Game chat: Phils try to salvage game, score a run

Hoping to avoid a third-consecutive shutout, Cole Hamels (5-2, 3.92) and the scuffling Phillies try to stop the bleeding tonight against Mike Pelfrey (6-1, 2.86) and the Mets. First pitch is 7:10.

Best of the press notes: Here's the damage, compiled by the Phillies' press office: Since starting the month 12-3 (.800), the Phillies have dropped six of their last eight. Over that span, the Phillies have been outscored 37-15 and have been held to one run or fewer five times, including three shutouts. In that eight-game span, the Phils are hitting .203 (52-256) with a .182 average (10-55) with runners in scoring position. By comparison, over their first 15 games of May, the Phils outscored their opponents 97-45 and hit .308 (162-526) and .295 (41-139) with runners in scoring position.

Notes: Carlos Ruiz and Wilson Valdez will bat 7-8. Hamels will look to build on a solid string of starts. He's 3-0 with a 2.36 ERA in May. The Phillies are 7-2 when he starts.

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Comments

[MG]

Feliz has been awful but Beltre has clearly been a better player especially defensively.

[bananagrabbers]

I'm making this stat up but you know I'm probably right: the Phils lead the league in "relievers who come out and throw balls."

[Hugh Mulcahy]

The defense has been atrocious. All manner of errors, mental and physical.

long strike, there

[Hugh Mulcahy]

sweet pitch by durbin.
shame Hamels isn't still in here.

[Jay]

Why not double switch here and put Francisco in left?

[curt]

Both Ben Fran and Dobbers clearly need another start.

[Sophist]

MG, Phils offered Beltre a contract and he turned it down. A better offer than what the Sox gave him. My Sox fan friend tells me his defense has been awful. Old fashion, yes, but Beltre has 7 errors.

[bay_area_phan]

Jay: Because if your pitcher's only coming in to face one batter, a double switch is pointless. Why lock yourself in to using a specific hitter next inning in the pitcher's spot?

[Sophist]

Phils relievers have the 4th best WHIP in the NL, which doesn't speak directly to your point, banana, but there it is. Least number of total BB.

Bringing in Bastardo was a some over-thinking there.

[bay_area_phan]

Bastardo has looked really good this year in low-leverage situations. On the rare occasion that he has been asked to pitch in a more meaningful situation . . . not so good.

[Sophist]

lefties are hitting .161/.250/.226 against Durbin this year.

[MG]

Pull'em. Cholly put Bastardo in a high leverage spot where he could succed and failed for the 2nd time in a row. Hard for Chollh to trot him out than in garbage time.

[Jay]

BAP, I was just thinking of putting in Ben for defense as well but it looks like he went in another direction.

[BloodStripes]

Salami anyone?

[Noah]

The only way this drought can end is with Howard getting a hit off Feliciano. That is the least likely way to score that could (or could have) happen(ed) tonight.

[Bruce Ruffin]

Exorcism. Now.

[MG]

Long time nemesis feliciano.

[gjs]

Boy, is this team pressing.

A three run lead never seemed so insurmountable.

[bay_area_phan]

Our bench is just brutal. We could probably do better just by calling up 5 guys from AA or AAA, and it would be substantially cheaper.

[Bruce Ruffin]

90% of this game is 1/2 mental... Go Vic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[GTown_Dave]

b_a_p: I can't tell the difference between the bench & the starters anymore.

[awh]

Valdez swings at a bad pitch....Benny Frank K's....this whole offense is stinking up the joint

oops, there goes shane making me look like an idiot

c'mon Polly, make up for that stinkin' error

[BloodStripes]

Another hit for Vic. 3 singles including a texas leaguer. He is red hot!!!

[MG]

Sit down. Terrible night for Polanci at the plate and in the field.

[EastFallowfield]

I used to think it was crazy talk that knuckleballers could mess up your swings for a week.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Historically bad. I'm expecting a token run in the 9th and then a sweep. Last time shut out in 3 straight by one team, 1969 vs. the Mets.

[bay_area_phan]

This feels like the kind of game where the Phillies will score a couple of meaningless runs in the 9th inning, to pad their stats a little. But nothing that will be enough to actually win the game, mind you.

[Bruce Ruffin]

GEEEEZUS... To everyone who ever called me a troll -- please know this feels about the same as late September, 1964.

[GTown_Dave]

EF: So consecutive knuckleballers means we have to put up w/ 2 solid weeks of this crap?

[curt]

Vic was the only guy paying attention at the Team Meeting.

[gjs]

The thing that is bugging me most during this slide is the hang dog, poor-me expressions on many of the Phillies faces. No anger. No fight.

Toward that end, I hope Reyes gets to the plate, so they can knock him down.

[BloodStripes]

If we can keep it to save situation maybe Frankie can help us get a run. Frankie usually makes it fun. At least he did with the Angels. A lead off walk. A steal. Groundout, runner moves to 3rd. A strikeout. Then a wild pitch to break the slump. Easy. We still get dusted but we take take that run to Florida full of confidence. Slump over

[Bruce Ruffin]

gjs -- Who'd do that?

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Can't Francouer count? That's 3 bud.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

b.s. - that's some convincing BS!

[Murgatroid]

I will consider it a moral victory if we score a run in the 9th. It's really all I have left.

[MG]

Bruce - Its May. Grab a beer and relax.

[EastFallowfield]

For all the talk of the meaningless runs scored on Sunday, at least we're only talking about 3 straight shutouts.

[BloodStripes]

000 000 004

[Bruce Ruffin]

Just one more thing -- is Ryan-Ho sayin't "...jus' get me to the plate, boys." Or what???????????

[MG]

This is one of the few guys I loathe on the Mets. Usedto love seeing him fail on the playoffs with the Angels.

[Bay Slugga]

Is it at all possible the Phillies are no longer stealing signs and and therefore can't hit?

[Bruce Ruffin]

MG -- Trying to do just that. Sorry for the butchered attempt at melding "J-Roll" and Ryan Howard. Bad attempt...

[Hugh Mulcahy]

some of the outs in this game remind me of the outs against Matsuzaka.

[Sophist]

Bay Slugga - check the post from the first page. The Phils have had similar hitting problems before. Many times actually.

[MG]

That was a misfake pitch and Howard did nothing with it. Betting against this team tonight was easy money.

[kuvasz]

Do the Phils have any leaders? You know, guys for whom you would be afraid of who if you didn't do your best would challenge your manhood; like Aaron Rowland. I find it odd that professional baseball players need the manager to call for a team meeting because I was of the assumption that athletes at this level would be extremely motivated to perform well and win. And when they lose like the Phillies have done this past week one would hope that at least one player would rise to the challenge and call for a team meeting.

If your manager has to tell you to come to the ball park several hours before game time to take extra batting and fielding pratice you don't have any team leaders, because a team leader would lead by example.

Right now I see little inspiration or leadership with this ball club.

If Jason Weitzel can contact some sports writers I would like to find out which Phillies players are coming to the park early for extra practice.

[bananagrabbers]

MG: Exactly. That's why the stealing signs BS is nonsense -- the Phils have just taken so many bad swings this week.

[awh]

If you had told me they'd be shut out 3 games in a row I would have told you that you were full of it.

[bay_area_phan]

Good thing for the Phillies they don't have to face the home crowd for awhile. This team would get booed mercilessly at the Bank and they would deserve every bit of it.

[BloodStripes]

Phils couldn't even score a run against the Baltimore bullpen at this rate.

It doesn't get any worse. 46 scoreless out of 47 innings. The only way is up.

[JPB705]

This is a legitimately serious question: How many runs have the Phillies scored since being accused of stealing signs?

[TK]

you never think it could get this bad with this team. But it's pretty obvious they aren't even remotely as good as we had thought.

[Sophist]

kuvasz - Did you just join us? Have you been watching this team for 3 years? A week doesn't erase what this team has accomplished.

Teams go through bad stretches. Get over it.

[GTown_Dave]

The Phillies offense has had rough stretches in each of the past few years, but none this overwhelmingly awful:

The Phillies were shut out 7 times in '09. They have been shut out 5 times already in '10, 4 of those coming in the past 5 games.

The last time the Philles were shut out in a series, & the last time the Phillies were shut out in 4 of 5 games: 1974.

That's now 46 of the past 47 innings, & 27 innings straight, in which the Phillies have not scored so much as a single fucking run.

[Murgatroid]

The bright side in all this is we're still miraculously in first by a game and a half. And despite no help from the rest of his team, Cole continued his hot streak.

[GBrettfan]

Wow. Well, if the team is true to form they will start winning again within a few games as they will no longer have a lead in the division. That seems to light a fire under them.

They're too good to be this bad forever. Aren't they?

[Sophist]

Only time will show some of you people to be the idiots that you are. It's amazing that some people can watch baseball almost every day and still not get it.

[MG]

Mets deserved to sweep the Phils. Outplayed them in every single aspect this series especially defensively and the small fundamentals.

Every divisional winner goes through at least terrible stretch a season. Phils need to find a way to get their bats going. Personally, I think they lose 2 of 3 in Florida. Hope I am wrong but don't like the matchips or the Phils track record in Florida.

[EastFallowfield]

How many runs since sign stealing accusation?

53 runs in 14 games=3.78 per game, including a gazillion shutouts.

[Sophist]

Gtown - Bill Baer counted 4 stretches last year equal to this stretch of futility. Apparently the Phils weren't as good as we thought they were last year either. 5 in 2008. Maybe not then either.

Or maybe teams go through tough stretches and it has nothing to do with heart or leadership or trying to hit HR.

[MG]

Problem with this stretch too is that they are going to play ab Interleagur stretch in 2 weeks where it is east to see this team going 3-6 or so in 9 games.

[GBrettfan]

Cole did well, and so did Shane. The rest of them will snap out of it eventually.

[CHAMLES]

I DESERVE BETETER THAN 0 RUN SWTF

[Bedrosian's Beard]

If they really needed to, I think the Phils could come up with another way to steal signs that doesn't involve the bullpen coach using binoculars.

[metsfan]

tough series for those phils. caught the mets at the wrong time guys. i thought this team was dead a week ago.

it must be killing rollins that he is missing these mets games

[Bob]

Unreal. The days of the team confidently laying 5 or more runs on the other team night after night seem like ages ago.

Nice effort by Cole, totally wasted.

Hopefully the team will regress to the mean soon. Not time for Chicken Little or anything, but this is getting ridiculous. Got to think they are going to really take it out on some pitchers in the very near future, but this was a horrible tone to set with the Mets.

[GTown_Dave]

Sophist: "Equal" in what way?

[Sophist]

Phils started the month hitting .290/.354/.498 with 109 runs in 19 games. Apparently leadership and heart ebb like the tides. I guess that means the full moon is the end of all this, and tomorrow a new moon, day, whatever. The Mets were turning things into gold, some of you appear to be practicing voodoo, Werth is a werewolf.

[Murgatroid]

Also, this sign stealing crap is ridiculous. The story was overblown in the first place, I can't believe it hasn't died down yet. Explain to me how having binoculars in the Coors Field bullpen gives us a significant advantage. Also, in past instances of sign stealing (the New York Giants in the Bobby Thomson pennant year), teams actually hit worse while they were stealing signs. Look it up, Rob Neyer wrote about it not that long ago. Sign stealing is NOT the reason we're struggling and I'm really getting sick of hearing about it.

[EastFallowfield]

Stay tuned for a couple days as Mets fans will wonder why all their pitchers who dominated the mighty Phils will be giving up buckets of runs.

[Sophist]

Gtown - stretches of 5-10 games with similar R/G and BA/OBP/SLG numbers. Check the post either on the first page here or over at crashburn alley.

[wally]

Maybe you guys aren't giving enough credit to the Mets pitchers. We all know the Mets have one of the best rotations in the league.

[JBird]

Boooooooooo!!

[Gsl]

Sophist is right, they are going through a slump. It happens.

However, I maintain that I am right as well. The reason the scorless streak is so long is that they continue to fail to get guys in from third with < 2 outs. Even slumping teams can score runs in situations where a run can score without s hit.

They wouldn't be scoring 10 runs a game with adequate situational hitting alone, but they would at least be scoring.

[Bruce Ruffin]

Sophist -- Now that I've calmed down a bit, I disagree. A championship team -- Halladay sealed that deal -- could not be been shut out 5 times by May '10, 4 of those coming in the past 5 games (thanks, GTown Dave). Since we can't "back up the truck" someone has to go down/sit down (Ibanez) and someone has to come up (Dominic Brown).

Dammit, lead, follow or get out of the way. Inconceivable the DiMaggio-led Yankees (at the beginning of the season, weren’t we on the cusp of that greatness?) could ever have undergone this...

[GTown_Dave]

Sophist: All I know is there hasn't been a 5 game stretch at any point in the past 2 seasons in which the Phillies scored a total of 3 or fewer runs, let alone all 3 of said runs in a single inning, let alone all 3 of said runs on a single hit. We'll just have to wait & see how the next 5 games pan out to add "-10" to the equation.

[Sophist]

Gsl - Polanco put a ball in play with a man on third and hit into a DP. Sometimes there's just nothing going right. The Phils stole a bunch of bags tonight, and are simply not getting the hit with RISP *or* the productive out w RISP. It's not for lack of trying. Hamels bunted a man over just fine tonight.

Starter

Phils: 3.93 ERA, .741 OPS, 1.27 WHIP
Mets: 4.02 ERA, .761 OPS, 1.51 WHIP

[Murgatroid]

The solution to this isn't to try to do something drastic and end up doing something stupid. And the reason we're struggling isn't because we don't have the guts or leadership or any of this crap. It's a slump and it's frustrating and baffling, but it happens. Trying to blame it on a particular player or the lack of some intangible won't improve anything. We just have to wait and eventually they'll get out of it.

[Gsl]

Hard to imagine that you believe that any recent struggles are the fault of Ibanez, Bruce.

[GBrettfan]

When it rains it pours?

[GTown_Dave]

Edit: My mistake in that last post. It actually took 2 hits for those 3 runs to score, but all 3 were scored in the same inning. Jeez, that seems like about 100 years ago now ...

[Sophist]

Bruce the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies had the following streches

April 5-10: 6 games, 20 runs, .231/.326/.392
June 3-12: 9 games, 33 runs, .226/.318/.365
June 17-26: 8 games, 15 runs, .181/.257/.252
August 1-9: 8 games, 21 runs, .207/.321/.368
August 14-21: 7 games, 19 runs, .203/.252/.323

[Go Mets!]

Now that your cheaterish club cant steal signs anymore your team sucks. With their confidence shot what will become of this overrated ball club? I wonder...

[Jack]

I'm not worried. If the biggest problem with this team is that they're not scoring runs, I'll take my chances. They'll score plenty of runs. Everyone relax.

[Cant Score a Run]

Binoculars Binoculars Binoculars.

[Gsl]

Sophist- yeah no argument. Wasn't trying to imply that it was the result of lack of effort.

Polly put it in play but technically pop ups are in play too. You just hope for solid contact in those situations. More often than not, good hitters ( like the phils have) will get that done. The fact that, for whatever reason, it isn't happening lately is the biggest bummer for me. And biggest culprit for the consecutive scoreless streak.

[Bruce Ruffin]

Gsl -- A big contract and feeble output. Make an example. No one is immune. Sorry, Raul. Chill.

And if that doesn't work, (gulp) Utley? Just a few games...

[Go Mets!]

"I'm not worried. If the biggest problem with this team is that they're not scoring runs, I'll take my chances. They'll score plenty of runs. Everyone relax."

Agreed. They will find a stronger pair of binoculars and get back to their gritty, winning ways.

[Bruce Ruffin]

Sophist -- Excellent point. Except losses in May hurt just as bad as those in the last week of September, and we've lost 5 straight. BTW, the bleepin' Muts have won 5; 3 on our watch. I wish someone besides Werth (or J-Roll) was playing for a contract!

[Sophist]

Bruce, how many times in the past few years have the Phils had 4+ games losing streaks. Plenty.

[Gsl]

Lol trolls are gaining confidence and starting to come out of hiding. You know how to describe people who only get bold after the outcome is assured? I do.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Sometimes, when the Phils score like 17 runs, I foolishly wish they could use some of those runs tomorrow. Lately, I've been wondering if these losses are just hte flipside of those wins. they're just randomly putting up 44 zeroes in the last 45 innings. I would hope a massive correction is possible but, that's not necessarily more likely than the recent drought.

[Gsl]

Hugh- it's crazy. I remember making posts early in the season about how amazing it was that the Phils were scoring runs and multiple runs in such a high percentage of innings. Obviously it wouldn't last, right? Things seem to be evening out on us all at once.

[Bruce Ruffin]

Sophist -- how the !@#$ do you waste this pitching? Against the bleepin' Mets? I can't reconcile losing with this team for the ages. I want 18 out of the next 20 and painful fear in the eyes of our opponents. By the end of June.

Yea it's over the top, but dammit, after the 1985 - 2002 dead zone (save '93), I want retribution and domination. A team I can tell my grandson about (if I live that long!!).

[baseball fan]

no one fears the phillies. no one ever has. most of my mets fan friends fear the mets more than the phillies. the mets have handed the phillies their success ...

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Bruce, be happy you had 12 full seasons in the bigs and that your name never became synonymous with "losing pitcher"

[Joe]

What is the point of putting the 3 up on there? 27 innings of shut about ball and abuse from the Mets. Nuff said.

[Bruce Ruffin]

Hugh -- Saw Bruce R. twirl a 2 hitter at the Vet on a bitterly cold spring evening, probably in 1986... for about 5 2/3. Phils lost.

He was the can't miss pitching prospect of that lost era. I still have his baseball card. It's worth about $0.35.

[kuvasz]

Sophist, I have been watching regularly the Phillies since June 21, 1962, when I watched Art Mahaffey pitch out of a bases loaded 1st and beat the Cubs 3-0. I know enough about baseball and life to consider your remark nothing less than a pompous insult.

I know what I am talking about vis a vis leadership. You may well be an esteemed stat geek but know quite less about the importance of the personal intangibles of leadership and its place in team dynamics.

Right now, the team lacks on-field leadership. Which, by the way, if you too were watching, the '07-'08 Mets lacked, which contributed strongly to their late season collapses, and helped allow the Phillies be WFCs.

The last balls-to-the-walls leader the Phillies had was Rowland in 2007. Since then no one but Rollins has shown enough piss and vinegar to naturally claim leadership, and he's not on the field, and was in 2007-2008, and was the entire point about a lack of field leadership.