Live Cheese, Game No. 8: Phillies vs. Mets
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Live Cheese, Game No. 8: Phillies vs. Mets
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
We're back with another edition of Live Cheese, your one-stop spot for running in-game analysis, notes, commentary, etc.
GOING DEEP: The home runs that Vance Worley allowed to David Wright and Lucas Duda marked just the second time in his young career that he allowed more than one home run in an outing. Last year, Worley surrendered only 10 home runs in 131 2/3 innings for a solid average of 0.7 per nine innings. The only other time Worley allowed more than one home run in an outing was his final start of 2011, when Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos and second baseman Danny Espinosa both took him deep.
Worley finished his second start of the 2012 season after six innings, departing with eight hits, four runs (all earned), four walks and five strikeouts. He threw 99 pitches, 57 of them for strikes. Heading into the ninth inning, he is in line for the loss (Mets 4, Phillies 0 top 9th).
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WALK-RATE: Barring one of those come-from-behind victories the Phillies are known to pull off, I think I'm going to focus my gamer on the Phillies' paltry walk rate. Heading into tonight, they had walked in just 4.8 percent of their plate appearances, the second-lowest rate in the National League. Through five innings tonight, they have no walks. While much of our focus has been dedicated to their lack of power, one of the hallmarks of the Phillies during their salad days was their ability to get on base even when they weren't hitting well. (Mets 4, Phillies 0, bot. 6th)
Below is the Phillies' walk rate since 2006, with their NL rank in parantheses. I've also included their runs per game (rank in parantheses).
| Year | BB/PA % (NL Rank) | Runs/Game (NL Rank) |
| 2012 | 4.8 (15) | 2.86 (14) |
| 2011 | 8.6 (6) | 4.40 (7) |
| 2010 | 8.9 (4) | 4.77 (2) |
| 2009 | 9.3 (8) | 5.06 (1) |
| 2008 | 9.3 (5) | 4.93 (3) |
| 2007 | 9.8 (1) | 5.51 (1) |
| 2006 | 9.6 (2) | 5.34 (1) |
MUSHED 'EM: Remember Mush from Goodfellas? Guy ever bet on something, that something was sure to fail? I guess I mushed Vance Worley, because after I hit send on the item below pimping his performance against left-handed batters, Worley went on to allow three hits and two walks in his next five plate appearances against lefties, including a two-run home run by Lucas Duda that gave the Mets a 4-0 lead. My bad. One other note: Duda was 0-for-15 on the season before the home run. (Mets 4, Phillies 0)
LOOGY? ROOGY? WOOGY? Last postseason, there was a lot of talk about whether the Phillies needed to carry a second lefty reliever on their roster. Turns out, they already had one. Check out Vance Worley's career stats against lefties heading into tonight's start against the Mets:
277 AB, 77 SO, 28 BB, .191 BAA, .265 OBPA, .300 SLGA
Worley used a wicked sinker to freeze lefties throughout his rookie season, and he shows no signs of deviating from that plan. Already he has struck out Lucas Duda and Jon Niese looking at the pitch. Worley struck out the side in the third, although two of them were of the swinging variety. (Mets 1, Phillies 0, bot. 3rd)
NEW RULE: Any base-stealer who decides that his best chance at beating out the throw from home is to turn around and go back to first shouldn't be stealing in the first place. For the second straight night, the Mets had an ROTFL base-running display. This time, it was Jason Bay, who took off from first during a Kurt Nieu-somethingorother at-bat in the second inning, but stopped halfway and headed back to first as Brian Schneider threw to second. Bay was out. (Mets 1, Phillies 0, top 3rd)
WORLEY ALLOWS HOMER (Mets 1, Phillies 0 bot. 1st): David Wright made a surprise return to the line-up today and wasted little time making his presence felt, blasting a solo home run on a first-pitch fastball that Vance Worley appeared to leave up in the zone and over the plate. Worley also allowed a solo homer in his first start of the season against the Pirates. The Phillies will once again be playing from behind.
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What is .207,.188,.125,.205, .333 (he was 1 for 3), and .133? Those are the lifetime, year-by-year batting averages of the man who professes to be a hitting guru...yes our wonderful manager who tells every newsman he meets that he knows hitting and he can teach hitting. Is it any wonder that this sinking ship didn't see the iceberg coming? Did Rube ever consider that when your team's hitting is so poor your pitching staff pitches "afraid to make a single mistake"? The games aren't fun to watch anymore unless you like cheering for strikeouts by your pitchers or the four or five, well placed ground ball hits they scratch out every night. Thanks Ruben...you knew how bad things would be but you spent the offseason loading up on a lifetime .240 hitter who hasn't hit one out of the infield yet, a beloved but on his "last stop" veteran and nothing more. Pitching will win you games but eventually it will lose you fans. Those 1-0 and 2-1 games aren't worth driving an hour for or wasting a night hoping a rally might happen. Here's a vote for Paul Holmgren for Phillies GM. Who'd a thought the Phillies leading RBI guy, tied for the lead in home runs and second in hits would be the guy who could not hit major league pitching. Galvis and Doc are the only bright spots to what might become a "cluster---k" of a season.— kokie- They suck.— bgreenage
- Mush was from A Bronx Tale...not Good Fellas— klew
- How did we get here? Is it that Amaro really sucks but was riding on Wade's and Gillick's coattails all along? Now that their players are eroding away, Amaro's are surfacing and it's not a pretty sight. Time for a new GM and maybe a new field mgr and hitting coach.— Xyzzyx
- Never gonna happen, when the mob dictates the rules of the game, its game over:-)— daystrum
- how bout a philly.com poll? (the geniuses behind this site love such mind-expanding get-the-folks-involved stuff.) pick the game when the sellout streak ends.— bubba church & granny hamner
- you mean Nix and Pierre are not great players and not the answer to the Phils woes as Amaro though they would be?! shocking... you mean Schneider with his .172 batting avg last year is not a good hitter? shocking... you mean Thome and Wigginton and Polanco and Orr, etc are usless garbage at this stage in their careers? just shocking..who would have thunk it (other than any half-brained baseball observer not a clueless rube)— warbiscuit
- We like to deride warbiscuit but he has some good points. I didn't like the bench signings as a whole and I noted that in my offseason posts. My opinion: Too much of the same thing in Wigginton, Thome and Nix. And I never wanted Schneider back. He showed nothing offensively in 2011 and we have Kratz, who has RH power and seems more than serviceable as a backup catcher. That combination -- Wigginton, Thome, Nix, Schneider is 4-for-34 at the plate in the first 8 games and three of those hits are Wigginton's. With Howard and Utley out I think the lack of bench offense so far is a glaring problem. You really only have four guys hitting consistently at all: Rollins, Pence, Ruiz, and Vic. You have a game like today where those four get three hits total and that's not enough.— s
- Great job on the walk stats. I've been pulling my hair out about this the last three years. It is unacceptable for a veteran team to be approaching hitting this way. Players, GM, manager, and ultimately ownership should be held accountable because it's a stat that is about approach, discipline, and philosophy rather than talent or luck.— jtj06
- The Mets' pitching was just outstanding these last two games. Dickie had is best knuckleball working all night. Neice was hitting both sides of the plate on the black with both his curve and fastball. You're not going to get walks against pitchers that have their best stuff working and throwing strikes. Maybe Pence could watch a few more pitches, and Mayberry might think about moving away from the plate a few inches, but overall they have gone against some great pitching.— Ron
