Monday, August 10, 2009

Phillies Recap: Marlins-12, Phillies-3

Game Recap:
You saw what happened. The Marlins took apart a horrible looking Phillies team, completing the sweep and putting them just four games back.

What went right?

Nothing. I refuse to say anything went right yesterday.

What went wrong?

Jamie Moyer only lasted five innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on 11 hits. He walked one and struck out one.

Rodrigo Lopez probably earned himself a ticket back to the minor leagues, allowing six runs on three hits in two thirds of an inning. He also walked three batters.

Brad Lidge gave up another three runs in an inning of work on three hits.

There are way to many people that went 0-the game, so I'm not even going to get started.

Game Analysis:

A complete and utter meltdown. That's what yesterday's game was for the Phillies, and that's why I'm only writing about it right now. I had to cool down after watching that pathetic display of baseball all weekend. I'm not even going to try and break down this one game. It's really simple: the Phillies played like crap in all three games against the Marlins, and now a young team has hope that they can catch the World Champions. This is exactly what the Phillies wanted to avoid going into this series. They should have come out firing on all cylinders and closed the door on Florida. Instead, that door is not only open, but the Marlins are starting to sneak in.

If yesterday's game was supposed to be an audition for Jamie Moyer, he should look into a few other career options. While he only managed to give up three runs, he didn't make it through the sixth inning and allowed 11 hits. Yes, he was getting squeezed by the home plate ump, but good pitchers can get past that. Right now, Jamie is not a good pitcher, not by any stretch of the imagination, and I'd take Pedro freaking Martinez in there over him.

I don't have much else to add about the Shane Victorino incident that hasn't already been said, other than it was totally ridiculous for Ed Rapuano to throw Shane out while Shane is in center field. Did the ump miss that strike call? Yeah, he did, and he'd missed a few more earlier in the game that went against the Phillies, too. Was Shane frustrated? You bet he was, but throwing your arms into the air is not grounds for ejection. Rapuano overreacted, and since he's the ump, he's right by default and Shane got the boot. There's no telling how much that ended up impacting the game, but considering the Phillies gave up six runs in that same inning, with three of them coming on an error by Jayson Werth, who replaced Victorino, I'd say it was pretty big. At least Shane hit Paul Bako first before getting to Rapuano, or he'd be looking at a suspension.

Let's face it...this isn't fun baseball right now. Ever since the Cliff Lee trade, the Phils are 3-8, and two of those wins are thanks to Cliff Lee. They're not hitting well, their pitching has gone south and their defense is below average too. They have a day off today, then take on the Cubs. Hopefully, something will change.

Tomorrow, J.A. Happ (8-2, 2.74 ERA) will hopefully pull the Phillies out of this funk. He's facing off against Rich Harden (7-7, 4.41 ERA). Come on Phils, don't do this to me any more.

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