The Phillies didn’t look good in a 12-0 shelacking by the Yankees. And Charlie Manuel had a lot to say about it:
“We made mistakes. We made a hell of lot of (bleeping) mistakes. Any game like that (ticks) you off. The best thing you can do is to (bleeping) get on the bus and forget about that (bleep). If I played in that (bleeping) game, I would definitely (bleeping) take inventory of myself. It was a horse(bleep) game … I’d say we hit (bleeping) rock bottom there for a while.”
Can you consider a March 16 game as one after which to “take inventory”? Certainly it’s not good when you drop a game like that, and in such a sloppy way (Ryan Howard letting a ball run by him, Jason Donald and Howard not hooking up on a tough throw, letting catchable pops drop in front of you, looking idiotic during a rundown [pictured]), but there’s still no reason to panic. It is March, there are kinks.
However, we should at least be concerned that execution isn’t so solid. We were told Howard worked hard on his defense. Really? Did he? He made a great stab on a grounder yesterday, but that grounder that escaped him was easy, too easy. And what about the outfield? Shouldn’t Geoff Jenkins and Jayson Werth make those catches? Are there small injuries hampering their abilities to play at 100 percent?
Then there’s the offense, which looked atrocious yesterday. Okay, it was Joba Chamberlain, but (again, I’m looking at Howard) no reason to never get a bat on a ball. They froze up. They looked … well … scared.
Again, it’s March and we shouldn’t be so frightened. But then again, should we?
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