Pitching match-ups for the rest of the season
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Pitching match-ups for the rest of the season
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
The air conditioner is off and the windows are open and I'm no longer walking off the golf course with a case of heat stroke to go with my 115, which can only mean one thing: the Phillies are about to make their annual run to NL East title.
With a 79-60 record and 23 games left to play, they are only one game behind their pace from a year ago, when they were 80-59. And they are actually three games ahead of where they were in 2008, when they were 76-63.
The difference, of course, is that last year they were six games ahead of the Marlins in the NL East. This year, they are a half game behind the Braves. Last year at this time, there were only four National League teams within five games of a playoff spot -- the Dodgers, Cardinals, Rockies and Phillies, all of whom made the playoffs. This year, there are six such teams, five of whom are within 1.5 games of a playoff spot.
So things are a bit more convoluted this season. Personally, the Giants are the team that would scare me most if I were the Phillies. The Phils rarely hit at AT and T Park, and in their last 13 games against the Phils, Giants starters have a 2.14 ERA. Otherwise, the Phillies' pitching staff should give them a decided advantage against teams like the Reds, Padres and Rockies.
As we said, though things are convoluted. They could easily draw the Giants in the first round, and the Braves in the NLCS.
Plus, there is that little matter of getting to the playoffs.
What you are about to read could amount to a huge waste of time since there are so many variables that can affect each team's pitching rotation. But as of right now, these are the pitching match-ups the Phillies will face in their final 23 games.
Games 142-144 at Mets (6-6 against NYM this season)
Sept. 10 - RHP Roy Halladay at RHP Jenrry Mejia
Sept. 11 - RHP Kyle Kendrick at LHP Jon Niese
Sept. 12 - RHP Roy Oswalt at RHP Mike Pelfrey
Notes: These probables could change depending on how the Mets proceed with lefty Johan Santana, who is missing a start tonight after shoulder soreness. The Mets could theoretically bump Niese and Pelfrey up a day and start Santana on Sept. 12 in the series finale. Take away the Phillies' 10-run explosion against Santana on May 2 and Mets starters have posted a 2.08 ERA against them in 11 other starts. . .Niese has held the Phils to two runs on eight hits in 14 innings of two starts. . .In their last two starts against Pelfrey, the Phils have scored three runs in 14 innings. In the other, back on May 1, they scored six runs in four innings.
Games 145-47 at Florida (8-5 against Marlins)
Sept. 13 - RHP Joe Blanton at RHP Chris Volstad
Sept. 14 - LHP Cole Hamels at LHP Andrew Miller
Sept. 15 - RHP Roy Halladay at RHP Josh Johnson
Notes: If the Phillies are to continue this run they've been on, they need to hit pitchers like Volstad and Miller. Volstad starts against Blanton tonight. Miller last faced the Phils on July 19, 2007, allowing four runs in 2.2 innings of a 5-0 loss. But he has the potential to give them trouble. In 2008, he held them to one run on four hits in seven innings. Three other starts against the Phils have been a mixed bag. The Johnson-Halladay match-up speaks for itself.
Games 148-50 vs. Washington (7-5 against Nationals)
Sept. 17 - RHP Roy Oswalt vs. RHP Jason Marquis
Sept. 18 - RHP Kyle Kendrick vs. RHP Jordan Zimmermann
Sept. 19 - RHP Joe Blanton vs. RHP Yunesky Maya
Notes: This is the type of series where a hot Phillies offense would help immensely. They'd had good success against Marquis until Aug. 20, when the righty held them to one run in five innings of a 1-0 Nationals win. Zimmermann is a talented young arm, but he has made just three starts since returning from surgery. Still, he struck out nine Marlins and allowed one hit in six scoreless innings on Aug. 31. Maya is a Cuban who signed with the Nats this summer and is scheduled to make his debut tonight.
Games 151-53 vs. Atlanta (5-7 against Braves)
Sept. 20 - LHP Cole Hamels vs. RHP Jair Jurrjens
Sept. 21 - RHP Roy Halladay vs. LHP Mike Minor
Sept. 22 - RHP Roy Oswalt vs. RHP Tim Hudson or RHP Tommy Hanson
Notes: The way I have it figured out, the Braves need to decide whether to pitch Hudson or Hanson against the Phillies. The way it sets up, at least on my spreadsheet, only one of them will be able to pitch in each of the two series between the two teams. The Braves can use an off day on Sept. 16 to pitch Hudson on normal rest and give Hanson an extra day, which would line Hudson up to face the Phillies in the final game of both series. Assuming the Phillies do not make any changes to the order of their rotation, which they shouldn't, all three of their aces will pitch in this series.
Games 154-56 vs. Mets
Sept. 24 - RHP Joe Blanton vs. RHP Mike Pelfrey
Sept. 25 - LHP Cole Hamels vs. LHP Johan Santana
Sept. 26 - RHP Roy Halladay vs. RHP R.A. Dickey
Notes: Again, a lot depends on how the Mets use Santana. This could end up being a tricky series. Dickey has shut them down twice this season, once in six scoreless innings and once in nine scoreless innings. In his other start against the Phils, he allowed six runs in three innings.
Games 157-59 at Nationals
Sept. 27 - RHP Roy Oswalt at RHP Jason Marquis
Sept. 28 - RHP Kyle Kendrick at RHP Jordan Zimmermann
Sept. 29 - RHP Joe Blanton at RHP Yunesky Maya
Notes: See previous series.
Games 160-162 at Braves
Oct. 1 - LHP Cole Hamels at RHP Derek Lowe
Oct. 2 - RHP Roy Halladay at RHP Jair Jurrjens
Oct. 3 - RHP Roy Oswalt at RHP Tim Hudson or Tommy Hanson
Notes: Jurrjens has dominated the Phillies in his career, allowing just 17 earned runs in 59.2 innings over nine starts. He held them to three runs on two hits in six innings back on July 6 when he was just returning from a two-month stay on the DL. Last season, he held them to four earned runs in 26.2 innings. . .Lowe has held them to three earned runs in 15 innings over his last two starts. . .Hudson has faced the Phillies twice this season, allowing two earned runs in six innings both times. Over the last three seasons, he's held the Phils to 8 earned runs in 26.2 innings. . .Hanson has held the Phils to three earned runs in 11.1 innings over two starts this season.
Cliff, the Phillies are playing okay, at times, but they are maddeningly inconsistent. At times, and other than for defense and pitching, they do not play at all like champions. They lost four straight to Houston then, due to pitching, they swept the Padres. The inconsistency goes back to the batter's box. Their power numbers are down. The batting averages are down. The run production is down. The shutouts against them are up. The one-hitters against them are up. The Phillies clawed their way back from 7 games down by hitting and pitching well when Utley and Howard and Rollins were on the DL. Howard sees very few fastballs in the zone, and waves weakly at breaking balls early in the count (hoping to do what I don't know) as you yourself noted. He hasn't made teams pay for their ridiculous defensive shifts. Ruiz may be the team MVP of the season. I am grateful for ownership's dedication to producing a winner. But, I am not blinded by the players' shortcomings. Milt Thompson, apparently, wasn't the problem. They are still getting one-hit by rookies. Rather than just say everything will be fine, as it well may be in the end, the players are wasting at-bats, swinging for the fences (check out the pop ups), failing with RISP, getting picked off second on intentional walks, muffing ground balls at first, using profanity at umps and getting tossed so that a pitcher needs to play in the field and two pitchers need to hit in the lineup, etc. Amaro had to trade Lee and Happ and some nice prospects to support these guys now. Manual has to juggle the lineup to "kick-start" guys. I love the Phillies but I am not blind to their faults. Other than for Ruiz, Polanco, and Utley, they need to work harder at pitch selection and approach. If they could consistenly hit like champions, the Braves would be a distant second right now.— Scoop- Thanks Murph. I'll be there on the 22nd. Hope it is indeed Oswalt. Phils need to be 2games ahead going into Atl. the last weekend.— greenflyer
- CLIFFLEEISGONE>>>STOP WHINING! You are doing alot of whining and not making much sense. What point are you trying to make? That this is a good offensive year for the Phils! IF they didnt have the big 3 pitching so well they would be 10 games back right now. They made up of almost 7 games on the Braves with reserves playing,lol. Howard,Utley,Werth,VIctorino,and Rollins have barely made contributions,their WAR stats are that of reserves. WAR is how you determine how much a player is contributing to the team, a 6-8 is an MVP 4-6 above average starter,2-4 just a starter and 0-2 is a reserve. RIGHT NOW, for the season, RYAN HOWARD an his 125 million is contributing 1.6, which is that of a RESERVE. I mean anyone who is intellectually honest with themselves and who has actually watched the PHILS play this year knows HOWARD has barely done any CLUTCH hitting this year! 80% of the time with 2 runners on HOWARD OR WERTH is going to strike out. Just look at their numbers with RISP,Werth is something like .159 and HOWARD like .220, PATHETIC. Polanco,Ruiz,THE BIG 3 and reserves have carried this team. The big bats have done very little and hardly anything to justify their inflated salaries. Who can argue with that!!
- Do what ever it takes to miss as many Kendrick starts as possible— ak3883
- Howard was hitting close to .300 prior to his injury and was leading the league in RBIs eventhough Rollins and Utley were not getting on base in front of him. Anybody who says that Howard is a wink link is suffering from amnesia when he was carrying this team with Polanco.— Philalawyer
- Anyone else notice that the Phils seem to only have WARNING TRACK power this year. Take last nite for example,the Marlins blasted 3 bombs off OSwalt and Halladay had 4 bombs against him the other nite. Raul Ibanez hit a double off the wall that only scored one run with two runners on base. Utley hit a ball 5 feet short of being gone and Dom Brown and Dobbs both had balls that were about 5-10 feet short of being gone. Last year everything seemed to go out, case in point,look at most of Werth's doubles. About half of them hit off the top of the wall or were a few feet short of being out. Last year Werth and Ibanez both hit over 30 HR's each. The Phils as a team have been just short of HR's all year and it has really hurt their offensive production. That and the fact that Ryan Howard was a singles hitter the first half of the season and second half of the season all he can do is swing at bad pitches and strikeout. Ibanez and Werth pull the head off the ball so badly its almost comicalc. I sometimes find myself laughing aloud when Werth falls down swinging with all his might. With runners on base all your need is contact,you buffoon. And really, at the heart of that is selfish playing,because these guys are playing for power numbers,which in turn will get them a fat contract. They dont care about the two run single,they want the 5 run bomb. ITs pretty obvious,if they would just be patient at the plate as a team,they would score twice as many runs as they are scoring now. I think thats why the PHils have such good SEPT's. Because they turn off the selfish play come playoff time.
- David Murphy just seems to work harder than most other writers. His articles often provide something different compared to the usual "opinions" of other Philly writers.— hawk18
- Thanks. A good column1— moraviacats
