The Phillies lost their fourth straight game on Tuesday night, falling to the Dodgers 2-1. The loss puts the Phillies a game below .500, and the team has now fallen to five games back in the division.
- Cliff Lee just can’t catch a break this season. A week into June, the lefthander is still searching for his first win of the season.
- It seems as though the only way Lee will earn a win this year is if he starts throwing no-hitters or shutouts. The offense just refuses to score for him.
- The ace ran into trouble in the eighth inning. He was already well over 100 pitches, but Charlie Manuel opted to leave him in the game to finish what he started. Lee lost some of his effectiveness, and Juan Pierre was unable to make a critical play in the outfield on a fly ball that allowed the Dodgers to take the lead.
- The offense was just woeful.
- They managed to place just five runners in scoring position the entire game.
- Four starters (Carlos Ruiz, Placido Polanco, Juan Pierre, and Freddy Galvis) failed to get a hit, going a combined 0-11.
- This is a particularly deflating loss for the Phillies. They needed a win to stop their losing streak and keep pace with the division leaders. One of their aces came out with a dominating performance, but his teammates let him down.
Phils drop to 8-11 in Paulman’s “23 Critical Game Stretch” to determine if the Phils are good enough to repeat as NL East Champions.. I thnk we can all see, that they clearly are not.. We will look back in Spetember and October when the Phils are out of it and say the 2012 Season was lost from Sat June 2th (Hamels unable to hold lead and beat the Marlins) thru Tue June 5th when Cliff Lee pitches his heart out only to lose a 1-0 Lead in the 8th Inning.. Phils have to average 4 to 4.5 Runs a game to win and they are unable to do so which is the bottom line… A total lack of Power and a Shaky Bullpen has overshadowed the strong Starter Pitching Staff…
I have officially designated this 2012 as a failure and a miss trip to the Post-Season which should be a Federal Crime with the Starting Rotation they have on paper,but guess what, games are won on the field and Phils simply don’t have enough Talent to keep up with the better Teams in Baseball anymore regardless of their strong Starting Pitching Staff.. Sad but True
No Paul…you will…cause your the only one on this site that recognizes this as a crucial stretch .Prove me wrong ,someone..please. 23 crtical game stretch? Dude!!
paulman ate alot of crow last season after predicting phils win only 92 games, guess he finally digested it , hungry for some more
I do believe the erosion of many Phille players was going to occur last year and I was wrong, PLus the NL East was not as strong as it is now and will be over the nexty coupld of Years with teh Nats/MArlins,Braves and even the Mets have younger, more talented playerts on their Rosters while the Phils is getting older and older… Who saw Worley,Stutes,Bastardo and Mayberry have the kind of seasons that they did in 2011, no one did and now fast forward to 2012 and what are they doing that expectations are placed on them , very little, and now this Team is Average in Talent amongst Teams in the NL and the entire MLB for that matter..
I stand by my statement that this 23 Game stretch, I have been following and commenting on, was vital, for it really proves to me what kind of Team and fortitude these players really have.. (or lack of it) . All 23 Games were against Teams with Winning records and teams that are in the playoff hunt in their repsective divisions..
The Phils don’t play enough games against the Padres,Cubs,Astros to make up for lost ground, they have to beat the teams ahead of them and th reality that you leap frog 3-4 teams in your Division just doesn’t happen to often.. The Window is Closed, the Party is Over and the Phils need to rebuild with some fresh Coaches & Players in order to be able to compete with the Nats/Marlins,Braves & Mets for the next 3-4 Seasons..
How many games do you think this 2012 Phillie Team will win
I say 85 games which won’t be good enough..
They will win enough to win the division, which with the parity in it will be 86-88, you are forgetting the impact of not having your 3 and 4 hitter missing, just there presence in the line up will help this year even if they are off pace by previous years’ production, also, utley is a leader on the team, his presence will make a difference, you harp on their age, but with that age comes experience, playoff, championship experience, add their top of the rotation pitching, best in bigs, return of Halladay, utley and Howard at the propitious moment, late season will be exciting, phils win division, phils win division, phils WIN
Sounds like excuses Jake…
Nats have had more players hurt than anyone in MLB
LF Morse out until last week, 3B Zimmerman been out a lot,
Werth out for 2 months, no Closer in D Storen, no Set-up Pitcher in Lidge..Catcher Ramos out for rest of season, CF Bernardina out on DL and I don’t see them making excuses …
Met’s have had Jason Bay out all year, David Wright was out early on, No excuses from them do I hear or read about.
Braves have Chipper Jones out, PItchers T Hudson and T Hanson injured.. I don’t hear excuses from them either
GM Amaro and many Phils Fans will remain in denial and claim that Injuries to Utley/Howard were the reasons why the Phils failed to perform in 2012 even though most of us knew are should have known that Howard’s return was 50/50 Chance by July at the earliest and
that Utley again was less than 50/50 to play before June doing what’s he’s done last year (basically sit out to Spring Camp, April/May/ and come back and when it’s warm out and play 75-80 games until the Knees Swell up and Hurt until he can’t play anymore..
Bottom line, to keep counting on Utley as a legitimate #3 HItter is simply Foolish.. He will be a #6 or #7 Hitter the next 2 seasons and play about 70-80 games until his $15 Million Deal is up, Utley will not have Surgery and he absolutely won’t say boo to the media or fans and will not even tell his coaches/teammates much and he gets a pass from the Media,Fans and the Team.. …
My point, Phils/Amaro know in NOvember that Howards 2012 Season was iffy at best and that his return would be maybe July but how much could you expect from a big guy like Howard off his feet for 3-4 months
GM Amaro should have demanded from Utley by mid-January some results and a substaniated/outlined workouts to see how he knee is repsonded, not a weekly phone call/text…
Amaro “Hey Chase, How you doing, how’s the knee’s feeling”
Utley “Feel great Reuben, see you in Floida at Camp Time ”
Knowing what happened last off-season with Utley in 2011 and his continuin issues with his knees.. Amaro/team Doctors should have kept a much better eye with Utley should have demanded some independant verification that a $15 Million Employee is able to play.. id he is deemed that he cannot, then you go to Plan B or C, but to sit all off-season, then wait 3 more months and have no answer to what Utley can or cannot do is assanine
Phils a disgrace tonite..Problems:
Phils look like Iron Pigs South, AAA lineup masquerading as major leaguers.
Rollins, Pence, Victorino et al not up to it…Bullpen stink, except Paplebom.
Now, starters shaky…Amaro hands tied, too many bloated contracts.
Phils looking like .500 team…Next year, Charlie on very short leash, with Sandberg on deck.
Tonite look like same thing…Big changes coming, just a question of when.
I think it’s all over for the Phihtin’s. for 2012. When looking around the NL East, this is probably the worst Bullpwn collectively in the Division and no mater who the Starting Pitching are… 80% of the Phils games are going to come down to the final 3 Innings and this Bullpen can’t close anyone out (except for Papelbon, but they can’t get to him often enough with a lead in the 9th because of their lack of scoring and power with their offense)
Funny, I’m listening to Jody McDonald on WIP who actually knows baseball, although his head can get a little big because his dad worked in the Mets front office…Caller arguing with him, saying Phils should have spent money on Cuddayer & Ramirez instead of Rollins.
Jody getting hot, saying ‘NO’!…Saying ‘Bring up Dominic Brown, shake it up!’
Payroll just too big with deadwood…Signing Hamels will be a BIG decision.
In order to Sign Hamels, the Difficult Decisions are going to have to be made
and either Cliff Lee or Doc Halliday will have to go and my guess it will be CLiff Lee again traded by the Phils.. …
What pisses everyone off about he Hamels situation is that that should have been resolved last off-season with a long-term deal worked out instead of kicking the can down the road and piece-mailing this Roster Together.. .Now that Can has become MOuntain and Hamles Value on the free-market keeps going up and up … Phils/Amaro blew this entire fiasco concerning HAmels.. .
What Did Amaro Do off-season..