score a man with a sac fly and they've scored the man each time.

But why, oh why, can't I listen to Harry's voice? Last night's first two innings (before they switched to the SF broadcast) were such a thrill on mlb.tv getting to hear him. For those of us who are out of market and have childhood memories of Harry, I'd have to say that brought on goosebumps...

[Verdeforce]

The boys have remembered how to score and some of Beerleaguer's goats are responsible - Werth, Barajas, and Burrell - of course the two rocks of this year's lineup JRoll and Utley also played their parts!

[Phila Fan In DC]

"It was not a Philadelphia home run, it was not a cheap one."

Well, that was nice.

[RSB]

I hear you DC. This has been going on all week, and you just know those f***ers at Comcast are responsible. I might just have to check out this 'slingbox' thingy.

[joe l]

Seriously considering the slingbox myself. Don't know if the Comcast upload in Delran will be fast enough though.

[Reed]

...and the Yanks backup catcher is hitting .090 or something.

Helms & Barajas for something...maybe that guy Colter Bean

[Verdeforce]

That barely stayed in the park - now Hamels knows what it's like to face Bonds - yikes!

[curt]

Hamels at 75 pitches -- doesn't look like we'll need Yoel to close this one.

[joe l]

Yeah, that blow that Doug Mientkiewicz took to the head looked pretty awful in today's Yanks/Sox game. His dilated stare reminded me of some of the old Lindros concussino looks.

[Phila Fan In DC]

Man, Joe, this game's been going well and you bring up Lindros? He stole the hockey seasons from 1992-2000 from me...

[bay_area_phan]

RSB,

I see plenty of Giants games out here. Check out their lineup for the answer to your question.

[curt]

Jack Taschner looks like a candidate for our BP.

[curt]

97 pitch CG...where did this kid come from?

[Reed]

Thank God for the Cole-Train

[J. Weitzel]

Krypton.

[Malcolm]

Wow. 98 pitches in a CG. And only 20 balls. Wow.

[RSB]

BAP, I know, I was thinking they don't have many bats. But then I remembered what happened last night.

[joe l]

I don't remember last night. What happened last night? 13-0 didn't happen last night. It was all a dream, right? Right, guys?

[bay_area_phan]

Well, you don't get to face Adam Eaton & the Phillies bullpen every night.

[Malcolm]

I'm content with cheering on Cole the entire year, and nothing else. He's definitely going Carlton on us.

[JB]

From a season-low embarassing blowout to a Picasso thrown memorable night in 24 hours, Phillies Baseball at its finest.

Sometimes I question why I wound want to subject my kids to this torture.

[Tray]

Aside from last night, the Giants have one of the worst offenses in the league so that's why they're not better, RSB... and I haven't really studied their roster but I don't think their bullpen is too good - Benitez obviously didn't work out for them. Solid win, 5 runs on 6 hits is unusually efficient for us. I still think we'll be a contender in spite of the past 4 games.

[JB]

Helluva catch by Bourne despite it sounding like he initially misplayed it.

If that was Rowand coming in J Roll would be in a hospital bed by now.

[SirAlden]

Hamels is 8-2 Nine Innings Pitched with only five hits and zero bases on balls.

It is like Carlton the team is looser and wants to win for him.

[bay_area_phan]

Cole is brilliant; there's no doubt about it. Now if we could only find 4 more starters to go with him.

[Tommy Hutton's Wristbands]

More Slingbox info: (for RSB and joe)

When I run my slingbox to my laptop it runs at just over 1.5 Mbps. Obviously on my Moto Q using Verizon's EVDO it is quite a bit less. Both work fine at their bandwidths. That's not a huge upload rate. I would guess you would be fine with a cable modem or DSL upload wise. I'm hosted at a Cablevision house in Hamilton using a cable modem and the installation there is crappy. Crappy seems good enough for my slingbox.

[Tommy Hutton's Wristbands]

Speaking of Lindros - I'm clicking around on the TV and I see hockey on NBC. Hockey season is still going on? I thought it ended 3 months ago. ( ;

[joe l]

I'd probably be more interested in hockey if they started up in October and wrapped up the playoffs sometime in March before baseball. The season is so long, and of course the local team gives everyone gray hairs. We wouldn't have it any other way.

[mark goldentyer]

Comparing Hamels to Carlton is way, way, way worse than a joke. In 1972-Carlton won 50
percent of the teams' victories. He had an ERA of less than 2; he had over 300 innings pitched and struck out 300 batters. Y'all need to get your heads in the real world. Sorry.

[Malcolm]

Oh please, we know this isn't the '72 Phillies. All I'm saying is when he pitches, you actually get a feeling that, heck, we will win this game.

[Malcolm]

And BTW, he won 46 percent of their victories.

[RSB]

Mark, are you deliberately trying to be the most asinine poster on this site? Are you determined to interpret everything literally as an excuse to assert some kind of bogus superiority?

I'll tell you one thing: it took Carlton a lot longer to establish the kind of dominance that Hamels is showing. And yes, he will have to show it over at least one full season. There is a long way to go. He seems too good to be true. But make no mistake: he's good. And he could very well be Carlton-type good.

[Steve Jeltz]

Give him a break, he's probably exhausted from running another marathon.

[kells]

Phila Fan In DC definitely grab the Slingbox. I'm back in Philly but it saved me while I was NYC.
Saw a hilarious movie tonight "Knocked UP" Must see movie-then watched Phills on DVR. sarge delivered the line of the year-paraprasing.
Whells "There are alot of Nats(insects) in the booth"
Sarge: It must be your cologn or perfume.
Whells:I don't wear perfume-whatta you talking about?
Sarge: Nats like things that are "SWEET" that's why they are flying around you!
Wheels: Obviously pissed-What are you talking about-I'm not SWEET(Sarge laughing in the backround.
My guess is both Sarge & Harry hate Wheels now.
Another shocker from the booth that verified that Wheels reads Beerleauger. He killed Ryan howard for not tagging up to 3rd. Monty will have to call him in the office for killing the franchise player.
God Bless King Cole!

[brother]

Cole has now thrown two dominating CG wins at two of the Phils' low points this season. The first was his 15 K game against the Reds a day after that devastating 2-1 extra-inning loss where Gordon gave up the tying home run with 2 outs in the 9th. The Phils were 4-11 after that loss, and Cole's win jump-started a 5-game winning streak that might have saved the season. Tonight's win ended a disappointing 4-game skid at home after the high of getting above .500 and sweeping the Braves, which we can only hope begins another good stretch for the team. Cole is the team's MVP in my book so far.

[brother]

Oh, and one more thing, regarding comparisons to Carlton. You can't compare the stats meaningfully. Lefty pitched when 4-man rotations were the norm and complete games were common, so his quantitative season stats will be higher. In 1972, Lefty was 27-10; that's 37 decisions--pitchers these days don't even get that many starts. He struck out 310 batters, but also pitched 346 innings, which is a lower strikeout rate than Cole's in his young career. Lefty's ERA in '72 was 1.97--fantastic even for that time--it was an incredible season for him statistically (including 30 CG's), no question about it. But his career ERA was 3.22, roughly the same as Cole's relative to the park-adjusted league ERA. Cole pitches in a live-ball era filled with hitter-friendly bandboxes (one of which is his home park) and bulked-up hitters.

Cole has a long way to go to equal Lefty's Hall-of-Fame career. But is he Carlton-like in terms of his effect on his team and its chances of winning? You bet.

[GM-Carson]

Weitzel, that quote you posted to begin this thread made me laugh out loud. I wonder if that was the DavThom version of the Randy Ruiz/Jacobs fan club. At least DavThom fights for worthy cause (Coste).

By the way, that leads me to what to do with Clay Condrey. I was all for giving him a legit shot, because I thought he was better than this, but he's blown it, time to move on. Bring up Ennis or Kane Davis, or screw the extra reliever and go with Chris Coste.

[curt]

Today's funnies:

"For the record, Manuel said Burrell's contract doesn't make him feel obligated to play the leftfielder.

"I put the lineup in that gives us the best chance to win," he said.

[curt]

Try to imagine this from anyone connected with the Phillies:

"Well, I think the bullpen is lucky we're in Toronto," manager Ozzie Guillen said after MacDougal walked Frank Thomas with two outs in the seventh inning and David Aardsma gave up five runs in the eighth. "If we were in Chicago, people would be [sent] out."

Guillen planned to talk about roster moves with general manager Ken Williams and assistant GM Rick Hahn. MacDougal has issued 17 walks in 17 2/3 innings. His walk to Thomas preceded pinch-hitter Vernon Wells' broken-bat, two-run single and Aaron Hill's RBI double, both off Matt Thornton, that gave the Jays a 4-3 lead.

"We can't continue to struggle and be nice with people, and all of a sudden we fail," Guillen said of a bullpen that has a 9.41 ERA in its last 21 games. "It's not easy when you make moves, and day in and day out you make the wrong one. It's up to us what we're going to do when we get to Chicago, but don't be surprised if someone isn't there.

"We don't have the luxury to lose games like that. The way we've been playing, we can't give away games like this."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/cs-070602soxgamer,1,7971537.story?coll=chi-sportstop-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

[JB]

Germano's record is now 4-0, last night beating the Nationals, half as many wins as King Cole.

[clout]

I was at last night's game and what a perfect evening. I told my son he was seeing one of the rarest things in 21st century baseball: A complete game. I told him when I was a boy, pitchers like Carlton, Gibson, Marichal, Seaver pitched them all the time, often on 3 days rest. He was quite amazed.

There can be no doubt now that Hamels is the ace. He never gave in at any point in the count, throwing his changeup at will and with good location. If I had to guess, I'd say he threw 70% changeups and curves and 30% fastballs, which at 92 mph probably looked like 100 mph after all those changeups. If he threw even 1 fastball to Bonds, I missed it. It was all breaking stuff. He was like a savvy veteran out there.

The reason the Giants suck despite a nice young rotation is that their bullpen is mediocre and only 2 or 3 of their starting lineup are even average everyday players. It would be nice if Hamels gave them a mental lift that will carry over into today. Need to get a solid game from Garcia and score a few this afternoon.

[Alby]

I checked out Germano's record at Baseball Cube to see if there was anything to indicate he would dial up this kind of performance; if there is, I can't really see it (of course, I was under the mistaken impression he was left-handed, so take my analysis FWIW). He's been remarkably consistent in the minors, but the only thing that stands out to me is superior control. He gives up a fair number of hits, though, so his WHIP was always around 1.2 in the minors, 1.5 in the majors. He gave up 4 runs in 8 innings in Clearwater this year, reinforcing the impression that he was on his way to being a AAAA guy. Given the team's set rotation, there was basically no way he was going to make the squad.

[Alby]

I also did some checking on Padres blogs. On one called DuckSnorts, Geoff Young writes:

Clay Hensley has been activated from the DL and optioned to Triple-A Portland, which means that Justin Germano remains in the rotation. Germano has earned it with his recent performance, but if anything should go wrong, it’s nice to know that a good insurance policy is just a phone call away.

Portland pitching coach Gary Lance has gotten credit for helping guys out in the past (including Hensley), so with luck, a little tweak here and there is all that’s needed to get Hensley back to the form that saw him finish 2006 with the National League’s 10th best ERA. Meanwhile, let’s hope that Germano can stave off any “corrections” that might be headed his way. He’s a fun story, but the complete absence of dominance (3.24 K/9) makes me a bit nervous.

[clout]

Alby: I guess you have a short memory. I made many, many posts about how germano was a keeper after we got him last year and into this year. I did not expect this, of course, but it was obvious from his stats and his stuff that he was a quality back of the rotation starter. You don't throw those away.

[clout]

Anyone else notice thre absolute silence lately from posters who were saying now we see the real Nunez, the season with the Cards wasn't a fluke etc. etc.

[GM-Carson]

No-Hit Nunez is back, no hits in his last 14 at bats. It was nice to have Sometimes-Hit Nunez here for a month, but now it's back to the same old bag-of-crap we've come to dislike so much.

[bathtubhippo]

clout, get real! you KNOW nunez was on the way to being world series MVP this year and then BAM! concussion! it ruined everything! the little switch in his brain that controls his sweet batting stroke clicked on this year, but the concussion jarred if off. it has nothing to do with him reverting to his career norms. nothing!

[curt]

clout -- now you're making things up again -- I'm pretty sure no said that stuff about Nunez. Folks did observe that he had shown an ability to hit adequately when playing regularly, both in St.L. and here late last year and this year. Since he has hit in the head he's only played occasionally, and he hasn't hit.

Speaking of absolute silence though, what happened to the guy who once insisted that it was idiotic to suggest that anyone else other than Helms should play 3B?

[SirAlden]

A quality back of the rotation starter (lol!) that was useless in all stats as a reliever, (3.24 K/9), zero, ZERO, success at the Major League level, and no spot open for him in the Majors with Garcia and Lieber in front of him, and dropped by Cincy a team that never has enough pitching.

How can anyone say, "I knew he was destined for greatness!" He had to be passed though waviers, the way J.D. Durbin was by the Red Sox, and the way Victorino was by the Padres and Dodgers.

There was no spot for him on the 25 man roster, he could not pitch in relief, he was the Joe Roa, control man, low velocity guy. I wish him well glad his first organization came him a shot in the largest baseball field in the Majors.