One Ugly Loss
Last night's 6-4 loss to the Cubs might have been the worst loss of the season.
One Ugly Loss
Todd Zolecki
Last night's 6-4 loss to the Cubs might have been the worst loss of the season:
1. It was the first game of a four-game series against a team that is terribly difficult to beat at home. The Cubs are 50-19 at Wrigley Field this season, the best home record in baseball. Getting a split at Wrigley would be considered a success this weekend, and the Phillies were six outs away from putting themselves in great position to do that.
2. The Phillies scored four runs in six innings against Cubs righthander Ryan Dempster, which is no small feat considering Dempster has been one of the best pitchers in the National League this season and one of the best pitchers in baseball since the all-star break.
3. Cole Hamels pitched beautifully through seven innings, allowing only a run and five hits in seven innings.
4. It only gets tougher from here. The Phillies have to try to beat Cubs righthander Rich Harden this afternoon. He also has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since the break.
Should Hamels have started the eighth? Last night Manuel said Hamels was "absolutely spent." Hamels left the clubhouse without comment, which led most to believe that he wanted to pitch the eighth. After all, he threw 108 pitches. He appeared to be in control.
So why pull him?
Hamels said he was done.
"Once you get to 105, 110 pitches, you're pushing the envelope, especially this late in the season," he said this morning at Wrigley Field. "Obviously, I'm leading the league in innings. My body definitely has taken a toll. If I was maybe around the 98 to 104 mark, I possibily could have gone out. But just after that last inning -- that was a 20-pitch inning, I believe -- it took a toll. I knew with my space coming up in the order, I'm 0 for 2, it's not like I'm really doing anything special. I trust the bullpen 100 percent. That's why we have the best bullpen in the National League with the best ERA. Unfortuantely, sometimes it doesn't happen. You can't put any blame on that. It's just kind of the circumstances."
So, again, physically he felt like he shouldn't have pitched the eighth?
"No," he said. "Physically, no. I don't think it would have benefited, just with that last tough inning in the seventh. I guess your energy the way it is, I know I have to put in quality inning after quality inning. If I know I'm not fresh enough to do that, why put myself in a (position) not to benefit the team and also have to look at it from the standpoint that I have another start in five days?"
Said Dubee: "He said he had enough, so what can you do? I'm not going to send a guy out there that says he's done. He said he was pretty spent. ... He was the third hitter (in the eighth). If there were two outs and nobody on, he would have gone out there. But again, he had seven quality innings and he had enough. He had enough."
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In the Phillies Notebook: J.C. Romero said he wanted to pitch in the eighth inning in Wednesday's 6-3 loss to the Mets.
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Got confirmation from a Phillies source: the Phillies have acquired Matt Stairs from the Blue Jays for a minor leaguer. That mystery man could be announced after the game, and Stairs could be in town this weekend.
Obviously, only one team from the East Division is going to make the playoffs, unless the Brewers collapse. If the Mets and Phillies finished with identical records, how do you break the tie? With a one game playoff? It doesn't make any sense to play one extra game when you can use the tiebreaker formula I explain it. Unless I am missing something.— EL Zorro- Well....The only good thing, is the bullpen wasn't QUITE as bad as last night. And the game was certainly close. GREAT base running by Chase to score his 2nd run! Looks like he's FINALLY back to the Chase Utley we all know and love.— Norma
- We have to win the last two to get some momentum back. It will be awful to waste two nice performance by our starters and lose the next two as well.— EL Zorro
- I don't get the whole "at least it was a close game" stuff or "hey, the Cubs are a good team". Moral victories will not put you in the playoffs...real victories will do that. And yes the Cubs are a good team, which is makes these last two losses even worse, because the Phils were in the drivers' seat (especially last night) and couldn't finish the job. When you go against two of the better pitchers in the league and get them out of the game and you have the lead, these are games you MUST win. What a psychological boost it would've been to beat Dempster and Harden back-to-back. Throw in the Tuesday's loss to the Mets and the Phils could've beaten Santana, Dempster, and Harden...THAT would have been a huge boost to this team, not some moral victory.— MrPhillie
- Zorro-correct, it is a playoff-that's just the way baseball does things. Personally, I like the idea of settling a playoff spot on the field, not based on what two teams did against each other in April. If baseball didn't have a playoff there would never have been the Padres-Rockies game last year, Bucky Dent's home run in Yankees/Red Sox in 1978 or Bobby Thompson's home run in 1951. In addition, what if the teams split the season series- do you really want to decide who goes to the playoffs based on winning percentage in division games?— KMG
Comment removed.- This team is awesome!!! They are going all the way fans!!!!!— Clinton, NJ
- bski, I had another paragraph full of pearls for you and I posted it 9 different times even under different browsers and it disappeared also.....you think maybe we speak the truth and ownership doesn't want the masses to be educated??????— Mark1npt
- MARK....Yeah, I think somebody doesn't like what we are saying. I tried to post my response to you a few times. I finally got tired of re-typing it and gave up. Maybe I will try it again tomorrow if I get a chance.— bski
- If you are wondering how ties are broken in baseball then maybe you should not be here. The Phils do not have enough talent. They have guys they pull out of the trash heap like Scott Eyere, Old Man Rudy, and now the one and only Matt Staires... what a joke of an organization.— Theo1980
- KMG: I understand that a one game playoff brings more excitement to the whole playoff picture. But if I am the Phillies and I have the tiebreaker advantage against the Mets, do I want to put Hamels against Santana on a Monday playoff game and then play either Tuesday or Wednesday with my #2 starter?— EL Zorro
- THE PARTY'S OVVVVVVERRRRRRRRRR.................!— jrquixote
- THE PARTY'S OVVVVVVERRRRRRRRRR.................!— jrquixote
- This season team needs an over-haul. We need more speed, young players that can in-still energy. The turtles down at the bottom of the line-up are brutal. They have a core of stars,Rollins ,Utley ,Howard. I can't see signing Burrell , Werth will give you similar numbers,more speed and better defense. They were given a shot in the arm when they got rid of Abreu. Changes the culture of the team. This Phillies team , the way it is set up now , is incapable of playing small ball. This team has been torture to watch on a daily basis, strikeouts , huge slumps, no clutch hitting whatsoever. The fan base is there. The money's there. They've been foolish in how they spend it...Starting pitching is the strongest part of this team,did you think you would ever hear that from a Phillies fan. All this being said, I'm still hoping for lightning in a bottle this year. Go Phils.......— pat h
- The pitching is fine. Rollins-Utley-Howard. If they hit, we win. If they don't, we lose. That simple my friends. By the way, Cole should grow a "set". Remember, he was ready to bail on this team a year ago.— 4 for 4 Guy
