Phloggery
I'm a little afraid to take a spin through the Phillies bloggers' phlagellation this morning, but it's my job, so here goes ...
Shallow Center starts it off:
Remember all of that nonchalance from yesterday? That talk of taking a Zen approach to losing? Yeah, well, today, not so much. The Phillies' last two games, during the most important stretch this team has played in years, have seen them revert back to some of their most crushing bad habits: Tightening up at the plate when runners are on base. The bullpen's blowing a late lead or allowing a damaging insurance run. Sloppy fielding. And, perhaps the most ominous sign, bad luck, evidenced last night by Chase Utley's foul-pole homer that wasn't. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are riding Nomar Garciaparra's surge to stay in the race. I fear the baseball gods sensed overconfidence in Philadelphia and decided to smite us. Forget about Zen; pass the antacid.
Michael Berquist titles his post in A Citizens Blog ominously enough -- "Black Tuesday." He questions the ump's call on Utley's near-homer, laments the stranding of 10 base runners and criticizes the decision to send Michael Bourn to second with hot-hitting Chris Coste at the plate in the 8th (Bourn was out, inning over. Coste led off the 9th with a double that likely would have scored Bourn).
Then Berquist looks ahead, optimist that he is, and sizes up the last five games for the Dodgers, a game ahead of the Phils in the Wild Card hunt. L.A. plays the Rockies again tonight and tomorrow night, then meet their archrivals, the Giants. After a thorough evaluation of Isolated Power, On-Base Percentage and Fielding Independent Pitching (you gotta read it to get it), he concludes:
As I look at the Dodgers right now I fear that they are clicking on all cylinders. This is a streaky team, but right now they look like they are on a hot streak rather than a cold one. With last night's loss, I think the Phillies playoff hopes are looking bleak.
Balls Sticks & Stuff goes to the dictionary to make its point, finding the third and fourth definitions of a word that comes to mind:
3 : to shorten one's grip especially on the handle of a bat -- usually used with up
4 : to lose one's composure and fail to perform effectively in a critical situation
The point: "choke" is sometimes used with "up", which is sometimes used with "chuck". Gotta love irony. This choking is making me want to upchuck.
Beerleaguer was at a loss for words. (Or didn't file.) But that didn't keep his blog/hang out from attracting 195 comments, a community live-blog/group therapy session.
A taste, from commenter Jon at 9:27 p.m., which was, I believe, seconds before Bourn overshot second base:
Can anything else go wrong in this game??
Yes.
And in I Love Misery -- and what better title for a blogger, Tacony Lou, who has a long memory for loss -- comes this bit of historical context:
And if you were a betting man, you'd have to say Cole Hamels and Jon Lieber stack up nicely against Pedro Astacio and Mike O'Connor. You'd think.
But, alas, this is the Phillies. I half expect Frank Robinson to start a beanball war just for old times' sake. He's practically out the door. He's 71. He's tired. He's never won a thing as a manager.
But worst of all, he was standing at the plate when Chico Ruiz stole home against the Phillies in the sixth inning of a game on Monday, September 21, 1964. The Reds won, 1-0. For the Phils, it was the first of ten straight losses, the beginning of the Mauch Mens' historic collapse.