What's colder than cold? Not the Braves. . .
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What's colder than cold? Not the Braves. . .
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
It has been five years since the Braves were in first place in the National League East this late into the season. That was the year they won their 14th and final consecutive division title, the end of an era of phenomenal pitching talent (Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine) and home-grown position players (Rafael Fucal, Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones).
But beware - the feeling here in Atlanta is that those days might soon start again.
"There was a real confidence in the Atlanta clubhouse before turning to a series against the Philadelphia Phillies," Braves beat writer David O'Brien writes in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "There was a swagger based not on where the Braves once were, but where they are."
Atlanta is coming off a three-game sweep of the Pirates, a team that more than a week ago kicked off this recent run of putrid offense by the Phillies by holding them to one run in the final game of a two-game series at Citizens Bank Park.
The Braves have won 10 of their last 12 and enter today's Memorial Day match-up, which pits righthander Tommy Hanson against righthander Joe Blanton, a half game behind the Phillies in the National League East.
Yunel Escobar, who has hurt the Phillies in the past, is starting to hit. Rookie out fielder Jason Heyward sealed yesterday's win with a two-run triple in the eighth. Troy Glaus has hit five home runs in May and leads the NL with 25 RBI in the month.
The feeling inside the Phillies clubhouse is that their recent run of offensive impotence is bound to lift. But as bad as the club's offense has been at times over the last few seasons, it has never been this bad.
They haven't reached double-digits in hits in any of their last 12 games, their longest stretch since April of 2000 and one that has been equalled only seven times since 1980. Only the Mets (16 games) and Braves (13) have gone longer stretches without reaching 10 hits this season.
The Phillies have gone eight straight games with fewer than four runs, tied with the Mariners for the longest in the majors this season, and their longest stretch since 1997, when they went 11 games.
Most noticable has been the absence of power.
They have not hit a home run in six games, their longest drought since 1999, when they went homerless for seven games in July and six games in September (the longest in the majors this season is nine games by the Cardinals).
If you are looking for historical precedents, the one set by the Phillies is actually favorable -- that was the last time they were shut-out three times in a row, which occurred during a stretch of 14 straight games in which they managed fewer than 10 hits.
They went to the World Series that year. Of course, they went on to lose, and finished the regular season hitting just .249.
They also played in a weak division that year, their 90 wins good enough to finish the regular season with a six-game lead over the second-place Pirates.
The difference this time around is that the NL East is the most competitive division in the league, with five teams separated by no more than four games.
By no means are these dire straits. Last Memorial Day, the Phillies led the NL East by just a half a game, and they had yet to endure their worst stretch of the season, a June run in which they lost 15 of their 26 games.
The Phillies have earned the benefit of the doubt. The last two years, they have endured similar struggles at the plate. However long this run continues -- and it has continued in the past for longer than 10 days -- they have shown that it will end some day.
At the beginning of the year, there was significant hope that this year would be different, that the addition of Placido Polanco and the emergence of Jayson Werth and the return of a healthy and productive Jimmy Rollins would allow them to put together six months of quality offensive baseball.
That hope could still be fulfilled, provided Rollins returns from the disabled list next week and Polanco shakes the elbow soreness that has plagued him since he was hit with a pitch during the Phillies' most recent series in Atlanta.
In the mean time, the Braves are both hot and confident, a bad combination given the current state of the Phillies' line-up.
Victorino is our only small ball player, he needs to try and steal EVERY time he gets on base. If he scores a couple of runs, the rest of the team will feel less pressure and start hitting. He is the key. Trying to hit and run when anyone else reaches base would also be a good idea.— foreclosure11- Werth's funk seems caused by his 500 foot home run he hit last week. Trying to hit one 600 feet I guess.— bobcitydoc
- beegal99-- I disagree. If you look at the Phil's stats over the past 2 weeks, "runners left on base" is pathetic. They are not hitting at all, whether there are men on base or not. I said it before, what this team needs is to show a little emotion. You can throw your bat and slam down your batting helmet all you want. That don't mean squat. This team needs a good old-fashion bench-clearing brawl complete with throwing punches, bloody noses and a couple of black eyes. They need to show a little intestinal fortitude and act like they at least care.— phillyjim7
- Poorly written article. Apparently the Phils won 90 games and lost the World Series in 1999, finishing 6 games ahead of the Pirates, a team that has not finished over .500 since 1992. And "Fucal"?— NJtoTX
- You "Leave-in-the-seventh-inning" fans are idiots. They just take 2 out of three from the Marlins on the road and you dopes (only word that fits you) are whining. They're in 1st however they will still lose games, they'll slump - the Atlanta Chokin' Dogs weren't hitting a lick for so long - check their attendance figures that were even lower than the normal pathetic Atlanta fans standards. So get a life an stop making the rest of us real Phightins' fans look bad to the rest of the country.— Phillyexp
- It starts with the manager , what was he saving Ross Gload for yesterday? Dobbs is hitting .093 and should be designated for assignment or agree to go to the minors.In the 9th inning why not pinch hit for Werth he has looked lost for days. Ibanaz what can you say just not a good pinch hitter , manager to loyal to ice cold players.— Parman
foreclosure11 takes a nice positive tack, and suggests something that is workable. Hit-and-run is a good way to get slumping hitters going, and even with Polanco out, guys like Valdez, Castro, Ruiz and even Werth, who knows how to go the opposite way, can execute the play. Also Utley.- From the beginning of the season, we heard from baseball writers/talking heads that Atlanta was going to give the Phils a run in the NL East. What was surprising to me was a very rough stretch that Atlanta ran into, ending about 2 weeks ago. At the point, if I remember correctly, they were last-- about 6 or 7 games out and had lost 7 or 8 straight games. Now, they are 1/2 game behind the Phils. Let's hope the Phils "right the ship" and the batting order start earning their salaries.— pajamas
- Do any of the other teams have players that get into a hitting slump all at the same time as the Phils seem to do? This is maddening! Has to stop, like today!!!— DJ
- The photo of Jason Werth shows a batter who is out of sync. His head flies out, his weight is poorly distributed and his hands are too high. All of these add up to a big hole in his swing. I am sure Charlie Manuel, the hitting guru is aware of these faults. Unfortunately, others of the reliable hitters are going bad at the same time which adds up to a dearth of run production. How to fix this? Watch videos of your performance when it was right to form a mental image, wiggle in the batter's box to get loose and focus on the pitch, make it come to you, don't chase it. Sounds easy, doesn't it? It ain't...— hr4phils
- I understand everybody's concerns, but I don't think it's as bad as you make it sound. If the hitters are going to go through slumps, I'd rather they do it all at the same time and do it now, 1st half of the season, and get it out of the way. Every player is going to slump to some degree, that's why a hit 3 times out of ten for a career can get you into the Hall. They will come around, I do think Utley is hurt, he's done this before where he plays through it at 75% and costs the team instead of just shutting it down and getting healthy. Howard has to be the man, and it's times like this he needs to shoulder the team and start the fire and get the team back on track.— Bleue
- Whatever they do, they got to stop grounding into double plays. Two innings, two inning-ending double plays.— Bleue
- You all can make all the excuses you want, this team flat out stinks. They get ZERO big hits and this isn't something new. Over the last 3 years, they have constantly failed to product with RISP. They lucked out in the Tampa series but it caught up to them in the Yankees series. Howard can't deliver a big hit to save his life, but hey he is on the books for another 6 years at 20+ million. Also, the Phillies decided to throw 3 years, 10 million Ibanez who has been horrible since the All-Star break of last year. And let's not forget they decided it was better to sign Blanton and trade Lee instead of just trade Blanton for anything you could get. Blanton has been shelled this year...Lastly, Manuel has no clue how to play small ball and manufacture runs.— eaglegrn21
- How can so inept an offense have looked so powerful? Stealing signs. Who knows how long that went on?— Delaware Jim
- This city is in a death spiral right now. Maybe we've had all the good fortune we're going to have.— klew
