Thursday, July 07, 2011

Lousy Loss

Last night's loss to Florida never should have happened as the Phils blew 4-0 and 6-3 leads. They might have been due for a stinker but this one came courtesy of several base-running mistakes, including an uncharacteristic one by Chase Utley, and a characteristic big fat walk-off home run pitch by Danys Baez to Mike Stanton.

John Mayberry celebrated his latest return to the majors by hitting two line-drive home runs, but he also dropped a line drive in the seventh inning. Domonic Brown had an adventurous night, too, misplaying a ball in the third inning that allowed Florida to get back into the game early when two runs scored. He was also called out for missing second base, a call that is virtually never made and in this case probably should not have been upon unofficial review. Still, Brown continues to make the sort of mistakes that leave one wondering and concerned just how focused he is.

With the loss and Atanta's win, the Phils remain three games in front of the Braves. Wouldn't you know it, the schedule makers knew this would happen?! The two teams meet this weekend at the Bank. And wouldn't you know it, Charlie Manuel had this figured all along as well: he has his three aces lined up for the series?!

1 comment:

Matty said...

They're starting to match offense with pitching performance. I can see the trend developing. Pitching is great, so the offense barely scores. Offense finally scores, and the pitching collapses.

Unanswered runs. How many games have they been up 4-0 and lost?

Herndon and Baez. How many blown games before Phillies management finally unloads them? They did it to Romero, so why not these two? And no, I don't want to hear about Rule 5, or contract obligations, or anything else. Just release them, plain and simple, bite the bullet, and bring in (or up) anyone else.