The Philadelphia Phillies lost their third straight game on Thursday afternoon, falling 6-4 to the Pirates. Their record drops to 9-14 on the year.
- Cliff Lee wasn’t at his best today, but he still pitched a fine game, certainly well enough for the Phillies to win. Lee lasted seven innings, allowing three runs on 10 hits while striking out seven. Lee’s biggest problem came in the seventh inning, when he allowed two runs to tie the game.
- Lee threw a season-high 122 pitches today. Even though Lee wasn’t at his best, Charlie Manuel had a short bullpen to work with today and tried to squeeze an extra frame out of his starter.
- Phillippe Aumont killed the team today, allowing three runs and recording just one out in the eighth inning. Aumont’s record falls to 1-3 on the season, and his confidence is shot right now.
- Offensively, the Phils managed to put up a decent four runs, but they squandered many opportunities for me. The team went just 2-16 with runners in scoring position.
- Ryan Howard went 2-4 and drove in two runs. Howard also hit his sixth double of the season. It’s nice to see the first baseman start to pick up his production a little bit.
- Domonic Brown had a nice game, going 2-3 with two RBIs. Both of Brown’s hits went for doubles.
- Ben Revere has just been scuffling at the plate, so the Phillies tried to give him a day off. The only problem was that this meant a start for the equally terrible Ezquiel Carrera, who went a predictable 0-4 with two strikeouts and left four runners on base.
Final Thoughts
I can’t say enough about how disheartening it is to see this team lose three of four to the Pittsburgh Pirates at home.
This is the Pirates we’re talking about. Sure, this is a much-improved Pittsburgh club, but this is not a team that should come into Philadelphia and take three straight games against the Phillies’ top three pitchers.
The Phillies got three strong starts from Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, and Cliff Lee, and couldn’t come away with a single victory. The only area of the team that is pulling it’s weight is the starting pitching. The offense is inconsistent at best. The bullpen was supposed to be a strength, but that group has let the team down as well.
Denny, why is this team disheartening? I’ve been telling everyone on here, that wanted to listen, that this group of failures, band-aids, has-beens, & never-will-be’s, have NO SHOT, & the window has shut. None of this is surprising, nor Earth shattering to me. They are, what they are, & it won’t change, until the architect is FIRED & this team is rebuilt by a real, qualified, evaluator of talent, & decision maker. There are only so many hitting coaches, lame duck Managers, excuses, & wasted $$$$, to be blamed, before realizing, that has to happen. It’s ashame, that it’s 2 years too late!
Down 3 runs in the 8th, man on 2nd zero outs, Chase Utley bunts the ball for an out.
There is no way Utley is not in a on the field contract dispute going on a la DJax purposely dropping punts and TDs.
In the 9th Chase Utley made the worst acting job fielding error I have ever seen. He move two feet to catch an easy out and his glove was exactly one centimeter below the ball. If the media made a Chase Utley error video of this weeks past weeks games it would be clear as day.
Here we go again. Yet he is hitting .309. Don’t you think that his fielding issues have to do with the fact that he is an older player with a lot of injuries to his legs?
Let me ask you a question? Do you consider Utley to be a smart player? if the answer is yes, then why would a smart player dog it in a contract year? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
The Pirates are a scrappy Team as are teh MEts and Arizona Diamondbacks this Year and teh Phils will struggle against Teams like this who play with heart,passion and a full 9 Innings like the Phils used to do..
Rollins,Utley,Howard are just going thru the motions and a perfect example of what happens to athletes after they already have Won..then they get big contracts and start getting older,injuries start settling in, family issues/kids become more important.. Baseball become’s a Job for many of these guys, not the all-out passion, play like your hair is on fire when your trying to establish yourself and in the Prime of your Athletic Life..
The Key Lesson to learn is not to commit more than 3 Seasons to any player — These 5-6 Year Deals just strangle a team after the 3rd/4th Season