Archive: August, 2008
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
My sports editor dropped me an email yesterday while I was sitting in the press box at Petco Park. Attached was an image of the NL East standings clipped from the paper a week ago. It showed the Phillies two games ahead of the Mets in the division. They were coming off two wins in three games against the Pirates and were embarking on a seven-game West Coast trip.
Well, all that has changed.
As I prepare to board my flight to Philly, the Phils are two games back. They've hit under .200 for the road trip. They only managed to score six runs in a three-game series against the lowly Padres.
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
The struggling Phillies offense will receive a little bit of help Wednesday when Pedro Feliz is expected to return to the lineup. Charlie Manuel said today the veteran third baseman will make two more rehab starts -- he was 0-for-3 with a walk today for Class A Clearwater -- before rejoining the team. Feliz hasn't played since July 24.
Though Feliz’s absence may not have been as dramatic as the losses of Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino early in the season, he has played an important role both defensively and offensively this season for the Phillies. His .256 batting average and .304 on base percentage are both slightly better than his career averages, and he has hit 12 homes runs with 46 RBI while batting primarily sixth and seventh. Furthermore, his .968 fielding percentage ranks behind only St. Louis’ Troy Glaus among National League third baseman.
To fill the void, Manuel has leaned primarily on Bruntlett, who is arguably the best fielder on the bench. But while Bruntlett has made one error in 43 total chances at third this season, he has hit .130 with one RBI and two runs scored since Feliz went down.
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Last night was one of those nights that served as a microcosm for this helter-skelter season. After the game was over, it was tough to tell which element of the loss was more concerning. Kyle Kendrick allowed six runs in 3 2/3 innings, walking five in the process. In his last two starts, he hasn't gotten out of the fourth inning and has a 16.71 ERA.
But. . .
The Phillies offense once again struggled, and this time it was against a guy making his major league debut. From my perspective, Chad Reineke didn't have overpowering stuff. But the Phils scored just three runs and are now hitting .198 in their last 10 games.
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
You might think this was a boring 1-0 game in which neither team could hit. But it was fascinating to watch. Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux were drafted the same year by the Chicago Cubs. They were teammates for three seasons. But they'd only faced each other once before - last year, when the Padres crushed the Phillies and Maddux picked up the win.
Tonight, both were spectacular. Moyer pitched seven scoreless, running his streak of games allowing three or fewer runs to an amazing 13. His performance snapped a four-game losing skid and kept the Phils a game behind the Mets in the National League East.
We'll have much more on Moyer-Maddux in the paper tomorrow. . .
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Well, I don't know if anybody thought in a million years the Phillies would still be winless on their current West Coast road trip. But they are, and a faltering offense was once again the chief culprit. Ryan Howard said something interesting tonight. "I've never been a part of anything like this," he said when asked about the slump. Nobody seems to have any answers. The fact remains, this is a dangerous offense when everything is clicking. But nothing is clicking right now.
Charlie Manuel said the way the Phillies, now 64-57 and a game behind the Mets, respond will tell a lot about the team's chances from here on out. This is the first four-game sweep since the 2004 season.
“Actually, if you want to know the truth, I think it’s a good test of what our team is," Manuel said. "If you are down and you lay down and you fall out of it and you get beat, that goes to show you what kind of team you are. If you are down and come back overnight the following day and you stay in the hunt and you win, I think that tells what kind of team we are too. There's two ways to look at it. And that's kind of how I look at it. If we get down and we get down and we don't come back, we're not champions and we're not men. What the hell? That's the bottom line."
Daily News staff
Well, myself and a couple other reporters just got through with a 12-minute conversation with Jimmy Rollins in which the MVP shortstop expanded on the now infamous remarks he made on the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" on Fox Sports Net.
Essentially, his point boils down to this: Athletes are human. And even though you think they should stand there and take booing because they make a lot of money, it doesn't work that way. They hear it, and they feel it, and it can affect them negatively. He said he expects to be booed when he deserves it. But in his opinion, Philly sports fans often take it to an extreme. For example, he pointed out the fans' treatment of Tom Gordon this season, and their booing of Ryan Howard.
Here's the complete transcript in its entirety:
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
It's amazing how fast a story becomes a story. Jimmy Rollins will be back on the Best Damn Sports Show tonight to address the reaction to his comments on yesterday's show that labelled Philadelphia fans "front-runners."
Hopefully, I'll have something from Rollins himself in a few hours when he arrives at the ballpark. Frankly, I'm amazed at how much of a controversey this has become. I think Rollins may have erred in using the word "frontrunners." I don't think he meant to say that Phillies fans are bandwagon fans. I think his point was that this is a great down to be a winning athlete in, and a horrible town to be a losing one. Ryan Howard was cheered for the last three years, and he was booed this year. . .isn't that kind of what he was saying?
I know the first reaction is to become defensive when someone like Rollins holds up St. Louis as the model sports city. But I've got to be honest: from a player's perspective, it IS the model sports city. They never, ever boo, at least when I've been there. They cheer everything. It's a very happy, family atmosphere. I love Philly. But family atmosphere it ain't.
Daily News staff
Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins will try again on the "Best Damn Sports Show. Period."
Fox Sports Net announced that Rollins will return to the show tonight in an effort to follow up on the remarks he made yesterday about Philadelphia fans.
You might have heard that asked whether Philadelphia was as tough a place to play as the national media sometimes portrays, Rollins answered:
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Baseball is sometimes a hard sport with which to figure out the "why." What is easy. There are a billion different statistics that break down and quantify the "what."
But why?
"That's baseball," is what they say, and "that's baseball" is what they've been saying around here for much of the past week. There was more of it tonight. Prior to the game today, much of the talk centered around the offense, which was hitting just .216 and averaging fewer than four runs per game for the past six games. But on a night where the offense scored early, the Phillies still managed to lose. A bullpen that has been nothing short of spectacular all season gave up a lead in the eighth inning for a second straight night. Chad Durbin gave up a game-tying hit in the eighth for the second straight night, this time in the form of a two-run double to Jeff Kent. Clay Condrey gave up the game-winning home run to Nomar Garciaparra, but the game was lost well before that. The Phillies scored six runs early on three two-run home runs, but were scoreless in the final seven innings. Joe Blanton, who was dominant in his previous two starts, struggled through five innings and gave the bullpen four innings to eat.
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
You guys are probably tired of hearing me talk about how nice Los Angeles is, so I'll spare you the details (cough, cough, 80degreesnohumidityandlightbreeze, cough, cough. I arrived at Chavez Ravine ahead of schedule today, so I figured I'd comb through my inbox and share some reader email.
(Note about the infamous L.A. Traffic - it's really not all that bad during the mid day, except when you happen to be stuck for an hour on a freeway behind a four-car accident at 12:30 in the afternoon. That was me yesterday, en route to meet an old friend for lunch in downtown. Ever drive past an accident in the opposite direction and you see traffic on the other side of the barrier at a stand still, and you see fire trucks and police cars and a long line of cars after them, and you see the poor guy sitting at the front of the stand still, maybe five cars back, and think, "Man that's the unluckiest guy on the road right now. . .10 second and the accident would have happened behind him. . ."? Yeah, that was me yesterday. So I left early today and arrived early).
I'll try to do this with more regularity for the rest of the season.
