The Philadelphia Phillies lost the third game of their series against Pittsburgh, taking down the Pirates 5-3 on Wednesday night. Their record drops to 9-13 on the year.
- It was third straight quality start from Roy Halladay. Halladay allowed just one run on one hit over six innings. He struck out eight and walked two. He’s benefiting greatly from his rediscovered ability to work quickly and get through innings with minimal effort.
- The offense did a decent job on lefty Wandy Rodriguez, who had allowed only five hits through his first three starts before this game. The Phils got three runs off of the Pirates’ starter.
- Chase Utley had one heck of a game tonight. Utley gave the Phillies the early lead, hitting a solo home run in the first inning. The second baseman also made an excellent defensive play, diving to stop a ball from bouncing into the outfield and completing the play at first to make an out. The former All-Star also surprised Rodriguez in the sixth with a bunt for a base hit that gave the team runners at the corners with no outs.
- Ryan Howard ended his home run drought with a solo shot. It’s just the Big Piece’s second bomb of the year. Howard hammered an 0-2 pitch into the second deck, it was the first time he’s homered with an 0-2 count since July 2008.
- Domonic Brown picked up a hit, and made a spectacular catch in the outfield.
- As a whole, the Phillies outfielders have been terrible offensively, but they’ve put together a nice collection of highlight-reel grabs early in the season. Brown, Ben Revere, Freddy Galvis, and even Laynce Nix have all had their share of incredible plays.
- Unfortunately, the bullpen was unable to hold the lead. Antonio Bastardo allowed his first run of the year by giving up a solo homer in the seventh inning, and Mike Adams had a rough outing in the eighth, giving up two runs on two walks and two hits.
- Kevin Frandsen pinch-hit for Halladay in the sixth, and picked up an RBI on a single.
- Jeremy Horst did a nice job coming in and cleaning up the mess Adams made. Horst entered the game with the bases loaded and none out, but only allowed one inherited runner to score. However, Horst did allow another run to score when he went back out to pitch the ninth.
- Ben Revere is just killing this team at the plate. The guy can’t hit the ball out of the infield right now. He stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning with a runner and first, hacked at the first pitch and into a double-play.
Final Thoughts
The Phillies let another winnable game slip away in painful fashion.
This time, the back-end of the bullpen suffered a meltdown. Mike Adams had been very good for the most part, and every pitcher is going to have a poor outing every now and then, but every game is important for this team. The Braves and Nationals both lost today, and the Phils had an opportunity to make up a little ground in the standings.
Instead, the team wasted a solid pitching performance from their starter for a second day in a row, and will now have to hope they can at least split the series when Cliff Lee takes the hill.
T..H..E..Y…… S..U..C..K!!!!!! Blow them up! Enough said.
Everyone knew their offense wasnt good enough..,…the OF sucks! amaro blows as gm and has wrecked the organization Gillick built up
Fire him and manuel
You missed a game changing failed pick off attempt by Rollins who lazily applied the glove, runner safe, that would have been the first out and man on first only
You also missed two bonehead decisions by jroll on the bases
Utley also responsible for the 5th run, should have caught that ball
These three plays show me this team is careless, lazy, at least Rollins is, and he’s a great player who checks out a certain times and is lazy, doesn’t run out to first, lazy tag, etc.
All this talk about doc as toast, you never give up on a warrior
If this team continues to play lazy, stupid, or forget itthey are done
Where is ruff, damn, bring him up
Jake,
I agree Rollins doesn’t give 100% all of the time, and his lack of focus hurts the team from time to time and he made a mistake on the play at the plate…but the out he made while trying to get a double in the first inning wasn’t his fault, it was just a great play by McCutchen…it was incredible how fast he cut off that ball, and was still able to plant himself and deliver a superb throw all in an instant. 99 out of 100 times, Rollins doubles on that play, but this is just a case where everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.
And as an aside, if you aren’t satisfied with my write ups and feel that you could do better, by all means, feel free to put together your own after every game and send them to dbasens@ycp.edu, and I’ll be happy to post them for you! 😉
Keep posting away Denny, As a Phillie Fan who no longer lives in the Area, I enjoy and appreciate your write-ups which helps keep me better informed about how the Team is doing.. (which unfortunately is not so good so far this year)
Thank you so much Paulman, really that means a ton to me!
Denny I appreciate your write ups, it is virtually the only reason I come to gcobb every day.
Thanks a lot mhenski, seriously that means a great deal.
Jake you dont want Ruf up, he is batting under 230 with 2 hr, strikes out 1/3 of the time and cant play the outfield in AAA…
I’d rather have him, than Brown, KBerry, Revere, & Howard, right now! He may be a liability in LF right now, but WTF, is this abortion of an OF & broken down 1B giving us?!? We have a AA OF & a $25M singles & strikeout, hitter, that runs like he’s carrying a battleship on his back.
Trade candidate: Philly’s Mike Adams
Views
382
Comments
2
06:59 AM ET 04.25 | Well below .500, the Phillies’ bright spots have been far outweighed by what ails them — though Mike Adams certainly belongs in the first group. Because he’s under control for 2014 with an option for 2015, Adams would have significant trade value — more than the value he had in 2011 when the Rangers gave the Padres their No. 4 prospect (per Baseball America) in Robbie Erlin and their No. 22 prospect in Joe Wieland. That trade looks pretty good for the Padres right now, and the Phillies could benefit even more. Last summer, the Cardinals flipped a 2010 first-round pick in Zack Cox to acquire a year and a half of Edward Mujica — an inferior reliever to Adams.
MLB Trade Rumors
just be glad you are relevant Denny, I read your stuff, I have no interest in writing how bad the Phillies are right now, its tough enough to watch, just thought that Rollins needed to be called out especially for that pick off play, that was a game changer
This wouldn’t be an issue, if he was never resigned, & Aramis Ramirez was signed insteaf. It’s not like we had a good young SS, to replace him, or anything! Rollins made 2 critical mistakes. Missing the pickoff tag & getting thrown out, at the plate, with his base running blunder. That game is mostly on him, the bigshot leader, who NEVER comes up big, when we need him, & shows up with his hollow, stat patting #’s.
It’s all good man, I was just having some with you haha, in all honesty, I really appreciate you and everyone that reads and comments, it means a ton.
what a mess
wow the phillies lineup today is a disgrace
TODAY????
yes even worse than the regular disgrace
I’m so sick of these team losing games when their pitchers are giving them good starts. They’ve been doing it for years now. I feel bad for Charlie that these guys aren’t stepping up, but this team does not play heady baseball, and Charlie is not a heady manager.
Give him 2 more weeks to get this team hitting and playing hard. Move him out the door if he can’t do it. We can’t afford to waste this season.
f-ing Phillies @#$%
Phil’s will struggle to win 75-80 Games and finish behind mthe Braces/Bats and even the Ners for 4th Place in the NL East
Mets are playing well and load a Team with a good Manager
In Collins who gets the most out of his 25 Man Roster..