Phillies Nation

Thats a very good point. Just a lot of bad breaks, bad calls, bad luck. Too many mistakes, bottom line…

I disagree with you on Myers.
4 runs scored, but 3 earned runs in 7 innings, that is a quality start.

Werth error led to a run in the first inning…
3 runs scored on ground outs (one being that safety squeeze)

He kept the ball in the yard, I don’t believe he even gave up an extra base hit.

He pitched well enough to win….more than well enough to win.

to keep the Rays to 4 runs in their home field with that lineup, that is a solid outing. He isn’t Cole Hamels…but tonight he pitched well enough to win.

So I don’t blame him one bit…

I blame Jimmy, Ryan and Pat.

when Carlos Ruiz leads off 2 different innings with a double, and scores 1 run…on an error by Werth, thats pathetic….Jimmy didn’t have one good at bat all night, looks lost, he is pressing and he isn’t doing his job.

Ryan had 2 hits tonight, but still left too many guys on base…
David Price isn’t Cy Young, and Ryan had terrible at bats against him.

Pat is lost and swinging at pitches he can’t reach.

the entire offense is in a funk…they need to wake up and hit the ball…
with Moyer on the mound in Game 3, they need to hit and score some runs….it’s as simple as that

We only have ourselves to blame for the lack of hitting/moving the runner along. This was a major problem at times this season, and unfortunately it looks like it has made a return. But, can’t dwell on it, next game Saturday night, and this time it is in our house. Come on fans, lets help rally our Phillies and welcome the Rays to a real stadium.

One other point, Kerwin Danley called about the worst game I can remember. It was like he was watching something unrelated to what was happening right in front of him.

Cholly should move Victorino back up to the #2 spot and even though Dobbs didn’t look good tonight,i say give him the start at 3rd.

positive way of looking at this…

1. i don’t think anyone out there thought this would be a sweep either way.

2. this is now a best of 5 series, and the Phils have home field advantage

3. NL rules come into play for the next 3 games.

negative way of looking at this

1. JImmy Rollins is no where to be found

2. Moyer and Blanton have been hit hard by some of these Rays

3. the offense is just pressing…they need to wake up, no pressure, just play boys.

The fans are going to be big, they need to come up big and get into Garza’s head Saturday night…

…and if the offense wants to join in and hit the ball, that’d be super

Excellent analysis of the game, Tim. Phillies beat themselves in this game; Werth’s error, lack of run production. Out of the Ray’s 4 runs, only one was produced by a hit. Except for Upton, the Phillies kept the middle of the Ray’s order shut down. All of Tampa Bay’s 7 hits were singles. Time for some serious batting practice again at Citizen’s Bank Park on Friday.

I didn’t post the past 2 nights because I’ve had friends over. I think Myers looked great tonight, honestly. Between Werth’s error and that bad call by the home plate ump/1st base ump on that strike out, Myers woulda went 7 with 2 runs, maybe even been left in for the 8th. He got a lot of ground balls and all of his hits were bloop singles. I honestly thought he looked as good as Cole tonight, but things didn’t go his way. We’ll get em in game 3. Does anyone know what happens for game 3 if it gets rained out and you have tix?

Tim,

Great job on the post. You summed up succinctly the Phils plight. I am just not as optimistic as you are about the games in Philly. I think the only way the Phils win is if they give up 3 or fewer runs. They just can’t hit, and as Kruk pointed out tonight (he tore into the Phillies, good for him) their approach was awful. No shortening up, no plan at the plate – and as you pointed out it was EVERYONE sans Ruiz.

I would like to be optimistic, but we are facing their best pitcher in Game 3, while we are throwing our worst pitcher. It’s not a favorable match-up. I will be watching and rooting (I was at Game 1 – what a moment), but I don’t have positive thoughts.

I agree about the terrible umpiring and last night Tim Welke was inconsistent with his calling balls and strikes. Different calls were given on pitches in the same place a number of times. You would think that in the World Series there would be a high quality of umpiring.

I agree with switching Victorino and Werth in the batting order. Trouble with inserting Werth between Utley and Howard would be that Werth would be hitting cleanup but might be worth a try anyway to kind of shake things up. Agree with starting Dobbs at third instead of Feliz against Garza on Saturday night. Dobbs is not as bad defensively as one might think him to be. Feliz just cannot get it done offensively with runners on base.

not much to say that hasn’t been said already….but i guess i’ll throw some of my bullet points out there as well…

1. I thought Myers, all things considered, pitched just as well as James “big game” Shields. I think the Phillies bailed him out of a lot of situations but swinging at terrible pitches.

2. I think it’s safe to say that Shane needs to move back up to the #2 spot. Someone needs to be on base for the meat of the order.

3. I haven’t heard many people talk about Burrell slumping, but he didn’t look right in games 1 or 2 either.

4. Big props to Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz. Although Feliz left a lot of men on base tonight, he did have two hard hit balls, those will eventually fall.

5. Game 3 is, in my opinion, the biggest game of this series now. If we can steal game 3 from Garza this thing is over. With rain probably postponing game 3, what say everyone to starting Hamels on Monday in game 4, allowing Myers to pitch at home for game 5, where he pitches much better. This could give us a 3-2 edge heading to tampa, or clinch the series if we can steal game 3. Also, this allows us to throw Hamels out there on short rest in game 7 if the situation presents itself. thoughts?

6. Oh, and we caught every bad break there was to catch tonight, between errors, strikeouts that turned into walks, HBP’s that weren’t called, and we still only lost by 2 on the road? We can take this series.

7. Anyone else feel the Rays crowd was not that controlling? Please phillies fans, show baseball what a REAL home field advantage is this weekend!

“I would like to be optimistic, but we are facing their best pitcher in Game 3, while we are throwing our worst pitcher.”
No way is Moyer our worst pitcher. See Eaton, Adam. Seriously, you can put a little leaguer on the mound and he wouldn’t get hit as hard as Eaton.

Hi all,

Regardless of the umpires, we are playing horrible. I am so glad we won game 1, but the offense, as Larry Anderson (LA) said on the radio, is almost pathetic. All of you make good points, and I believe we can still win in 5, because TB is not up to speed either – Lucky for us. I still say the game could have been won though, had Kerwin Danley noticed Rollins was hit by the pitch. We do not know what would have happened after the third out – and we never will…

The Phils appear to be in one of their “failure to score with runners on funks.” We’ve had Rays’ pitching on the hook numerous times and have come away empty. In game 1, they got lucky because Phils’ pitching was THAT GOOD. But, to win this series, they will have to capitalize on a far high percentage of scoring opportunities than they have thus far. With a bit of offensive elbow-room provided to this pitching staff, this series is winable.

Now it’s time to put the hammer down.
Now they get to play real baseball (national league rules)
the way baseball should be played. let’s see how the rays do with only 8 hitters. they barely did anything with 9 hitters.

bottom line is… if the phils score, they can not and will not be beat. especially by this team.

-Myers did his job, lets put in the fact that the first inning runs would’ve never happen if Werth hadn’t made that error.

-As much as we don’t want to admit it, that 6 day layoff hurt this team that played so well in the Dodger series. I believe the rust is off now and this offense is ready to explode in one of these next two games. Garza is very good but also very beatable.

-Moyer will step it up tomorrow night, he probably wants this more than anyone on this team. He will prove it….

-Twenty-six runners left on last night? Are you sure Tim?

I will take that start by Myers any night. He went out there and battled for us. Couple bloop hits, like when he sawed off Floyd, if they don’t happen it would have been a little different out there. This offense has to come alive though. the pitching is still good, just like in the regular season and the “hitting” is pissing it away. How many games did we lose this year because the offense let us down? It’s time to wake the F up and start pounding these Tampa pitchers. Thank you Hamels, Myers, and the bullpen. It’s time the offense thanks these guys too by scoring more runs.

Whatever it takes to get it done out there needs to be done.

LETS GO PHILS!!!!!!!!!!!!

RiVLez,

Who cares? I know I could care less about who is watching the game in America. It’s also going to be one of the best WS cause it’s two teams that got there the right way, without throwing $150 million to each player on their team….

Dennis you’re a moron, i’m just giving you an outside perspective on things. Did I hurt you with what I said? The Rays are really good and I don’t believe you guys give them any credit whatsoever. They play in a way tougher division, they beat the Red Sox at home. They are really good and I actually expect them to win this thing. If the Phils that’s good to, gives the NL East some respect. Next time don’t be a little kid and go right way to saying “D-Bag” you f*ckin loser.

Both teams have played pretty terrible for league champions. Wednesday night game really just came down to what team made the least amount of mistakes.

Last night was just horrible though. The Phils have always lived or died by the longball, and last night…they died.

Dennis your still a moron. Wow you are so tough, you argue online!!!! OMG please stop you are hurting me. Just STFU and stop being a little b*tch. I said I wonder if this is going to be the lowest tv rated world series and I said I think the Rays are going to win. Since when is it terrible to have your own opinion?

Aren’t you arguing online? Calling me a little b*tch, that must make you feel like a bad ass. Go have your own opinion on a Mets blog, this is Phillies Nation, a blog for Phillies fans. I’ll be at CBP tomorrow though if wanna be so tough, come on down before the game and start yapping…. In the mean time, you need to get a life and stop coming on Phillies blogs and trying to start shit, how about going out a getting a job today so my tax dollars don’t go to your welfare checks anymore.

I’m not going to even waste my time arguing with a whiney b*tch.

Hamels and Myers have both been outstanding in the WS. If they push Saturday’s game to Sunday because of rain, I’d go for Hamels pitching Game 4 and Myers Game 5. They can throw well, they can hit, too and they’ll have the crowd behind them. We should be able to win those… Moyer could still go for Game 3. If they get him early, put in Blanton.

Blanton/Moyer for Game 6 and if needed, Hamels for Game 7.

Everybody needs to freaking calm the f down. Bottomline is that we lost that game last night, we sucked at the plate in key situations and we made some costly errors. Throw in some terrible umpiring and it was a very ugly loss. Our pitching was really ok…….good enoough to win most games when we are producing. Really, if you take away Werth’s error in the first (which is really rare!) and get even just ONE hit with RISP it’s a tie game or a Phillies lead. My gut tells me that the boys are on top of all that stuff and will come out in game 3 clicking on all cylinders.

And lets’s think a minute about Garza. This guy has to wear freaking earplugs when he pitches because of the sound of the cowbells in the Trop. Are you kidding me?? What is the guy gonna do with 46,000 screaming delirious fans at CBP? My money says he’s outta there by the 3rd or 4th inning.

Let’s go boys!!!!!! Cholly…….rally the troops!!!!!!