Phillies and Mets Collide at Shea Stadium

To say that this upcoming series with the New York Mets at Shea Stadium is important is an understatement.  The Phillies need to win at least 2 out of 3 from the Mets to bring them within 1 game of taking over the N.L. East.  If they faulter from this they mine as well consider their reign of the Eastern Division over.  They could still be in contention with the wildcard position in which they are currently 4.5 games back from Milwaukee.  However, the Phillies sights are on the Division and taking out the Mets in probably one of the last meaningful series to take place in Shea Stadium before it’s demolition.

Friday, September 5th:

Brett Myers, RHP (8-10, 4.40)
Mike Pelfrey, RHP (13-8, 3.66)

Saturday, September 6th:

Jamie Moyer, LHP (12-7, 3.80)
Pedro Martinez, RHP (5-3, 5.07)

Sunday, September 7th:

Cole Hamels, LHP (12-8, 3.01)
Johan Santana, LHP (12-7, 2.71)

Philadelphia Phillies – Dodging The Ball

The Philadelphia Phillies are playing for a sweep tonight against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  This follows an earlier sweep of the Phillies administered by the Dodgers in the middle of August.  The Phils are currently sitting 1/2 game out of 1st behind the New York Mets.  So, with tonight’s finalization of the sweep we would have the potential to take control back of the N.L. East.

Brett Myers (4.17 ERA) is taking the mound against Chad Billingsley (3.10 ERA) in search of his 7th win.

Philadelphia Phillies – Cleaning House In The East

The Philadelphia Phillies won last night completing their sweep of the Washington Nationals.  In addition to their victory the Phightins pushed the New York Mets of of their perch that they held temporarily for the Phillies.  Kyle Kendrick pitched 6 2/3 innings while allowing only 7 hits and 2 runs while striking out 4 on his 9th win of the season.  Kendrick also hit 2 batsmen which in turn had the opposition hit Victorino and Utley.  Both benches were warned by the homeplate umpire after Colome struck Chase Utley and began to approach homeplate as though to get into an altercation with Utley.  Lannan who was the starter for the Nationals tonight was responsible for Chase Utley’s broken hand last year at Citizen Bank Park.

The Phillies offense has remained strong through the series accrueing 31 hits over 3 games.  They were once again vibrant last night with 11 hits bringing the final score to 8-4.  The longball was administered last night by Jayson Werth and Jimmy “The MVP” Rollins.  Rollins was able to take advantge of a foul tip that was not contolled by the Nationals catcher and allow Kendrick to make his way onto base due to a throwing error.  This set-up Rollins for a 2 run blast out into the left field seats.  The Phillies’ Fans were out in droves through the series cheering on their team including the bunch known as the “Flying Hawaiians” on the day Victorino hit a homerun.

The Phils are headed off to St. Louis to face off the Cardinals and add to their current 5 game win streak.  Cole “The Ace” Hamels is looking to rebound from last games 9 run disaster inning against the Braves.  Hamels (3.27 ERA) takes the mound in search of his 10 win against the former Philly Kyle Lohse (3.68 ERA).

 

Philadelphia	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Rollins, SS	4	2	2	3	1	0	1	.272
Victorino, CF	4	1	2	0	0	0	1	.289
Utley, 2B	3	1	1	0	1	1	2	.293
Howard, 1B	5	0	2	1	0	2	4	.239
Burrell, LF	3	0	1	1	2	0	2	.279
Seanez, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Durbin, C, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167
Werth, RF-LF	5	1	1	1	0	3	4	.271
Bruntlett, 3B	5	1	1	0	0	1	2	.232
Ruiz, C	4	1	1	0	0	1	1	.217
Kendrick, P	3	1	0	0	0	2	0	.125
Condrey, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Jenkins, RF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.242
Totals	36	8	11	6	4	10

image from phillies.com

Philadelphia Phillies – Stroking The Longball

     The Phillies fought back again today with the longball to win the final game of the homestand against the Atlanta Braves.  The Phils accrued 5 homeruns over 9 innings from Rollins, Victorino, Burrell, Werth and Chris Coste.  There were a total of 14 hits bringing them to their 12-10 victory and 1 game closer to sharing the lead once again with the New York Mets.  The Phillies went through 7 pitchers including Blanton, Eaton, Condrey, Romero, Seanez, Madson and Lidge due to the initial rain delay.  Blanton was once again getting roughed up early in the game and was not getting calls on his breaking stuff including his curve ball.  Brad Lidge was able to come into the game and collect his 24th consecutive save opportunity after the Braves dropped in 5 more runs in the 8th bringing the tie to within 3 runs.

    The Braves may have to concede and look into rebuilding for next year after falling behind 7.5 games in the N.L. East.  Chipper Jones believes he will be headed to the D.L. with his hamstring.  Also, Brian McCann had two collisions at the plate tonight with Utley then with Shane Victorino in which he suffered a concussion and was removed from the game.

The Phillies have tomorrow off for their travels down to D.C. to play the Washington Nationals who are currently 19 games out of first in the eastern division and on a 6 game losing streak.  Brett Myers (5.82 ERA) will take the mound in search of his 1st win since returning from the minors against the righty Collin Balester (5.75 ERA).

 

Philadelphia	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Rollins, SS	4	3	2	1	1	1	3	.271
Victorino, CF	4	2	2	4	0	0	0	.283
Utley, 2B	5	0	2	0	0	2	3	.288
Howard, 1B	5	1	2	2	0	2	1	.237
Burrell, LF	5	1	1	1	0	0	1	.277
Lidge, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Werth, RF-LF	2	2	1	2	1	0	0	.272
Bruntlett, 3B	3	0	0	0	1	2	2	.234
Coste, C	3	1	2	2	0	0	1	.291
Romero, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
d-Dobbs, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.313
Seanez, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Madson, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Jenkins, RF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.241
Blanton, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
a-Eaton, PH-P	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.179
b-Taguchi, PH	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	.233
Condrey, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
c-Ruiz, PH-C	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	.211
Totals	35	12	14	12	4	7	11

image from phillies.com

Philadelphia Phillies – MVP Attitude

     The saying lead by example does not come to mind when speaking of Jimmy Rollins recently.  Rollins was benched again today in the final series against the New York Mets.  Jimmy missed the team bus to Shea and decided to drive himself, but the traffic and lights hindered his transit.  Rollins did not make it to Shea until 1 hr prior to the game start.  He was quickly summoned to the Manager’s office and scratched off of today’s line-up.  Jimmy was replaced by the hard working Eric Bruntlett that went 3-4 with 2 doubles.  Bruntlett covered the short stop position for the reigning MVP while he was injured earlier in the year.  Other than having a rough 1st outing Bruntlett has proven himself worthy to fill the shoes of some of the most difficult positions on the field.

     Rollins is not new to contraversy when he was benched on June 5th by Charlie Manuel for failure to run out a routine fly ball that dropped.  Jimmy was also questioned recently about his strolling run into 3rd base that may have resulted in a run scoring if he would have given Steve Smith (3rd Base Coach) some hustle.  This is another report that Jimmy see differently than the coaching and managing staff.

     I’m not sure what city Jimmy thinks that he is playing for, but he has been highly disappointing this year with his lack of production and more importantly his “MVP” attitude.

Philadelphia Phillies – Fight For Survival

 

    The Philadelphia Phillies square off tomorrow against their biggest division rival the New York Mets.  The Phillies have the newly aquired right hander Joe Blanton (4.96 ERA) taking the mound against the Mets’ ace Johann Santana (3.10 ERA) .  Blanton has yet to give up a run in 15 career innings against the Mets organization.  On Wednesday opening day starter Brett Myers (5.84 ERA) will make his return back to the Phillies after his 4 minor league starts in Lehigh Valley, Reading and Clearwater against John Maine (4.22 ERA).  Myers was sent to down to help regain confidence in his fastball and reacquire his swagger in which he believes he has accomplished.  There is probably no other team that will test Myer’s resolve better than the Mets.  He is already setting the stage telling the reporters that he does not like the Mets so, be prepared for a battle.  Jamie Moyer (3.90 ERA) will finish off the 3 game series at Shea looking for double digits in his win column against Oliver Perez (4.36 ERA) which has had some shaky outings.  The Phillies need to regroup offensively and get back to basics by getting on base and manufacturing runs by moving the  runners into scoring position via sac bunts, flys or stealing bases.  They need to win 2 out of 3 in every series in the 2nd half of the season to be in contention for the post season.  I would not rely of the wild card with as well as the central division is currently playing.  Go Phightins !!

Philadelphia Phillies – July 6th Mets Game Pics

I just wanted to share some pics of my Dad and I attending the July 6th game of the Phillies vs Mets.  The game was awesome until the 8th inning when the thunder showers started causing 2.5 hr rain delay.