That's a Relief
Brett Myers pitched well last night against the Nationals. The Phillies badly needed to see that.
That's a Relief
Todd Zolecki
Whew.
The Phillies badly needed Brett Myers to pitch well last night against the Nationals at Nationals Park. Ruben Amaro Jr. said Monday that Myers is "going to have to perform well. We're trying to win our division, so we're going to try to put the best starters out there we can to win. We're not locking ourselves in with anything. We believe he'll stay in the rotation, but we have to keep our options open, and we will." Charlie Manuel said yesterday afternoon that "right now I feel like we've got to give Brett a few more starts to see where he's at."
Myers allowed one unearned run in seven-plus innings in a 2-1 victory over the Nationals.
It's a step in the right direction.
There's no question the Nationals are a bad team. In fact, they have the worst offense in the National League. But Myers did exactly what he is supposed to do against the worst offensive team in the National League: he dominated them and won. The Phillies hope it's something to build on before his next start Sunday against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The Phillies still believe Myers can be the No. 2 starter in their rotation to compliment Cole Hamels. Last night was an important step toward getting there, but he's not in the clear yet.
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In the Phillies Notebook: J.A. Happ is in the bulllpen (for the moment), Ron Mahay could be headed to the Phillies, Pedro Feliz is on the DL and Chase Utley's sore right hip looked OK.
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We get the question all the time: whatever happened to Julio Mateo? It appears he's been hanging out with the Fratellis, who had a nice little counterfeit operation going in Astoria, Ore.
If Myers was watching Hamels on his bullpen session, maybe he was complimenting him..."Cole, have you done something different with your hair?"— cg- If anyone would know about the differences in the two pitches and their movement it would be LA. A 2-seam should have some movement on it at the end (see Madson) and a 4-seam generally is a little faster and much straighter.— cg
- A bit off the subject...LA & Franske are terrific to listen to and have such good banter. It's a shame they can't do a few TV broadcasts along with Harry K. Myers did look much better last night. Much more in control of his pitches (except for hitting 2 batters)Once again we wait...see what he does against a better hitting team on Sunday. Truth: I agree wouldn't that be something!— KarenA
- Jeff...my question was of the highest rhetorical order in nature.....how do we NOT win this most putrid division, now that our main competitors have as many if not more problems in their starting rotatins than we do? Oh, I guess our vasunted offense could continue to stink up the place and only score 2 runs or less against these 4th, 5th, 6th starters that these teams are rolling out there.....— Mark1npt
If only LA & Franske would call the game in deference to a radio audience THAT CAN'T SEE WHAT THEY SEE as opposed to going off on their wild tangents, wouldn't that be something? ...You hit a nerve again Karen :)— RAS- bski - I didn't hear anything else on it last night, other than at the start of the game, while I was listening on the radio, LA mentioned it because he said after the last game against the Mets, Myers was explaining to him his lack of control in the first inning with the 4 seam fastball until he switched to the 2 seam. LA's question to him at that point was "why did it take you so long to switch?" But I didn't hear anything about which one he was using last night.— Gary Varsho
- ACERULI: In your assessment of Myers you specifically mentioned that he had more movement on his fastball. Could it be that he is using the 2-seamer more? Could the pitches that were wildly out of the strike zone and the ones that were mistakes in the middle of the plate been 4-seamers? Did you hear anything along these lines?......RAS & GARY: Thanks for the info. I'm just curious whether last night was just a blind squirrel finding an acorn or if Myers is truly turning himself around. If he can command his 2-seamer he may actually be able to give us something. Since we will be sending him out there every 5th day, I sure hope so.— bski
- Myers' strike to ball ration was excellent, > 2:1. He was pitching ahead of batters the enire game, a majority of first pitch strikes. He walked only one batter. It's too early to tell right now what his deal is. We'll know a little more after STL on Sunday. Certainly encouraging after last night though.— RAS
- bski, I think the blind squirrels were wearing Nats uniforms....Myers was decent but he left quite a few pitches over the heart of the plate that any other lineup would have deposited over the wall....his next start Sunday vs the Cards will be way more telling of whether or not he can be counted on down the stretch....— Mark1npt
- Is there anyone else out there that realizes that our catchers can't handle Lidge's low sliders? How many of them bounced by them last night? Will this continue if guys are on base? And why is he throwing 3 balls in the dirt after a 0-2 count? Why not just go after the guy and save your arm (like Jim Bunning said on Mike and Mike a few weeks ago)?— cg
- For everyone who is at odds with Phillies management, may I suggest you tune in to the Braves blog "Talking Chop" for some comparitives after the Teixeira trade. Then again, if you are adverse to "F" bombs and the like, maybe you shoudn't.— RAS
- Put Wheels on waivers— mick314
- I agree that Sunday will go a long way toward determining whether or not Myers has actually turned himself around. It's getting late very early for us, so let's hope he has. We don't have any margin for error now. The margin we did have was frittered away in large part by sticking with Myers and Eaton as long as we did.— bski
- Something for the rumor mill via sportsline.com:
Evidently the Phils made an inquiry ti the Padres about Greg Maddux but Maddux would not wave his no trade to Philly.
Also it has been said that Tampa has been scouting Jayson Werth.— cg - cg - Maddux said he will only allow a trade to the Dodgers.— Gary Varsho
