Phillies Nation

The Phillies took Strasburg deep twice, it just wasn't enough.

There is indeed something special about these Washington Nationals. They remind me a lot of the Phillies when they finally gave into the call for the youngsters.  The Phillies fought back all night but ultimately fell short 4-3 in the 11th inning.

Strasburg’ed – Hunter Pence homered off Stephen Strasburg in the fourth inning to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.  It was the first home run given up by Strasburg since August 2010.  Carlos Ruiz, who has been on an absolute tear, also took the righty deep in the fifth inning.  Ruiz’s fifth home run of the year gave the Phillies a 3-1 lead.

KK – Kyle Kendrick, making another start in place of injured Cliff Lee, pitched very efficiently for five innings of work.  He allowed only one run on seven hits and struck out two.  The radar gun had him topping our at 94 tonight.  But then again it says Nats reliever Henry Rodriguez was hitting triple digits, so who knows.

Continue reading Free Baseball Not Friendly To Phils

Looking back at the week and I feel optimistic.  The Phillies lost two games this week but the hit and run production is on the rise.  There are still frustrations with RISP that need to be addressed but Charlie Manuel is doing his best with lineup shake-ups to right the ship.

I’ve been preaching this all season and it still holds true; it is still very early in the season.  It’s hard to take a sample of whats to come for the season.  Roy Halladay is pitching very well and Shane Victorino is producing some power at the plate.  Injuries are holding back this team, but a full squad could be back sooner than you think.

————————————

Injury Updates – The end of last week Cliff Lee went on the disabled list with a left oblique strain.  He joined Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, who both started the season on the DL.  We have been waiting what seems like forever for these two guys to get healthy and rumor is they both might be close to coming back.

Originally Lee was only expected to miss a couple starts, and is eligible to come off the DL May 4 but Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is not sure so sure about it.  According to Matt Gelb, and MRI shows a Grade 1 oblique strain which could cause the lefty to miss more starts.  Time to step it up Kyle Kendrick. Continue reading Week In Review – Still Early, Rising Stars

The Phillies couldn't figure out Matt Garza today.

When a pitcher is hot, he is hot.  We have seen time and time again  Roy Halladay go lights out on opponents.  The same thing happened today against the Phillies in the form of Matt Garza.

Garza pitched seven innings of one hit ball against a struggling Phillies offense looking to finish April above .500.  With this 5-1 loss the Phillies are 10-12 with one more game to play in the opening month.

Tough Hitting – Jimmy Rollins started the game off with a hit.  The Phillies didn’t get another base runner until the seventh (a Juan Pierre walk), and their second hit didn’t come until a Hunter Pence single in the ninth.

Ailing April – This will be the first April since 2007 the Phillies will open the season with a losing record in the opening month.  The Phillies are seventh in the NL in hitting and have the fourth best ERA.  Those numbers alone should lead to more wins. Continue reading Garza Too Much, Phils Two-Hit

Panic is setting in.  I mean, how could it not?  The Phillies are only 16 games into the season but however you look at it, .500 ball is not winning anything.  The pitching, per usual, has upheld their part of this baseball bargain but the offense has failed to cash in any of their chips this season.

Like I said it is still early, and baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint.  There is plenty of time left for the Phillies to figure this whole thing out.  And my guess is that they will.

—————————–

Offensive Woes The Phillies as a team have hit seven home runs this season.  For the month of April last season the Phillies had hit 23 homers, well off the pace of this year.   Matt Kemp of the Dodgers already has hit 8 home runs himself.  Combined with Andre Ethier, the two have 43 RBIs.  The Phillies have only managed 42 runs total this year.

At the forefront of these offensive struggles are the injuries of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.  How close are they to returning? And is the season still salvageable once they do get healthy?

Continue reading Week In Review – Panic Sets In

We will never forget. (Phillies Network)

We do this dance every year.  We have grown accustomed to routinely having the conversation that starts ‘well traditionally the Phillies always start the season slow and then make a late push.’  When does it get old?  For me, it was old in 2008.

Its been a struggle all season for the offense.  Obvious reasons are that the Phillies are missing Chase Utley and Ryan Howard deeply.  Lance Nix and Ty Wigginton are just not capable of filling the gap.  And god bless Freddy Galvis.  He is trying hard as well.

——————————

Longtime Phillie Pat Burrell announced this week that he will sign a one day contract with Phillies to retire in red pinstripes after a long and fruitful career.  His retirement will take place May 19 at CBP before the Phillies take on the Red Sox.

——————————

Continue reading Week In Review – Burrell, Fontenot, Kalas

Philadelphia Phillies (3-4) vs. New York Mets (5-2)

Vance Worley (0-0, 1.50) vs. Jonathon Niese (1-0, 4.50)

Time: 4:05 PM, Citizens Bank Park
TV: Comcast Philly
Weather: Partly Sunny, 72
Media: Twitter and Facebook

The Phillies will settle in for a mid-afternoon games trying to figure out these New York Mets.  The Mets are off to a hot start winning five of their first seven starts.

Meantime the offense will attempt to right the ship as well.  They started hitting last night, but after that they went cold.  The Phillies have had issues with stranding runners and this season is no different.

Vance Worley is on the hill today after an impressive first start allowing only one run in six innings.  Worely is still trying to shed the beginners luck tag he received after pitching so well last season.

He has faired well against the Mets in the past 3-1 over 24 innings.  He has an ERA of three while Josh Turner and Daniel Murphey have four hits apiece off the righty.

The Phillies will be up against Jonathon Niese.  In case you didn’t know, Niese has a brand new nose which was financially backed by Carlos Beltran when he was on the Mets.  Niese has an ERA just above four and four losses against the Phillies.  John Mayberry Jr., who is starting in left, has two home runs against the lefty.

Worley is 7-2 when pitching at Citizens Bank Park.

Lineup: Victorino CF, Polanco 3B, Rollins SS, Pence RF, Mayberry LF, Wigginton 1B, Galvis 2B, Schneider, C, Worley P

Your Gameday Beer – Smuttynose Summer Weizen
-In honor of Jonathon Niese’s huge nose, try something different from Smuttynose Brewery.  Light, tasty & full of character, their summer wheat ale is brewed with a combination of domestic and continental wheat and barley malts, lightly hopped & fermented with a Belgian wit yeast, resulting in a delightfully tangy & refreshing flavor.

This beer is brewed for warm weather enjoyment. Bring some to your next picnic, barbeque or Phillies game.

– By Kieran

GO PHILS!

Galvis hits his first Major League home run.

I wouldn’t even venture to say Cliff Lee had a bad night.  He had a couple bad pitches.  Lee’s final line was seven innings, five hits, four runs and seven strikeouts.  What really killed him was the two home runs he gave up.

The Phillies offense had 11 hits but stranded runners every inning.  They played catch up the entire game before finally losing 5-2 to R.A. Dickey and the New York Mets.

-Cliff Lee added two hits of his own.  He had three 2-hits games in 2011.  It was Lee’s first two hits of the season.  He had 15 hits last year; two of which left the ball park.

-Freddy Galvis hit his first major league home run tonight in the third inning of Dickey.  The rookie only has five hits on the season; two singles, two doubles and a home run.  Galvis also has the team lead with 5 RBIs.  His batting average is now above .200 (.208) for the first time this season.

Continue reading First Inning Haunts Lee, Phillies Can’t Catch Up

Philadelphia Phillies (3-3) vs. New York Mets (4-2)

Cliff Lee (0-0, 1.50) vs. R.A. Dickey (1-0, 3.00)

Time: 7:05 PM, Citizens Bank Park
TV: PHL 17, MLBN
Weather: Sunny, 66
Media: Twitter and Facebook

It’s not exactly the rivalry everyone has hoped it would be.  The Phillies have handled the Mets pretty easily in the past couple years.  The matchup tonight, however, should be an interesting one.

Cliff Lee takes the hill for his second start and should feel very comfortable against his opponent.  Last season, Lee made three starts against the Mets going 21 innings allowing only one run.  In his first start against Pittsburgh, the lefty only allowed one run and two hit.  He is the second tier in the Phillies rotation which has best ERA amongst starting pitchers.

His counterpart will be R.A. Dickey.  The only question is which one will show up.  Dickey has traditionally been spot on or he is taking his uniform off before the fifth inning.  Against the Phillies he usually steps his game up.  Last season he took a no hitter into the seventh and also threw a one hitter against the Phils back in 2010.

There aren’t really much numbers to go on for this game.  Jimmy Rollins can’t hit Dickey; he even tried switching sides.  The Mets Lucas Duda has never homered off a lefty in his career so going up against Lee could be daunting.

One key factor to this game could be the base running.  The Phillies are perfect (8 for 8) this season in steal attempts while the Mets have thrown out two of the four attempts against them.

Thinking about Harry Kalas today…..

Lineup: Victorino 8, Polanco 5, Rollins 6, Pence 9, Thome 3, Mayberry 7, Ruiz 2, Galvis 4, Lee 1

Your Gameday Beer – Yards Love Stout
Everyone’s favorite voice of the Phillies passed away today three years ago.  The love he had for the Phillies and the love we felt for him are still strong today.  This love stout is for you Harry.  Per Yards – Brewed with oysters in the kettle boil, Love Stout is a dark, chocolatey and seductive little number dominated by roasted malt flavor. Love Stout’s available draught only, so if you’re the type who goes to the bars looking for love, this is the one time you might actually get lucky. – By Kieran

GO PHILS!

Galvis will play a huge role in the Phillies success this season.

The final roster was set this week in anticipation of Opening Day this past Thursday afternoon in Pittsburgh.  The usual suspects made the team with a few name names mixed in.  Check out to see who made it and who didn’t quite make the cut.

——————————

One of the new guys on this years team is Freddy Galvis.  Galvis moved up the ranks as a speedy shortstop with a sure glove and even better arm.  When Chase Utley went down, again, during the Spring, Galvis was asked to step in and play second base.  Opening Day comes and Galvis is the first rookie since Marlon Byrd to start the season opener.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered about the young 22 year-old.  What can we expect from him?  How will switching positions affect his defense?

——————————

So while Galvis has made the jump to the Majors, an entire farm system is also readying itself for a long summer.  Clearwater, Lakewood, Reading and Lehigh Valley all have high expectations for this season.  FanGraphs put out their annual ranking of baseball organizations and you might be surprised to see where the Phillies ended up.

——————————

Continue reading Week In Review – Final Roster, Opening Day, Disappointment

Pence is congratulated after his home run. Courtesy Yahoo Sports.

Well it seemed the Phillies had finally found enough offense to get it done with some room to spare.  But the bullpen made us remember that no lead is safe.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Vance Worley came into the game trying to shed the idea of a sophomore slump.  He did just that.  Worley went six innings, struck out five and only allowed one run.  For the first three games to open the season, the starting pitchers have gone 20 innings and only allowed two earned runs.  And yet the Phillies are 1-2.

Hunter Pence once again provided the first inning RBI as he did last night and then broke a 1-1 tie with his first home run of the season.  Pence now has two of the three extra base hits for the Phillies this season.

Continue reading Phillies Head Home After Another Pirates Walk Off