See Ya Sundee...
Friday night, Ryan Howard came to the plate representing the winning run in a 9-7 game in the bottom of the ninth inning against Florida closer Todd Jones, and Howard struck out looking. Todd Jones collected his 200th save, and finished off the Phils on a night when it looked like it would be hard to come back, but Philadelphia fought back from a 8-3 deficit in the sixth inning to make it competitive again for their home crowd by the bottom of the ninth. Can’t blame Ryan Howard for this one; he merely struck out against a rejuvenated closer. He will have other chances. And Phillies fans, take that energy that you were ready to use to cheer Howard’s game tying home run, and remember these tough times when Howard does put one into the seats in the ninth inning. It won’t be long from now.
The Phillies were utterly outmatched by the Marlins. The Marlins lineup starts off with two of the fastest men in baseball (Juan Peirre, Luis Castillo). Then walks up the leading American League power hitting first baseman for the last ten years (Carlos Delgado). Follow that with a young sensation in competition for the Triple Crown for the next ten years (Miguel Cabrera). After that, a fast outfielder known to jack home runs, the heir apparent to the starting catching position for the NL All-Star Team after Mike Piazza goes to the AL or retires, a power hitting third baseman, and a short stop capable of hitting .300 with 20 HR’s (Juan Encarnacion, Paul LoDuca, Mike Lowell, Alex Gonzalez). The Florida Marlins have an intimidating starting line up.
The Phillies do not right now. It’s not as if they could not be intimidating at some point in the future, though. The core of Abreu, Rollins, Utley, Howard, Burrell could stand their own for the next five years against most of the other major league clubs when it comes to the heart of the lineup. It’s just those other spaces in between that are the problem. The Tomas Perez’s. The David Bell’s. The Mike Lieberthal’s. The Kenny Lofton’s. (We’ll see how long Lofton’s .344 avg. holds up. Look for a .275 season clip by October). These are the players who end rallies with greater frequency than the Florida Marlins.
When you have a man on base in a close game and the hitter happens to be Endy Chavez there is nothing more disheartening to a Phillies fan, or most likely, to the players themselves. Teams that win big don’t have those noticeable gaps. Remember Mark Bellhorn’s home runs against the Yankees in last year’s ALCS? He was the Sox’s worst hitter. The Yankee teams in the 90’s had their weakest hitters in the form of Jorge Posada or Wade Boggs. The winning teams are overloaded with talent. That’s why I am not so quick to send Howard or Thome packing just yet, unless you can get an impact player for Thome. Even the 2002 Angels had a deep starting lineup and bench. Does last night’s Howard-Perez-Lieberthal, 6-7-8 please you, Phillies faithful? It shouldn’t; they went 2-12, both hits coming from Lieberthal who is swinging a hot bat. Does it even come close to the LoDuca-Lowell-Gonzalez, 6-7-8? Remember, every time that the beloved Bobby Abreu or Pat Burrell gets a hit, it’s up to the 6-7-8 hitters to play the small ball in order to bring them home.
Cory Lidle looked like a different pitcher from the guy who pitched shutout ball against Washington before the All-Star break. He gave up 11 hits in 3 1/3 innings. Mr. Manuel, that’s a little long for you to leave him in there, huh? When your starting pitcher faces 19 hitters and gets 8 outs, isn’t that sort of, well, too late to stop the bleeding?
Mr. Manuel? Mr. Manuel, are you sleeping? Are you squinting into the outfield? Oh jeez, I hope you’re not watching the scoreboard to see how the rest of the NL East is doing. They are beating each other up, Charlie, as expected, and Atlanta and Florida are inching closer to the Nationals who only boast a one and a half game lead over the Braves and a six and a half game lead over you guys. You guys are actually in it.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Alan Diaz
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