Archive: October, 2008
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Good afternoon from Milwaukee.
Jimmy Rollins is scheduled to speak in an hour or so. We'll have complete coverage here on High Cheese and Philly.com We don't have a newspaper tomorrow, so we'll try to do a lot of stuff for the web today. Keep checking back throughout the afternoon evening.
1. Might the middle of the line-up come up big?
Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Pat Burrell have combined for just one hit in 17 at-bats during this series. But all three players have had tremendous success off of Brewers righthander Dave Bush. Ryan Howard is 5-for-14 with two home runs and four RBIs, Pat Burrell is 5-for-13 with three home runs and five RBIs, and Chase Utley is 4-for-9 with a solo home run.
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Before tonight, the last time Shane Victorino had batted No. 2 in the line-up was Sept. 8th in a game against the Florida Marlins. Since then, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel had used a combination of Jayson Werth and Chase Utley in the two-hole.
But tonight, in the second game of the National League Divisional Series, Manuel changed things around. He hit Werth sixth. He hit Victorino second. When explaining the move prior to the game, he said he liked Victorino against a power lefty like C.C. Sabathia. He pointed to a game in July when Victorino hit two home runs off of Arizona's Randy Johnson and said he thought Victorino might have similar potential tonight.
"Lefthanders that throw hard, especially if Victorino makes them bring the ball down, he can have strong games at times," Manuel said. "If you remember, Randy Johnson, he hit two home runs off of Johnson on balls that were low. He's hit three or four off of some lefties, especially that throw the ball hard down."
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Just got back from a press conference featuring Pat Burrell and Charlie Manuel. The big news regarding Burrell is that there is no news. His back came out of yesterday's game fine. Burrell said he never thought he'd miss the NLDS opener, despite Manuel's admission that he was concerned enough to have two line-ups drawn up in case Burrell couldn't go.
"The truth is, I wouldn't have taken the field if I thought in any way I would jeopardize the team and the position we are in," Burrell said, "because ultimately that is the most important thing. Do I want to play? Of course, especially now going through the whole year and everything else. But the most important thing is the team and you can't be selfish there and make something personal more important than the team."
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
In his last seven appearances dating back to the regular season, Brad Lidge has averaged 24.7 pitches per inning, including his 35-pitch effort against the Brewers yesterday.
In his first 66 appearances of the season, he averaged just under 17.5 pitches per inning.
Driving home from the ballpark, this appeared to be the focal point of most fans' concern, despite the fact that Lidge escaped a two-on, two-out jam to record his 42nd consecutive save this season.
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Cole Hamels struck out twice at the plate.
As far as smudges, that's about the extent of it. Hamels was brilliant on the mound today, and the result was the Phillies first playoff win in 15 years. The Phillies took advantage of a couple of Brewers fielding miscues to score three runs in the bottom of the third inning, then coasted to a 3-1 win.
In case you missed it, here are some key talking points for the dinner table tonight:
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
UPDATED: Pat Burrell will start and hit fifth in today's Game 1, according to the lineups just posted in the press box.
Here are the lineups:
Brewers
Mike Cameron, CF
Bill Hall, 3B
Ryan Braun, LF
Prince Fielder, 1B
J.J. Hardy, SS
Corey Hart, RF
Rickie Weeks, 2B
Jason Kendall, C
Yovani Gallardo, RHP
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
If you are like most people, you have already watched four grandmothers die, suffered three cases of walking pneumonia, had both your spleen and your appendix removed, totalled two different cars, and gotten hijacked on a dark Bucks County road by a single mother who missed her SEPTA bus and needed to pick up her kids from day care, so really, what were you going to do, call the cops and report the poor lady?
In other words: You need an excuse.
