Utley out, Hamels in
Here’s the Phils lineup against Adam Wainwright. Notice that Chase Utley is not in it; Charlie Manuel said he was still smarting from that pitch that plunked his right foot Friday night. Utley might play tomorrow night, but the Phils will evaluate that once they arrive in New York. It is not believed to be overly serious, and no tests are scheduled. Utley wanted to play, but Manuel decided to be cautious. Cole Hamels threw in the bullpen and practiced fielding bunts. He said he felt no pain in his ankle, and will start Friday. Rollins SS Victorino CF Ibanez LF Howard 1B Werth RF Feliz RF Cairo 2B Ruiz C Myers RHP
Utley out, Hamels in
Andy Martino
Here’s the Phils lineup against Adam Wainwright. Notice that Chase Utley is not in it; Charlie Manuel said he was still smarting from that pitch that plunked his right foot Friday night. Utley might play tomorrow night, but the Phils will evaluate that once they arrive in New York. It is not believed to be overly serious, and no tests are scheduled. Utley wanted to play, but Manuel decided to be cautious.
Victorino CF
Andy, if both Werth and Feliz play RF, who's gonna play 3rd?— Erich H- Costello— Andy Martino
- Four lefties in a row followed by five righties. Not what I would call a balanced lineup. But Charlie's hunches usually pan out. The Cards won't have Ankiel; that should offset Chase's taking a day off. It's time for Myers to show us what he's got. GO PHILS!!!!!!!!!— Erich H
- Two right fielders sounds like an Albert Pujols shift to me. The only problem is the second guy would have to play on the other side of the fense!— Erich H
- I hate when Utley doesn't play but it's about time Charlie got Cairo some at-bats. He won't be any good off the bench if he never has a chance to hit.— Jeffrey
- Rollins and Victorino are switch-hitters... there are only two lefties in a row, Ibanez and Howard...— frankatlasalle
- Myers will get a quality start tonight if he avoids that clueless inning. Focus!— Baci
- No, who's on first, I don't know is on 3rd......— joeolive
- Can't see us getting much out of the bottom 1/3 of this lineup tonight. Maybe Charlie can out-LaRussa LaRussa and have Myers hit 7th.— bski
- and frankly, i don't give a darn...— vinni
- I was looking through stats tonight while putting off finals studying and found something I thought was pretty interesting. So far this year, we have 2 intentional walks, compared to the Dodgers with 17 and Mets with 14. Looking back, we finished in the top 3 in IBBs every year from 2005-2008. I realize that it's a small sample size and still early in the season but I feel like that makes a big statement as to the respect everyone has has to pay to our entire line-up. You can't walk Utley to get to Howard like in years past now that Ry-ry has his average up and Ks down...you'd be even crazier to walk Howard to get to Ibanez, and Werth and Feliz are carrying out their end of the bargain well enough. The only player struggling enough to really look for is Rollins, which doesn't really make sense with him hitting lead-off. How's that for lineup protection? Averaging 6 runs/game, more than half a run more per game than any other team in the NL...pretty scary offensive team at the moment.— Matt M.
- And even worse pitching!.....but I'm just nit-pickin'. What an exciting team.— gonegator
- Myers looked very so-so last night. Nice win over the red hot Cards. Good to see the hometown boys (Werth & Howard) have a good series. Should be an interesting game tonight w/Park vs. Santana— KarenA
- Karen, who you callin boys ??— mick314
- Interesting observation Matt M. Good analysis.— e4stringer
