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.
One giant leap for Brett Myers (against a minor league team), maybe one small step for the Phils starting rotation......the rest of the division is imploding with Pedro's father's death and John Maines rotator cuff...and Tim Hudson needing Tommy John....how do we not win this weaka$$ division?...even with the starting pitching we have?— Mark1npt- Go out and get a good bat and bring up marson in time so he can catch in the postseason.— Phillyfan28
- mark1npt: never, ever tempt the baseball G-ds by saying something is a sure thing. Take it one win at a time. Can someone please tell me why they brought up a starter 9even a good one) when they need a arm in teh pen? DOn't we have any relieves in the minors? Shouldn't we be looking at them?— jeff gross
- would love to see what marson could do with his bat, greta lift for the phils last night with myers.. we need him to win the division— pattymac3
- It would be great to get Ron Mahay, and Jason Donald is certainly expendable, but the Phillies might also consider grooming him to play left field, replacing Pat Burrell in 2009.— JayW
- His arm isn't good enough for the OF aperently.— jeff gross
- "Myers can ... compliment Cole Hamels" My, that's a fine hat you're wearing today, Cole!— PhillyCooke
- The good: Myers seemed to have more life on his fastball, better velocity, more movement than I have seen in a long time. He threw a few fastballs wildly out of the strike zone, but seemed to follow up each with a pitch right on the black, an indication that he knows what the problem is and how to fix it, he just needs to focus and consistently apply it on every single pitch. ... ... The bad: He still made a lot of mistakes in the middle of the plate, but the worst lineup in baseball did not make him pay for them. Better teams will punish those pitches. Still have to eliminate the mistakes. ... ... All in all, an encouraging performance. Always nice to go up against a horrible team when you need to rediscover the strike zone, as there is little fear of throwing strikes to those weak hitters. Need to see him carry it over into his next start, however, which will be Sunday against St. Louis, on national TV. A much more telling test.— acerulli
- The good: Myers seemed to have more life on his fastball, better velocity, more movement than I have seen in a long time. He threw a few fastballs wildly out of the strike zone, but seemed to follow up each with a pitch right on the black, an indication that he knows what the problem is and how to fix it, he just needs to focus and consistently apply it on every single pitch. ... ... The bad: He still made a lot of mistakes in the middle of the plate, but the worst lineup in baseball did not make him pay for them. Better teams will punish those pitches. Still have to eliminate the mistakes. ... ... All in all, an encouraging performance. Always nice to go up against a horrible team when you need to rediscover the strike zone, as there is little fear of throwing strikes to those weak hitters. Need to see him carry it over into his next start, however, which will be Sunday against St. Louis, on national TV. A much more telling test.— acerulli
- FYI, Todd, as you are a professional writer, you ought to know that in the context your are using it, the correct word is "compl-E-ment". Otherwise, what you are saying, as was posted earlier, is that Myers's role is to let Hamels know what a fine hat he is wearing.— acerulli
- CAN CHASE UTLEY DO IT AGAIN? CAN HE DO SOMETHING HE HASN'T DONE OVER THE LAST HALF SEASON, CAN HE GET HOT? Ryan is due for a 7-10 day hot spell soon combine this with a resurgent Chase, a steady Burrell they could create some separation!— Truth
- Did anyone listen to last night's game on the radio? If so, please help me out. I missed almost the entire game. The only part I caught was the bottom of the 7th as I was coming home from soccer practice with my son. Anyway, Larry Andersen was going into some detail about the difference between how Myers throws his 2-seam and his 4-seam fastball. From what I got, Andersen was saying that since the 4-seamer is a straight pitch, Myers feels he needs to throw it harder. That's why he is humping up, over throwing, flying open, and has no control of the pitch. Andersen said that Myers understands that in order to get his 2-seamer to move, he can't throw it as hard and that he is having more success with it. Were any of the other announcers talking about this. Did Myers actually throw more 2-seamers than 4-seamers and could that at least partially explain the success he had last night? Like I said, I only caught that one little stretch of the game, so I have no idea if his control and command actually was better.— bski
- Jeff, two things for you. You don't need a great arm to play the outfield, look at Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon and Juan Pierre. The second thing is that the Phillies did have a good left handed reliever in the minors but traded him to Oakland for Blanton. I had been saying all along that I hated to see Outman go, I would have given up Carrasco in a heartbeat instead of Outman.— cg
bski, I caught the TV broadcst only. My observation is similar to what LA reported on the radio. Myers had much better mechanics, he was not flying open, not overthrowing, and seemed to be getting good movement on his 2 seamer, especially to lefties. He did leave a couple of 4 seamers out over the plate. If he does that in STL on Sunday, they will get ripped. The TV folks made a big deal over Myers' game preparation. Apparently he spent alot of time out in the bullpen before the game doing a dry run, and also observing Hamels throwing on his off day. So maybe his work ethic is starting to improve.— RAS-
The Phillies still believe Myers can be the No. 2 starter in their rotation to compliment Cole Hamels.
I sure hope they're right but I completely fail to see any evidence to support that belief. He's been atrocious this year and just okay the rest of his career.— Jeffrey
