Game chat: Phillies play first of three in Queens

Roy Halladay (17-10, 2.36) tries to continue his reign over the National League East (10-1, 1.13) when the Phillies open a weekend set with rookie right-hander Jenrry Majia (0-3, 3.68) and the Mets. First pitch is 7:10.

Preview: The pregame notes offered a good thumbnail of Halladay's Cy Young worthy season. He's now tied for the most wins by a Phillie since 2005 (Jon Lieber, 17). He's holding hitters to a .161 average with runners in scoring position. He's been tough on the NL East, but has been especially merciless against the Mets, winning all three starts against them and pitching shutout ball in two of them. Still, these last three games may represent Halladay's worst stretch as a Phillie; he's pitching to a 4.29 ERA over that span and surrendered four home runs to Milwaukee last Saturday. The Phils should have the upper hand pitching-wise in at least two games this series. Tomorrow will be Kendrick and Niese, Sunday will be Oswalt and Pelfrey. ... On the injury front, Jimmy Rollins reportedly took batting practice, but could miss most of the series. Wilson Valdez will start at short. ... Lineups read Victorino, Polanco, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, Ruiz, Valdez. ... The Phillies have a one-game edge in the standings over the Braves, who face Chris Carpenter tonight.

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Comments

[Little Ollie]

Ugh, please don't compare Jon Lieber to Doc.

[BloodStripes]

Doc's NL East numbers are pure filth. Fully sick! Continue the dominance.

[phlipper]

Would have liked to see Worley going instead of KK. True, KK is a known entity, a scrape the bottom of the barrel major league pitcher.

[Sophist]

re Votto's pop ups. Much has been made of this and it is pretty cool. But what does it mean? What gets lost is that there's a better non-PU guy in the league and no one has mentioned it until recently:

This season, there are five other players with IFFB% lower than two percent (as measured by FanGraphs, a different measure than I've been using; they compute infield flies as a percentage of all fly balls rather than batted balls). Here's a similar list as before, but this time including Votto and those five other players, with their Batted Balls per Infield Fly over the last three seasons:

Derrek Lee: 67 Batted Balls / IFFB
Matt Kemp: 77
Michael Bourn: 81
Skip Schumaker: 109
Joey Votto: 167
Ryan Howard: 202

We have a new champion. Ryan Howard has hit 15 infield flies in his career.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/5155/waiting-for-joe-vottos-first-pop-up

[Rex]

Dammit phlipper why !?!? We just finished an entire thread devoted to kk and you go and blow on the smoldering embers of that. God I'm sad now.

[Chris in VT]

KK is pure gold for JW and Beerleaguer.

He should have people on staff at CSN to bring him up daily.

[Rex]

The fun parts of watching the Kendrick debates devolve is that it's never really about KK. I mean for a second or two then it becomes just one poster vs another. If it were boxing Kendrick would be the ring. He's just the medium through which two or more guys bitch at each other.

[Fatalotti]

Basically, if the Phillies score tonight, they will win. The Mets and Phils have played 12 times. The Mets shut out the Phillies in 5 of those games, but have only won 6 times.

[NEPP]

That's a hell of a lineup that the Mets are trotting out there. What are the odds of us winning this one.

[GBrettfan]

I agree with Rex. Thank goodness there's a game starting, and a new thread.

Reading the last thread was like listening to my kids bicker and quarrel.

[NEPP]

Young rookie that we havent really seen yet...this should be fun.

[J.R. King]

Big strike zone tonight; Ump giving the pitcher both the high and the low.

[Fatalotti]

First pitch strike by Halladay! We win.

[TNA]

Apparently, Polly's elbow is not broken...Salisbury talked to Polanco and tweeted that "It is not broken. Seems disgusted with report".

[Old Phan]

GBrett, I'll bet your kids make a lot more sense.

[jason.tp]

JW: c'mon dude, get ur IT dept off their ass and stop crashing my browser!

[Fatalotti]

Nice play by Ruiz. Nice job by Halladay to just get the hell out of the way.

[Kutztown Fan]

If there's a professional athlete who irritates me more than Reyes, I'm hard pressed to think who he might be.

[Scott]

Old Phan with the Post of the Day.

[Thump Bump]

Rookie on the mound that the Phils have never seen, so we can expect 7 shutout innings out of Mejia. Phils win it 2-0 with runs scored off the bullpen.

[NEPP]

Werth is money with the bases empty.

Mejia hitting 97 mph? Wow.

[Fatalotti]

Nice piece of hitting by Werth.

[Scott]

I think we've (barely) seen him in relief.

[NEPP]

We've seen him for 2 innings in relief...where he had a 0.00 ERA against us.

[GBrettfan]

Old Phan: Not necessarily. And very often their verbal power struggle is similar in tenor, each claiming the other is insulting them. I never want any part of it, since they won't listen to my referee attempts, anyway. They'd rather keep at their arguing. And I really don't care who started it; there's enough blame to go around.

Yeah, it's a lot like BL sometimes.
* * * * * *
Back to baseball: That Ruiz always comes to play, doesn't he?

[Meyer]

Run Werth.

[Fatalotti]

This kid's going to have 50 pitches by the end of the 2nd.

[Old Phan]

Didn't this guy pitch against the Phils earlier in the season (perhaps in relief)?

[NEPP]

Chooch is one of the top catchers in baseball.

Discuss.

[NEPP]

Duda Duda...da de da de da Duda!

[Old Phan]

Raul Ibanez hit a ball to
Duda, Duda

[Fatalotti]

It'd be nice to get a gift run here.

[Kutztown Fan]

Chooch does it again.

[NEPP]

Love how we're slowly bleeding Mejia to death in this inning.

So happy Perlozzo didn't send him there.

[Fatalotti]

Alright we earned that run. It'd be nice to get this gift run.

[Kutztown Fan]

BTW - GBrettfan just became one of my favorite with her posts on this thread.

[Old Phan]

Those look some very comfortable empty seats behind home plate.

[Fatalotti]

GREAT job by Chooch!

[NEPP]

Great baserunning gives us a run there.

[Meyer]

This is fun.

[Old Phan]

Smart baserunning, Senor Septembre.

[Kutztown Fan]

Chooch again. And that's a good thing. Valdez does it again. And that's not so good.

But, can't bitch about scoring two runs.

[Fatalotti]

Looks like we got "good" Roy Halladay back tonight, as if he was bad in his last few starts.

Not his fault that he got Texas-League singled to death in that start against the Dodgers.

[NEPP]

Duda DUDA!

[Meyer]

I'll win my money on a Roy fastball...all Do-Dah-Day.

[Squonk64]

Hey, Squonk in the house. Trying to catch up on all the comments. Don't think I'll last the whole game, but I'll try.

[Squonk64]

Doesn't seem like a bad start, up 2-0 after 2.

[Squonk64]

I can't get the CSN telecast on MLB.TV. I keep getting booted to the mets broadcast. Anybody else experiencing this problem?

[NEPP]

Good throw.

[Fatalotti]

Close play at 2nd. Was a really good throw by Thole.

[Squonk64]

Fatalotti: we rarely see "average" Halladay when he pitches in the NL East. He's got, what, a 10-1 record with a 1.16 ERA against the NL East.

[Matt H]

I kinda like the Mets broadcast. Anybody else experiencing THAT problem?

[Squonk64]

Fatalotti: you commenting about the play in the 2nd? That was a gimme, making up for other umpiring crews' failure to enforce the baseline rule to the Phils detriment.

[NEPP]

No relay throw?

[Fatalotti]

Nah, Squonk, commenting on the stolen base attempt. I had a feeling that Mejia was going to score after he got that hit. Bad things always happen when the pitcher gets a hit.

[NEPP]

Bandbox.

[philwynk]

@Matt H: It's a sickness. Get help.

[John]

So, um, not the good Halladay?

[bay_area_phan]

Halladay's not exactly seizing his Cy Young opportunity, nor the Phillies' playoff opportunity, by the throat. He has picked a bad time of the year to be playing his worst baseball of the season.

[Squonk64]

Merde. Pardon my French.

[curt]

Interesting work from our Ace:

Mejia's first hit ever
Reyes first hit in Sept,
Beltran's first lefthanded HR this year, and
lead gone.

[NEPP]

Halladay looks like he's pitching tired. Odd.

[Fatalotti]

Time to go on baseball-reference to convince myself that Halladay's had stretches like this before, and that when gets out of it, look out.

[aksmith]

Halladay is looking positively Kendrickian. His pitches are flat and moving right over the middle of the plate. He looks played out at this point.

Let's hope he gets his second wind soon. Because this guy on the mound tonight won't win any playoff games.

[John]

Cliff Lee looked pretty mediocre last September, too. Don't think there's any need to worry about Halladay in the playoffs yet.

[Sophist]

Doc is at a similar IP / Pitches mark from the last 3 seasons.

[MG]

Halladay has made more mistakes pitches with his fastball the past 4 starts than he had the previous 2 months.

[Fatalotti]

They said he's having a little trouble with his delivery over the last couple starts. He'll get it back, and when he does, he'll be the pitcher we all know and love.

[Squonk64]

The game is early. Too early to judge a pitcher's performance. Halladay does seem to be hanging too much over the plate. Strike three on, I can't really remember the Muts 3B-mans name. Orville Wright? I dunno.

But that third strike was a hanging fastball.

[NEPP]

It'd be nice for our offense to wake back up, put up a 5 spot here and end this one.

[NEPP]

Utley is playing like sh!t tonight.

[Fatalotti]

Utley's getting schooled by the rook.

[Thump Bump]

Wow, some bad swings by Utley.

[Thump Bump]

Yes, Howard!!

[aksmith]

Bandbox.

[philwynk]

Ryan Howard en fuego. Sweet.

[Fatalotti]

Ryan Howard is hitting homeruns at an epic pace right now.

[Sophist]

after 29 starts

2010: 221 IP, 3145 pitches
2009: 214 IP, 3063 pitches
2008: 218 IP, 3150 pitches

He and Hamels are around the same pitch totals this year.

[Fatalotti]

Jayson, back to back? There's no one on base, it's ok, kill the ball...

[bay_area_phan]

At least one of our two superstars seems to have gotten back on track after his stint on the DL. I can't say the same about our other superstar.

[phlipper]

OK - absolute truth. For the second time in the last couple of games, I was thinking about signing on to BL and posting that Howard looks "homerish" one pitch before he homered.

[Fatalotti]

Well, Jayson did kill that ball.

[Fatalotti]

Duda couldn't misplay another ball??

[Sophist]

BAP, do you know what Chase is batting in September?

.368/.457/.526 13 RBI in the last 10 games.

Who else are you talking about?

[Fatalotti]

Ruiz it putting some nice swings on the ball lately. Let's go Exxon, get us another run here.

[MG]

Uncanny how Howard has hit in Sept. every year of his career so far. You know the Big Man is on when he is hitting HRs to the opposite field like he has done 3 times this month already.

[Fatalotti]

cardinals with a 2 run lead.

[bay_area_phan]

Sophist:

Umm, I wss talking about . . . er . . . ok, never mind. Apparently he has been hitting better than I've noticed.

[Squonk64]

I admit--I haven't looked at Cliff Lee's stats in the past few weeks. But his work at Texas, the last time I looked, was pretty weak.

I am one of the very few people who gave the Phils a pass when they traded Lee for Halladay. My best guess is the Phils question Lee's character. A player's willingness to do what ever it takes to be successful--Halladay and Howard as prime examples--seems to be what the Phils want. Maybe Lee wasn't likeable, or had the work ethic they wanted from a $25-million/year pitcher. You know, things respectable organizations cannot or should not talk about in public.

[NEPP]

Crushed that one.

[NEPP]

Howard has 57 HRs in 172 Sept/Oct games.

[Sophist]

BAP, was watching MLB Network before the game. They said he's batting .615 w RISP this month.

[TK]

DOC

[NEPP]

Awesome...just awesome.

[Fatalotti]

Didn't Roy Boy hit a 2 run single with the bases loaded in this park last he pitched here.

[Marley]

Doc.

[aksmith]

Looks like Halladay may have been acquired for his hitting prowess.

[Meyer]

Roy Roy Roy

[Sophist]

Halladay trying to match Holliday's inning.

[RedBurb]

Can someone lecture Sarge that its HALLADAY not Holliday?