Game 73: Hamels goes for 10
SEATTLE -- Cole Hamels can become the majors' leader in wins with 10 if he beats the Mariners Sunday. If the Phillies are to win, it will be using an unconventional lineup.
Game 73: Hamels goes for 10
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
SEATTLE -- Cole Hamels can become the majors' leader in wins with 10 if he beats the Mariners Sunday. If the Phillies are to win, it will be using an unconventional lineup.
Charlie Manuel will rest Placido Polanco and Domonic Brown against lefthander Jason Vargas. So Wilson Valdez and Michael Martinez both find themselves in the lineup. (Polanco is 2 for his last 20, and Brown 5 for his last 41.)
Martinez is playing in left field, where he has played for only five professional games -- all five coming in double A and triple A last season. Valdez slides in at third base.
The Father's Day lineup:
1. Jimmy Rollins 6
2. Shane Victorino 8
3. Chase Utley 4
4. Ryan Howard 3
5. Ben Francisco 9
6. Carlos Ruiz 2
7. Raul Ibanez 0
8. Wilson Valdez 5
9. Michael Martinez 7
Hamels has a 1.99 ERA this season excluding his first start of the year. In 23 June innings he has allowed two runs for a 0.78 ERA. Only three current Mariners have faced him more than five times. They are:
Miguel Olivo -- 1 for 9
Adam Kennedy -- 0 for 7
Brendan Ryan -- 0 for 8
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Charlie must be in love with Ibañez.
— EL Zorro- Hamels right now is you league MVP— littleman163
- Why didn't he rest Polanco last night against Felix? Polanco has not been himself, I wonder if he is injured.— NCNovaguy
Comment removed.- Agree 100%. Ibanez is like an old rusty anchor dragging behind this team. Kind of like how he runs. — n62
- Novaguy - obviously, he wanted to give him 2 days off consecutively.
— rockinginthefreeworld - Ibanez is going to end up batting .250 or so with 20 home runs and 80 RBIs. Not great, but not horrible. Stop complaining about him. He's going nowhere this year, but will be gone next. The Phils can live with the production he offers.— fgdavis
- @ fgdavis agreed, i'm no fan of "mr. turtle head" either, but if we had Francisco or whoever putting up 20 and 80 we would probably be happy— your_mom_says_hi!
- What a terrible line-up.— bdm155
- I hope Ibañez has 12 more homers and 42 more rbi in the next 90 games.— EL Zorro
- Hahaha, Mr. Turtle Head, brilliant. Hahaha.
— EL Zorro - Raul is actually playing pretty well right now. The whole team is. Y'all should just chill.— kdavis2172
- It doesn't matter what numbers he put. He's still the worst OF in the game. And he is one of those players that can put "good'' numbers and doens't make much difference, like Bobby Abreu. In May he batted over 300 with 7 HRs. Still the Phillies were 16-13. He can have a great game where he can go 3-5 with a pair of bombs and a 5 rbi in a blowout, but then disappear for weeks. He's not consistent and is the worst defensive player in the game. Period.— EL Zorro
- Yeah - he's the worst defensive player in the game. Absolute worst. Out of nearly 1000 MLB players, Raul Ibanez is the worst - the worst - defensive player in the entire MLB. Get a life. — jamesiri
- The sky is falling. We're only the best team baseball by a little bit... Use your heads Raul haters. Playing .600+ baseball...— phillyinATL
- Actually, I like Raul as a person. Don't hate him. Just telling the truth.— EL Zorro
- Raul needs to be in a platoon. He needs to start against right-handed pitching and then taken out after the 6th inning for defensive purposes. Against lefties, he needs to sit and only be bought in as a pinch-hitter against righties. This much is painfully obvious. Unfortunately, Charlie doesn't think logically and there is nothing any of us can do about it so we are stuck watching him fail in the OF and at 75% of his at bats. And as FGDavis points out, he will probably still hit 20 HRs with 80 RBIs with a .250 average and that isn't terrible.— ESFjellin
- Comment removed.
- I don't care what the lineup looks like this year! I love the Phillies!
What a great year so far.— bossrjc - Raul isn't the type of player that is going to get better by sitting, he needs the at-bats and he needs to get his timing down...he has been doing better as of late, said above, and the team is doing pretty well, also said above. There are a lot of cities out there right now that would mortgage the farm for the phil's rotation, the phil's record, and the phil's chances to win this year. Relax, which was also said above.— Bleue
- Mr. Turtlehead LoL. He also bears a striking resemblance to Voldemort from the Harry Potter movies. Voldemort is a better fielder, though.— filzfan
- most of the come... you sound like a slow-pitch beer drinking fat player.
— EL Zorro - Comment removed.
- Raul's OBP is under .300, the worst of the starting 8, his SLG is barely above .400 (.406) extremely weak for a corner OF, and his avg. is under .250. His defense and arm are very poor and he doesn't have speed. Is there is a minus 5-tool player, Raul is close to it. What the hell are you guys talking about? Did I mention he's making $11 millions or it is more?— EL Zorro
- That's for you Iris, I mean jamesiri. I didn't have to mention starting OF. I thought you were smart enough. But I take that into consideration next time.— EL Zorro
- These two thoughts are not mutually exclusive. Phils are doing great. The lineup today is one of the worst I can remember in Phils' history. And, at 50, I've seen some really bad ones.— TripleCap
- THe Phillies will not continue to win and stay in first place with Ibanez and Francisco as your main OF against LH pitching. Today's showing was just an example of things to come the remainder of this year unless they can get a RH bat. Just one hitter in the lineup can make a big difference. Can you imagine how this game would have been if they had Pence out there. I don't care what Ibanez hit in May or Francisco in the first two weeks of the season, they CANNOT HIT. If they stand pat at the trading deadline, Atlanta will beat them out for the East, and the wildcard is a crapshoot. Ruben get a RH OF bat in here and lets win the east.— jeff007
