Game chat: Phils coming down the home stretch

With 18 to go, Joe Blanton (6-6, 5.15) and the Phillies move on to Florida for the first of three beginning at 7:05.

Beerleaguer: It's always beneficial to glean the pregame notes before a game, especially when you're as busy as I've been. They're fabulous. How about this nice reminder of the job Ryan Madson has done lately: Since August 1, Madson has pitched in 26 of the Phillies’ 40 games (65 percent). Over that 26 1-3 inning stretch, he's posted a 0.68 ERA. Since his run-in with a chair, he's kicked it into gear, so to speak, allowing runs in only three of his last 31 appearances, after surrendering seven over his first 15. ... Roy Oswalt gave Madson and the rest of the bullpen a nice breather with a four-hit shutout to finish off the Mets, marking the 13th complete game and fifth shutout by a Phillies starting pitcher this season. Both marks lead the league. ... Lineups are posted: Victorino, Polanco, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, Ruiz, Valdez. Domonic Brown is reportedly available to play after missing the last couple games with a strained quad.

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Comments

[Call me Ishmael]

Bocock sighting!

[Old Phan]

Final-Braves 4-0

[David]

where is the complaining about using contreras in a 10 run game?

[NEPP]

Contreras needs some work and he's not one of our elite relievers.

I'd go to Worley next.

[GBrettfan]

Pretty sad if you have reason to be leery of using many of your BP arms to protect a win with a 10-run lead.

[DH Phils]

Tonight would be a good night to get Romero a low-leverage inning to try to straighten him out.

[GTown_Dave]

I don't want to see Madson or Durbin in this game. If Charlie uses everyone else in the 'pen aside from those 2 guys, I'll be fine w/ it.

[Steve]

Do you think Valdez could pitch? I would def have him be the first position player to the mount.

[David]

hopefully that will give jose some confidence.

[bay_area_phan]

I'd like to see Romero tonight just to see if he can keep the streak alive. He has managed to pitch 3 games in a row without recording an out. I wonder what the record is.

[CJ]

Good inning for Jose. He hasn't pitched that badly recently. I think lessening his workload down the stretch will make him more effective when it counts. After all, he's old and this is his first full-time reliever season.

[David]

baez tonight?

[NEPP]

I'd put Dom Brown on the mound before Valdez. He was a pitcher in HS.

[NEPP]

Does anyone think that even with a new stadium (with a fancy retractable roof) that the Marlins will sell out regularly? Their ownership isn't gonna just magically open the floodgates to start spending...he's a skinflint who's run two franchises into the ground now.

[CJ]

Any thoughts on using Lidge in the 9th? He hasn't pitched in a week.

[NEPP]

CJ, I still wouldn't use him. Remember how he had elbow issues...keep him fresh if possible.

Though he probably really needs to work to get sharp so you're damned either way.

[phillyinnyc]

"When Greg Dobbs is hitting homeruns, you know the Baseball Gods are smiling upon you. - bap"

either that or the fish were using a high school pitcher.

[Old Phan]

Chooch batting .301.

[HammRadio]

Herndon hits Morrison. Expect a Philly to get hit. I expect chooooch

[GTown_Dave]

NEPP: Having lived in Florida & had the opportunity to take thorough stock of the populace, I can answer your question w/ an unequivocal "NO". The only bankable sporting draws in Florida are College Football, NASCAR & the Miami Dolphins. MLB has no business in that state outside of Spring Training.

[BloodStripes]

Warm Madson up now?

[bay_area_phan]

This is the part of the game where Cholly follows the Beerleaguer conventional wisdom, uses every last crappy reliever in his pen, and ends up having to bring in Madson or Lidge in a hair-raising save situation in the 9th.

[awh]

Watching TBag was too difficult for the spouse. The 'man breasts' are just too much.

[phlipper]

Exhibit A, no, sorry, B, no, sorry C - why Charlie uses his better relievers whenever possible when games are in reach.

[aksmith]

Wow, Herndon has been just awful. Missing his spots with garbage. He looks like he could be pitching for the Marlins.

[NEPP]

Herndon really is terrible.

[HammRadio]

Signal mg. Cause durbin is on his way

[Bob]

Why did we waste a roster spot on Herndon all season?

[Old Phan]

Yankees v. Rays 0-0 in the 10th.

[rauls grandpa]

NEPP, the new stadium will offer free lap dances to the fans to shade them from watching the game whenever the Marlins go down by 4 runs.

[AFish]

Remember that MG kept bashing Cholly for not having Herndon pitch in games with 4 or 5 run leads.

[kilbillrain]

IS our bullpen REALLY this bad!?

[GTown_Dave]

And Durbin is up in the 'pen. Wonderful.

[aksmith]

Chad Durbin is getting up? So, Herndon has been so awful that he lost Baez his chance to get some work. Taking out another reliever with your stuff. That's some special kind of awful. But there's no chance of Herndon going to Robertson land.

[kilbillrain]

I'd love to smack that big dumbo goofey grin of off Herndumb's Gamecast picture

[aksmith]

Well that inning allowed Herndon to knock the rust off . . . of the outfield walls.

[Kutztown Fan]

Herndon should be ashamed to cash his paychecks.

[NEPP]

****Why did we waste a roster spot on Herndon all season?****

Because we really need a solid middle reliever in Lehigh next year?

[GBrettfan]

Felt like more than 3 runs were given up. How long was that half inning?

[CJ]

Since the end of April (the 28th), Herndon had a 3.54 ERA in 34 appearances (40.2 IP) coming into tonight.

He hasn't been terrible.

[seattlephan]

i didn't have much of an opinion of herndon all year long, but he fvcking sucks. thankfully he got out of that inning without giving up any more runs although the damage is done already by having durbin forced to warm up

[kilbillrain]

CJ: He was tonight..

[rauls grandpa]

They wanted Herndon to get the first opportunity to go apartment shopping in Camden or York next season.

[f4f]

is that blond kid sitting in the bullpen mike zagurski, or the guy that ate mike zagurksi? good lord.

[NEPP]

Well, he does have a WHIP of 1.440 in that time but yeah, he's been "good" I guess. A guy like Lidge gets away with a high WHIP out of the BP because he strikes out a ton of batters...Herndon doesn't do that. Herndon has 23 Ks in that 41.2 IP you're referring to.

[GBrettfan]

Baez in. I would like to see Lidge get some in-game practice, test the elbow, shake off any rust. When did he last pitch? It's been a while.

[GTown_Dave]

Enter Taschner Deportes.

[NEPP]

Can Baez close it out with a 7 run lead?

[bay_area_phan]

I didn't even realize Baez was off the DL. This is a perfect spot for him. Of course, now that I've said that, he'll probably go right out & make this far more stressful than it should be.

[bay_area_phan]

NEPP: Lidge's WHIP is 1.21.

[NEPP]

Valdez looks exactly like my old Army roommate. I hated that SOB.

Oddly enough, I like Valdez.

[GTown_Dave]

Franzke reports Madson is soft tossing in the bullpen.

[NEPP]

****NEPP: Lidge's WHIP is 1.21.****

Really?!? Man, he's really lowered it in the last month or so. Good for him.

[CJ]

How bout that throw to 2nd!?!? That Ryan Howard sure does know how to field!

[BloodStripes]

Would Howard blow that in a close game? Good play

[bay_area_phan]

I was having visions of Howard throwing that ball into left field. He probably should have taken the sure out at 1st.

[kilbillrain]

It's hard to believe that Baez has over 40 ip this year. Have we had tha many blowouts?

[CJ]

I know... I know...

If only we had dumped Herndon in favor of those awesome bullpen arms wasting away at AAA... like Mathieson and Bastardo.

As the last man in the bullpen... Herndon has pitched better than people here give him credit for. But what's new? It's Beerleaguer...

[bay_area_phan]

killbrain: Cholly leaned on him pretty heavily early in the season. It's hard to remember this now, but he was signed with the idea that he'd be one of the key cogs in our bullpen.

[NEPP]

That's Baeztastic!

[BloodStripes]

Good job Phils. Smashing win.

[seattlephan]

man, exxon's got some rifle ... nice to see baez not have a meltdown there. good win, see you guys tomorrow

[NEPP]

****If only we had dumped Herndon in favor of those awesome bullpen arms wasting away at AAA... like Mathieson and Bastardo.****

I dont know, Figueroa would be nice to have. But that's me.

He'd be that legit long-man that we've lacked for much of the year (pretty much since we waivered him)

[kilbillrain]

Mmmm b_a_p I do now seem to recall him being used in a high leverage situation against the Nats wayyyy back...he failed of course. How much has he been used since the ASB?

[GBrettfan]

Baez pitched well. Good win.

[Old Phan]

They looked like The Phils tonight. Good win.

[GTown_Dave]

kilbillrain: Baez has appeared in 11 Games (10.2 IP) since the All-Star Break. He appeared in 35 Games (32.1 IP) before the Break.

[NEPP]

Baez is at his best when he's got a margin greater than 4 runs (ahead or behind) to work with. At that point, his OPS against is a mere .682.

[NEPP]

Could you imagine being at/watching the Pirates/Mets game right now?

0-0 tie in the 9th.

[Old Phan]

Yanks Rays 0-0 in the bottom 10th.
Bases loaded 2 outs.

[Old Phan]

Hawpe Ks with the bases loaded. Crazy game.

[aksmith]

Brett Myers went 7 innings. One earned run. 10 K's. His ERA is now 2.85. He sucks.

[BloodStripes]

C'mon Rays. Spank the yanks.

[MG]

At least Cholly didn't use Durbin tonight in a game up 7 runs to get 3 outs. Only on Beerleaguer would people advocate for this insanity. Stop the insanity!

BTY - It would have been a bad night to use Romero for a tune up. Even Lidge. I wonder just how healthy Lidge is if he hasn't pitched in a week.

[MG]

Mets-Pirates in a 0-0 thriller in the 10th with the Pirates seeking their 16th road victory of they ear.

[Old Phan]

Brignac with the walk off dinger. Rays win.

[BloodStripes]

20 innings of NY baseball so far today a nada a run. Rays win, Rays win, back in first. Beautiful

[st]

he's healthy. he warmed up yesterday during the 9th in case oswalt got in trouble. manuel said he would pitch tonight if the game was close on the radio pregame.

[MG]

st - Thanks. Didn't hear that.

[Old Phan]

CHoP pitching for the Buccos.

[aksmith]

Saw Chopper pitch a couple of nights ago. He still has some nasty stuff in short stretches. Wonder what the Bucs would want to flip him to Philly for a couple of weeks. He certainly can't figure in their plans for next season. So why is he in Pittsburgh?

[MG]

Herndon hasn't been bad but he hasn't been anything more than mediocre. His principal value is as a cheap alternative/depth guy next year at Lehigh Valley.

He's a mopup guy and Cholly has used him accordingly.

[GBrettfan]

CO playing SD, was 5-4 SD when I checked a few minutes ago.

[Old Phan]

And he gives up the game winning hit.

[BloodStripes]

CHoP lost it. Spewing.

[aksmith]

Well, so much for Chopper.

[MG]

Nats have quit on Riggleman and on this season.

Bad news for the Phils - they play the Braves the next 2 days.

Good news for the Phils - Phils get to play them 6 more times this year.

[CJ]

SD was up 5-0... another Rockies comeback. I think they stole the Braves mojo.

[aksmith]

Don't want to face the Giants or the Rocks in the playoffs. The Giants because they can really pitch. The Rockies because I hate snow baseball and that pinball game of a stadium.

[st]

i guarantee we'll face one of them. so be ready

[GBrettfan]

I saw an article today called "5 Reasons The Phils Don't Want To Face The Padres In The Postseason."

[BloodStripes]

The Phillies can really pitch too and don't mind a bit of pinball. We have big flippers to pop any machine.

Where can we read that article GBrettfan?

[GBrettfan]

I got the title wrong, but that was the gist of it. I just read it. I'm not sure it's that solid. Here's the link:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/455553-five-reasons-a-phillies-vs-padres-matchup-would-not-go-to-the-nl-champs#page/1

[Will Schweitzer]

"I dont know, Figueroa would be nice to have. But that's me.

He'd be that legit long-man that we've lacked for much of the year (pretty much since we waivered him)"

I've beat that drum since the day he was picked up by Houston. Unfortunately, I got a bit overzealous with anti-Lidge hyperbole in the same breath.

That aside, I firmly believe that the loss of Figgy as an option has cost this team 2 - 3 games already.

[GBrettfan]

The reasons were:
5. Padres looking to bounce back from series loss v. Phils
4. Struggles of Rollins and Leadoff Uncertainty (top of order important v. Pads pitchers, it was said)
3.Phils will struggle v. Southpaw Starters (Wade LeBlanc, Clayton Richard)
2.Adrian Gonzalez and scrappy teammates
1.A cast of dominant young starting pitchers.

[BloodStripes]

Just read it GBrettfan. Who are they kidding? The Phils have a good record against them and would crush 'em in October. SD probably won't even make the playoffs.

[GBrettfan]

Yeah, someone should turn that article around and write "5 Reasons The Phils Would Beat The Padres In The Postseason." Any takers?

[Fatalotti]

All articles should read, "Why Team X Doesn't want to play the Phillies in the Playoffs"

[CJ]

Will Schweitzer: "I firmly believe that the loss of Figgy as an option has cost this team 2 - 3 games already."

What a enormously stupid statement.

You're hard-pressed to find 2 or 3 games total in which a long man would have been needed since Figueroa's last appearance with the Phils... let alone 2 or 3 games in which his appearance would have kept the game close enough for the Phils to come back and win.

Just a stupid, stupid statement.

[CJ]

Yo, new thread.