The Good:
Adam Eaton: Anyone else feel like the Phillies offense is giving Eaton the finger for his awful season last year? Three straight quality starts and not a thing to show for it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you tell me before any game that he pitches that I could have Eaton toss 6 innings and give up 3 ER or just take my chances, I'll grab the quality start every time.
Pat Burrell: Maybe Manuel's starting to come around on the idea of not taking Pat out of games in the 6th inning. Slow start for Burrell last night but the end surely made up for it. That ball was a missile.
Pedro Feliz: 3 hits last night including the game winner. Yeah, he still doesn't take many pitches, but to this point, he has more hits then any Phillie other then Burrell and Utley and he's sporting a 7:1 AB to K ratio, paired with playing a dependable 3B.
The Bad:
Ryan Howard: Nice defensive play in the 9th aside, the big man is still struggling mightily at the dish. 0-3 yesterday with 2 more strikeouts, both vs fastball throwing righties, dropping his average to a hearty .180. For those keeping track at home, Howard now has 19K's and 20 total bases this season. Everyone else in the lineup, even Chris Snelling, was able to smoke the ball off Valverde. Well, almost everyone else...
Geoff Jenkins: Two days of posts, 2 days of negative Geoff comments. Not a good trend. Only Jenkers could score the winning run in the bottom of the 9th and find himself in this position of the column. 0-4, with two punch-outs. Let's review his 9th inning resume from last night. Strikes out. Gets lucky enough that catcher misses the ball and he winds up on first. Runs through
coach's stop sign (granted, I think Smith should've sent him, but if you're players aren't going to listen to your coaches, what does that say?). Gets thrown out at home plate but must have been wearing his lucky undies because apparently MLB told the umpires to give the Phils one after the bad DeRosa call from Sunday. Jenkins is a lucky man. (see picture at left for further evidence)The Batting Order: Um...Just days after I wrote off Charlie's insertion of Jenkins into the leadoff spot as a moment of lineup shuffling weakness, he plugs Carlos Ruiz in at the two hole? Do you know that if Carlos Ruiz comes up where the possibility of grounding into a double play exists, he'll do just that 1/3 of the time? Look it up. It's true. Not exactly the guy you want hitting 2nd. And yes, he bounced into a twin killing after a leadoff single late in the game yesterday. Gotta love Ruiz's speed out of the 2 hole too. I'd rather see, gulp, Bruntlett in that spot then Carlos. Or here's a crazy idea. How about moving Utley to 2nd, Burrell to 3 and then everyone else shifts up one spot. Worried about Jenkins not providing enough protection for Howard? Who cares? He's not even hitting the good pitches right now, so what's it matter. This move would not only break up Utely and Howard, thus thwarting the never-ending stream of lefties that teams roll out late in games to face these guys, but it also moves Burrell, your hottest hitter, up in the lineup.
The Hero:
Tough call here but I'm gonna go with Burrell. Feliz may have had the game winning hit, but if he makes an out, the game goes on. If Burrell made an out, they never are even in the position for Feliz to win it. Bonus points for the opposite field bomb as well.
The Goat:
Not so difficult here; Jose Valverde. Some want to blame Cecil Cooper for taking Chacon out of a game where he was tossing a shut out but the guy had thrown 109 pitches. That's a lot, especially when he had the top of the order to deal with in the ninth. Valverde simply imploded. No idea why he kept pumping fastballs in when his splitter appeared much more effective but I thank him for that decision.
The Bottom Line:
Here's an interesting stat that I dug up this morning. The Phillies have played 14 games so far this season. Only 4 times have they entered the 6th inning with more then 2 runs on the board. 5 times they have pushed into the 6th frame with a goose egg. The Phils record in those 4 games that the have recorded early inning tallies? 4-0. 3-7 in all others. Late inning rallies are exciting, but you can't keep counting on them. The offense needs to get going earlier in games. Rollins being out certainly hasn't helped matters, but we're talking 2 times through the lineup here. Everyone's at fault. Prediction for tonight: Oswalt's been bad so far this season but I think he rights the ship tonight. Nothing soothes what ails you like Kyle Kendrick as your opponent. Astros 7 Phils 3
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