Welcome Back

This will not be a long post; the Phillies are not worthy of much effort at the moment.  Suffice it to say the opener of a ten-game home stand was unlikely to endear the Phils to the natives.

Last night’s 10 – 3 loss to Washington had it all, virtually none of it good.  The only thing one really needs to know is that the Phillies made their very first out of the game at home plate thanks entirely to the latest indefensibly poor decision by third base coach Bill Dancy.  If nothing else is learned from this game it should be that Dancy must be replaced immediately.  What “baseball man” would take a chance sending a runner home from first base on a hit to left field on the second play of the game when he could have runners at second and third and no one out?  It doesn’t matter if the guy in left field has one arm in a sling; there is no justification unless scoring is an absolute certainty.

The rest of the game featured assorted bad plays including but not limited to:

1. Ryan Howard dropped a throw to first base.  Though it did not cost the team a run it revealed a recent tendency by the youngster to be nonchalant at times in the field.


2. David Bell hit into two double plays while Abraham Nunez sat again with a left-hander starting.  (Jason Weitzel pointed out to me during an in-game teleconference that the Phils probably wanted Bell’s defense with an alleged ground ball pitcher starting.)


3. Bobby Abreu misplayed two straight balls and did cost the team.  He looks more lumbering and helpless out there every day.


4. Cory Lidle, the aforementioned alleged ground ball pitcher, gave up a lot of long fly balls, some of which left the yard.


5. The bullpen imploded.

On the one positive note, Pat Burrell made a great throw to nail a runner at second base and hit a home run to pull the Phils to within one run at the time.

I’m done for now.  Have to watch the blood pressure.

Nice to have you back, guys.