Phillies Nation

The kids were certainly alright tonight.

Led by Vance Worley’s seven shutout innings, the Phillies pulled a 1-0 win over the Marlins to start the series.

Worley struck out six and only allowed two hits and two walks. He wasn’t the only rookie to contribute in this win. The lone run came on an RBI single off the bat of Michael Martinez, which scored fellow rookie Domonic Brown. Brown went 2-3 with a walk. However, the lone run came on a very close play in which replays showed that the throw did beat him.

After Worley’s dominant performance, Michael Stutes came in and threw a shutdown eighth inning before Antonio Bastardo came in to pick up his fifth save of the game.
Aside from the rookies leading the way, the other story tonight was the Marlins and their frustrations with the umpiring crew. Emilio Bonafacio and John Buck were both thrown out of the game after voicing their opinions with Kerwin Danley and company.

Bonafacio was tossed after it appeared that he avoided the tag from Worley on a close play that probably should have been an infield single in the bottom of the fifth. Instead of first and third with two outs, the Phillies were out of a potential jam.

Later in the game, Buck was tossed for arguing balls and strikes in the eighth. The pitch was very close, but didn’t lead to any Phillies runs.
Perhaps tonight was a sign of years to come, with Worley, who in four starts since rejoining the rotation has posted a 0.72 ERA in 25 innings, Stutes, Bastardo and Brown proving to be the difference. This was the second outing in a row for Worley that the Phils wound up winning 1-0.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: IMAGES OF BASEBALL

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Graduation’s across the Philadelphia region, there is a great new gift for the Phillies fan in your family.

THE PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: Images of Baseball is the perfect gift for not only those celebrating the above mentioned holidays and accomplishments, but for you yourself. By Seamus Kearney and Dick Rosen, both members of the Connie Mack Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), this book chronicles the history of the Philadelphia Phillies with amazing pictures from cover to cover.

Check out Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com for more information on the title and some other great titles or order yours at Amazon as it is currently on sale.

Thanks to everyone who has gotten us to the Sweet 16 of the Phield. Voting for Round 3 is open now and you have until tonight at 5pm to cast your ballot. For this and future rounds, you must visit The Phield web site and cast your ballot.

Click here to vote for Phillies Nation.

Also don’t forget to vote for Jay Floyd’s PhoulBallz.com and all your other Phillies blogger friends.

Halladay tossed a game few of us have ever witnessed. Perfection. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

27 batters.

27 outs.

No runs.

No errors.

No base runners.

Perfection.

[Watch all 27 outs here]

Roy Halladay was perfect on May 29^th. Matched up against Josh Johnson, Roy Halladay threw one of baseball’s greatest games in a 1-0 win against the Marlins and vaulted himself into Philadelphia history.

Halladay’s masterpiece included 11 strikeouts,  115 pitches, and 72 for strikes. Doc was so efficient that after the first inning, Halladay only threw more than 12 pitches once more in any given inning.

The 1-0 score really makes you wonder what would have happened had Cameron Maybin not botched Chase Utley’s line drive that scored Wilson Valdez. The way Doc was dealing, he probably could have thrown another nine perfect innings.

What would have happened if Juan Castro wasn’t at third base? Would Placido Polanco been able to get to the soft hit chopper that Ronnie Paulino bounced over to end the game? That’s the thing about baseball. There are so many questions that come with such a rare occurrence.

Now for the rest of our lives, we have questions, where were you during Roy Halladay’s perfect game? When did you hear that Doc was flirting with perfection? Who were you with during this amazing night in Phillies history?

Where were you when perfection struck?

NICK: I was at Landmark in Glassboro to watch the Phillies and UFC that night. Not being a hockey fan, I had to beg the bar to put the Phillies on a small television due to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup being on.  On the smallest TV at the bar, the game was on and we took notice of what was going on after Halladay had made it through the Marlins lineup once through. By the sixth inning fans started taking note of what was happening, and by the 8^th inning half the bar had gathered around our table. A night I won’t forget.

PAT GALLEN: How incredible is technology? Myself along with my girlfriend and two other friends were racing to a bar in Fenwick Island, DE, while on vacation. We listened to Scott Franzke giving the play-by-play on my iPhone using the MLB At Bat app, praying that the signal wouldn’t be lost in the car. We came to a stoplight just in front of the bar (which is a Philly bar, by the way – it’s owned by family friends and it’s called Slainte, look it up!) when the final pitch was being thrown and we went insane, high-fiving in the car.

As soon as we walked in, the place was filled to the brim with Phillies fans still going nuts; people hugging and rejoicing and giving cheers with fresh beverages. It wasn’t an ideal way to celebrate one of the finest performances ever, but it’s one of those nights you’ll never forget because of how odd the circumstances were. Me, three friends, a car, and an iPhone. All you need to listen to perfection.

MICHAEL BAUMANN: I’ll be honest: I didn’t watch it. I went to the USA-Turkey soccer game at the Linc that afternoon, and between tailgating and the game probably spent six or seven hours in the scorching heat with little to no shade and nothing to drink but cheap beer. The result? As bad a case of sunburn and dehydration as I’ve ever had. That night, I went to a friend’s house to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, and he turned off the Phillies in the third inning for the Flyers game, even though (and I swear to God this is true) I said, “But Halladay’s got a perfect game going!”

Anyway, I fell asleep on his sofa halfway through the second period and missed not only what was (I’m told) a very exciting playoff hockey game, but a historic moment the likes of which I was sure I’d never see again.

DASH TREYHORN: For most of us, we didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until the sixth inning or so. It wasn’t until he set down a solid enough lineup the second time that we thought, hey, this just might be something. And when that feeling hits you, it hits you like a sack of bricks. From the seventh inning on, I sat in front of my computer, listening to Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen, afraid to move, afraid to breathe. And when you rely on your ears for the action, the routine plays can become less routine because you can’t see the action. A grounder in the hole at short might look like an easy out on television, but it certainly doesn’t sound that way.

When MLB Network cut in during the bottom of the ninth, I actually had to force myself out of my seat in front of my computer so I could watch the game. And you have to understand, as someone who firmly believes in the ridiculous nature of baseball jinxes, that was a tough choice. But even then, I couldn’t force myself to record the final inning, because I was so freaked out that I would somehow have an impact on the outcome. It’s like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: Objects under observation will behave differently than when not under observation. I already thought that I was tempting fate by watching the final inning, but recording it, too? No way would I mess with history. I suddenly turned into a theoretical physicist.

In my baseball loving life, I’ve never actually been part of a perfect game. I’ve seen the final innings of them a lot, but I can honestly say that I’ve never watched or listened to a perfect game, soup to nuts. So it was kind of a big deal for me. It was like watching Game Five, Part B of the 2008 World Series again. It was just one game that was sort of insignificant, but at the same time, it was everything. But that’s what baseball, and the Phillies, do to us.

KIERAN: Living in Virginia Beach the only times I really get to watch the Phillies is at the bar, while they are playing the Nationals, or on the nationally televised Sunday night games. We were at a friend’s house watching Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals and had the grill on and the corn hole boards out. We were all over the place in this house; the kitchen, living room, back yard.

I remember watching the hockey game and continuously checking my phone for the Phillies score. After around the fifth inning I can remember my brother peaking his head out the window and saying ’12 more outs, sssshhhhh.’ We kept doing this for the rest of the game. The broadcast of the hockey game was actually interrupted to show the final inning of the Phillies-Marlins game. In our group of friends, my brother and I are the main baseball fans except for one Yankee kid. But when Roy Halladay got that final out, the whole place erupted. Everyone was dishing out high fives and even some hugs. People were congratulating me as if I did something. All I did was witness history. And that’s just fine with me.

The prodigal son returned.  Jon Heyman had been reporting that a mystery team had been in on Cliff Lee and it wasn’t the two horse race, between the Yankees and Rangers that many had thought it was. Some believed Heyman; others thought he was just trying to make a story out of nothing.

Then slowly news started leaking on December 13^th that perhaps the Phillies were the mystery team. Then more tweets started coming. The Phillies were the mystery team (right). Before you know it, the Delaware Valley was collectively hitting refresh on their Twitter feeds until finally the news had broke: Cliff Lee was coming back to Philadelphia.

I believe my tweet after reading the news was, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT’S THE PHILLIES!! JAAAAAAAAAAAADF!”

After that, the question became what was the deal worth, how much had the Phillies given the best pitcher on the market to build the world’s greatest starting rotation.

At first, it looked like Lee had left tons of money on a table that we are still trying to locate, however after the fine print was read, it turned out that Lee was actually going to make a little more per year in Philadelphia. The deal has a guaranteed $120 million over five years, and if Lee pitches in 200 innings in 2015, or 400 innings over the course of 2014-2015, he will earn a $27.5 million dollar option that will bring the deal to $135 million over six years.

Upon his exit when traded to Seattle, Lee was hurt and upset and for good reason. His family loved it here, the fans loved him, and most importantly he himself loved it here. Lee had told his agent this is where he wanted to be. And damn it, he is back.

We are now just weeks away from a starting rotation of reigning Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt and Joe Blanton. While Blanton certainly doesn’t fit into that group, he’s arguably the best number five in baseball.

Welcome back, Cliff.

On July 30^th, Roy Oswalt waived his no-trade clause to join forces with Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels to form H20. It was a heist that hadn’t been seen since Cliff Lee was sent to Philadelphia for a bag of baseballs the July prior.

Ruben Amaro had taken a lot of flak for trading away Lee after the 2009 season came to a close, so with a void to be filled, Amaro did all he could to make things right with the fans.

Amaro coerced Ed Wade into taking J.A. Happ, Anthony Gose and Jonathan Villar for the face of the Houston Astros. On top of that, the Astros agreed to pay $11 million of the $23 million that Oswalt will earn next season. Grand theft in its finest.

Oswalt instantly became a fan favorite in Philadelphia and for good reason. Since breaking into the big leagues in 2001, he led the NL in victories and strikeouts and was second innings pitched. The guy is a horse.

In 12 starts after joining the Phillies, Oswalt went 7-1 with a 1.74 ERA and a 0.895 WHIP. Crazy numbers, that helped earn him sixth place in Cy Young voting. Now we are just two months away from a full season of Roy Oswalt in Philadelphia, and of course he will be alongside Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, Philadelphia’s favorite son Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels.

On Saturday, Phillies Nation and a fleet of buses made the trek up the Jersey Turnpike to watch Doc operate on the New York Mets. Once again, he did not disappoint.

The weather could not have been better, as we once again helped embarrass a fellow NL East rival (after witnessing a Ryan Zimmerman walk-off on our last trip), turning a Phillies road game into a neutral playing field. That weather was perfect for a classic Phillies Nation tailgate, which much like Doc never lets you down.

The Mets don’t let you grill in their lots, but that wasn’t a problem thanks to a delivery of 200 Philly cheesesteaks from Shorty’s in Manhattan. Add in hundreds of Yuenglings, Miller Lites, and over a dozen varieties of craft beers and we were good to go. There wasn’t much missing from this glorious Saturday, except maybe a semblance of a rivalry. Brian even handed out keychains to Mets fans as a sign of goodwill…and a little pity.

In recent years, the Phillies successes coupled with the Mets failures has taken some luster off the rivalry. However, when Mets fans try to bring it, Phillies fans aren’t ones to sit on their hands and take it quietly.

During the tailgate, one Met fan was attempting to heckle a gentleman on the trip. The gentleman’s wife did not take kindly to this and you know what she did? SHE SLAPPED THE METS FAN IN THE FACE WITH A CHEESESTEAK! Stereotypical? Maybe. But think about it. A Phillies fan hit a Mets fan in the face with a cheesesteak. Classic.

Eventually we all made it into the game, and once you get passed the 652,248,117 advertisements splattered across CitiField it is actually a beautiful ballpark that more than holds its own against the newest crop of stadiums to sprout up in Major League Baseball.

On the field, Roy Halladay had his A-game going and the Mets couldn’t play defense. So after just two-and-a-half hours, we were walking out of the stadium with a 4-0 victory. Ryan Madson provided some ninth-inning drama, but just for entertainment’s sake.

Thanks to everyone who attended and for helping to make it another successful road trip for Phillies Nation. This season over 1,000 Phillies fans traveled with us on our the three trips. With two of them featuring Roy Halladay starts, you couldn’t ask for much more.

It’s no secret that it’s much easier to write a column when things aren’t going smoothly.  That being said, this column kind of writes itself.

A few weeks back, many of us looked at this past road trip as a way to put some distance between the Phillies and the competition. Sadly, it did, just not the way we figured. The Phillies now find themselves 2.5 games behind the Braves.

Where to start?

During Jimmy Rollins first absence, the rest of the lineup was hitting and the Phillies seemingly didn’t skip a beat. The second time around has not gone nearly as smooth.  Nobody is hitting. At all. In the least.

Wilson Valdez, for some ungodly reason has been hitting in the number two hole, meanwhile the team’s on base leader, Carlos Ruiz continues to hit seventh or eighth. Go figure. While it looked awful on paper, there hadn’t been a specific moment that I could point to that could really help show the general public how terrible this idea was.

Then Wednesday afternoon happened. With Jayson Werth in the leadoff hole, Charlie Manuel  kept Valdez in the two spot. Fast forward to the eigth inning. With a man on third and first base open, Bobby Cox makes the easiest move in the history of baseball, walking Werth to get to Utley. Manuel, sticking by his oldschool ways let Valdez hit for himself, keeping Shane Victorino on the bench, and thus blowing the late inning opportunity that would be the team’s last for the game.

Manuel later decided it would be a good idea to pinch hit Shane for Raul Ibanez in the ninth. I doubt there is a Phillies Nation reader who doesn’t know of my disdain for Ibanez, but seriously? Going with Valdez over Victorino, only to go with Victorino over Ibanez an inning later made zero sense.

The Valdez move isn’t the only lineup move that has led people to question the skipper.

Monday’s one-two combination of Russ Gload and Greg Dobbs was wildly laughed at by baseball experts throughout their collective websites, twitters and such. The duo combined to go 0-5, getting on base once as Dobbs walked.

The only solace for Phillies fans is that its not just the top of the lineup that isn’t hitting. However, when a team is marred in a slump like this, the in-game managing will be brought to question along with everything else. The in- game stuff has never been Manuel’s forte, but the team hasn’t been in a rut like this in years. Manuel has never had a problem reaching the team, and I’m not calling for his head by any means.

But somebody in his inner circle, has to be able to help steer Charlie in the right direction. Hitting Valdez in the two-spot just after they had decided to send him down sends question marks to the fans.

Perhaps some home cooking is what the Phils need. The friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park welcome the Phillies for seven straight this coming week.

Maybe Ryan Howard will find his power stroke that made Ruben Amaro sign him to that massive contract extension.

Maybe Chase Utley will find what many think to be one of the sweetest swings in baseball and get a multi-hit game.

Maybe Jayson Werth will get back to hitting like the guy we all so desperately  wanted the front office to lock up for years to come.

Maybe Charlie Manuel will stick with a lineup that makes sense and not lead us to question the guy who has delivered the team back-to-back pennants.

And maybe, just maybe Jimmy Rollins will return healthy sooner than later, kick some ass in the locker room, and get back to leading the team that is in such dire need of a verbal asskicking right now.

Jayson Werth put the Phillies on his back and got a little help from Raul Ibanez along the way.

Werth hit a pair of solo home runs while Ibanez added a solo shot of his own, as the Phillies came from behind to beat the Diamondbacks, 3-2.
Werth’s big shot was the game-winner in the top of the ninth inning off of Juan Gutierrez.

It had been 46 innings since the Phillies had put a ball in the seats, exactly one week dating back to Werth’s solo shot against the Marlins last Saturday; however the three solo home runs, combined with a solid night out of the bullpen propelled the Phillies to their third win in their last four games.

Making the spot start due to the injury to J.A.Happ, Nelson Figueroa took the mound and kept the Phillies in the game through five innings. His lone mistake was a two-run homer off the bat of Kelly Johnson that put the D-Backs up 2-1. All things considered, you couldn’t have asked for much more out of Figueroa as he scattered five hits, two walks and struck out four.

After Figgy’s night was over, the trio of Chad Durbin, Jose Contreras and Ryan Madson kept Arizona off the scoreboard, and struck out eight batters over the course of the final four innings.

Werth and Ibanez combined to go 4-8 with the three home runs, picking up the slack for the top of the lineup. Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard all failed to reach first base, combining to go 0-16.

One last interesting nugget from this one, the Phillies only struck out four times, but managed only six hits. Of those six hits, there were three homers and a pair of doubles. Ibanez provided the only single of the game for the Phils.

Tomorrow Kyle Kendrick will take the mound as the Phillies try to take the second series of this road trip and improve to 9-3 on the road.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one last year.

The Phillies took a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning, but a win was not in store as the bullpen wasted a great performance from the starting pitching and sent the Phillies to a heart-breaking 4-3 loss.

Kyle Kendrick pitched like somebody who had read that their job was in question. After a couple of terrible starts to start the season, Kendrick pitched 8 innings of shutout baseball that included a mere four hits and two walks to go along with a pair of strikeouts, but his night would not finish with a W.

However, Ryan Madson gave people one more thing to talk about. After recording two outs in the ninth, Madson gave up back-to-back home runs to Troy Glaus and rookie slugger, Jason Heyward that tied the game and sent it into extra innings.

With the first batter in the bottom of the 10th inning, Jose Contreras delivered a pitch on a 2-2 count that Nate McLouth dropped right into the right field seats, giving the Braves a 4-3 win, and sending the Phillies to their third straight loss.

The bullpen took the attention off of Kendrick’s great start, allowing three of the final five batters to leave the yard.

The sinker was working in Kendrick’s favor as he was able to put together 14 groundballs. None were bigger than an inning-ending double-play ball off the bat of Troy Glaus that ended the Braves lone threat in the game. With the bases loaded in the fourth, Kendrick got Glaus to send one over to Placido Polanco who quickly turned the 5-4-3 and kept the Braves off the scoreboard for the time being.

On the offensive side of the game, the Phillies bats didn’t do much, but it seemed as if they had down enough after eight innings. Chase Utley put together a 2-5 evening with a pair of RBIs and a run scored. Utley’s run came off an infield single that Ryan Howard managed to push through the infield shift as the ball went off of the glove of Troy Glaus. Polanco also managed to put together another two-hit effort as he saw his batting average rise over .400 again. The only Phillie who didn’t get a hit was Carlos Ruiz, who went 0-4.

Hopefully Roy Halladay can stop the bleeding tomorrow night as all of a sudden the Phillies have dropped three straight and four of their last five games.