Results tagged “braves”

Friday is for lovers.

It’s finally over with. The Phillies have lost their 10,000th game. That being said, and accepted, it barely matters to the realist who watched the Phillies get hammered by a score of 10-2, thereby losing a game to the Mets and the Braves in the NL East standings. At least they didn’t really tease us into thinking they could win the game. The Phillies have long had the most losses of any sports franchise in...

June 17 -The Phillies lost the last game of their series with the Detroit Tigers, 7-4. Not only did the Phillies lose the series, but gave away yet another game that they should have won. Phillies pitcher Adam Eaton continued his string of quality starts, and pitched and hit well enough to win, leaving the game with a 3-1 lead, and coming up with two hits on the day. Yet, it’s the same story on a different day with different relievers. Geoff Geary was unable to retire any of the batters he had faced, and Yoel Hernandez gave up 3 more runs, adding up to a five-run inning for the Tigers.

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

The Phillies are riding high into this weekend’s series with the San Francisco Giants. Showing some of that “fighting” side, the Phils worked themselves up to a .500 record by beating the Atlanta Braves 6-3 last night.

Aaron Rowand made a big stamp on his first year in Philadelphia last night with a two-run home run in the eighth inning to keep the Phillies winning streak going with a 5-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.

A three-game winning streak? Could it be? We think so. The Phils took one out of three from the terrible Pittsburg Pirates and then won both in a set with the Florida Marlins.

A Michael Tucker RBI single and a Shane Victorino three-run homerun lifted the Phillies to a 4 - 0 win over the Atlanta Braves yesterday. The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2 - 1, to maintain their two game lead over the Phillies.

It's happened a few times this season: Charlie Manuel makes a bad move. Bill Dancy makes an even worse move. An Ed Wade acquisition, like David Bell or Michael Tucker (better yet, David Bell AND Michael Tucker), hits into a key double play.

Jimmy Rollins extended his league-leading hit streak last night against the Atlanta Braves, but that was about the only thing that went right for the Phillies. The Fightin's lost 4 - 1 against the Braves last night in Atlanta, leaving them two games behind the Houston Astros, who beat up on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Both teams have 11 games left this season. The Marlins, sitting in third place in the Wild Card race, lost to the New York Mets in 12 innings and now find themselves three games back of the Astros.

The Houston Astros lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates last night, 7 - 0 at PNC Park. No no, this isn't suddenly Pittsburghist. We're interested in this game because the Astros were sitting a game and a half ahead of the Phillies heading into last night's action. After the loss, the Astros find themselves only one game ahead of the Phillies, sure to make the eventual Phillies collapse that much more heartbreaking.

The Phillies entered their weekend series against the Marlins hoping to take one game from the Marlins. Two games seemed to be asking a lot since the Phillies faced the two Marlins aces, Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett, on Saturday and Sunday.

There's nothing better than kicking back at a Phillies game and making a nice Tomas Perez pie joke, or really any joke about any of the Phillies bench players. Except maybe Shane Victorino. Maybe. But Ramon Martinez was able to fire a shot back last night in the form of a grand slam that helped the suddenly surging Phillies defeat the Atlanta Braves last night, 12-4.

The Phillies played in front of the smallest crowd in Citizens Bank Park history last night, but the lack of attention suited them just fine: the Phils, behind winless rookie pitcher Eude Brito, topped the Braves and ace starter Tim Hudson 4-1.

Even though the Eagles are starting their season tonight, we're going to annoy you for a moment with some Phillies news. After some heartbreaking losses to the Astros, the Phillies came roaring back by taking 2 games out of 3 from the Florida Marlins over the weekend. The wins pulled the Phils to a game and a half behind the wild card leading Astros and a game behind the second place Marlins.

Much maligned Phillies third baseman has been able to stave off the critics a bit this week. The other night, Bell's two-RBI single helped the Phillies to a much-needed win over the Mets. Last night, Bell stepped up with the bases loaded and two out and hit a grand slam, launching the Phils to a 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals. The win left the Phillies four games behind the NL East leading Atlanta Braves. The Phillies sit one-half game over the Houston Astros in the National League Wild Card chase.

Chris Mustazza and Phil Sandick, our resident Phillies writers, return this week with talk of one-game wonder Eude Brito, Jim Thome and the Phils' playoff chances heading into September.

The Phillies swept the San Diego Padres this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. The weekend got off to a great start on Friday night when Chase Utley, struggling through an 0-for-5 evening, stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the eleventh inning and made everyone forget about his previous at-bats by slamming a game-winning homerun towards the bullpens in right-center field. The win came after another strong Vicente Padilla start.

The Texas Leaguer. The Mendoza Line. The Can of Corn. All of these time-tested baseball-isms have their own charm, but the one that has stood as my favorite is: the golden sombrero (sometimes also referred to as the silver sombrero). 4 strike outs in one game. If Ryan Howard hadn’t homered to centerfield, above the Lukoil sign, and instead swung and missed at three straight strikes, the Phillies could have easily followed up with a David Bell pop-up, a Mike Lieberthal fly-out, inning over, game over, and I would have been talking about Ryan Howard’s failure to produce in the clutch, his shiny golden sombrero. That’s a lot of pressure that Ryan Howard was going up against but he handled it with cool assurance. After Howard smacked Yhency Brazoban’s second pitch to the seats, Howard walked slower to first base than if he had struck out. He knew it was gone, as did the Philly faithful, who exploded at the park, but also in front of their TV’s, satellite radios, in their cars or on their headphones.

On July 26, 2000, Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling (now the most-expensive set-up man around while he rehabs his ankle injury) was traded to the fesity Arizona Diamondbacks after winning 102 games in a Phillies uniform, including one in the 1993 World Series. Schilling was upset in Philly, he wanted out and the rest is history. The Phillies may not see a pitcher that good for 25 years. He’s up there with Steve Carlton and Robin Roberts as the best to ever pitch in Philly. The Phillies received what at the time seemed like a steal. They got pitching prospect Nelson Figueroa, solid veteran Omar Daal, power-hitting first round draft pick Travis Lee, and another prospect, hard-throwing 22 year old Vicente Padilla, who was striking out a batter an inning with the D-Backs. He was praised for his competitiveness by manager Buck Showalter, who did not want to part with him. The only thing the Phillies have to show from that trade five years later, aside from the everlasting hysteria from “The Bowa Years,” is Vicente Padilla. Although he represented Philadelphia in the 2002 All-Star Game, he was fighting to stay in the big leagues as he pitched against the Pirates in Pittsburgh last night. While Schilling has won 2 World Series, the Phillies have lost with, as Chris Mustazza affectionately calls him, “Sure-to-lose” Padilla. We all love Vicente, though; we do want him to do well. We know he’s the same pitcher Showalter praised, taking losses out on himself. It has taken a great toll on his confidence to pitch as bad as he has been pitching. But Padilla helped the Phils last night to come within four and a half games of the NL wild card leading Atlanta Braves.

In an interview with Jim Salisbury of The Philadelphia Inquirer, closing pitcher Billy Wagner laid into his team and said that as constituted, the Phils have no shot of making the playoffs. "We ain't got a chance to get there right now," Wagner said. Kenny Lofton and other unnamed players called a team meeting the following day. It seems some Phils believe they do know how to win, and thus they took issue with what Wagner said. Wagner didn't back down from his comments, but Manuel believes that the meeting was good for the team. It gave them a chance to air their grievances. "I don't know what exactly what was said," Manuel reported. "But I'm sure the guys that spoke up said what they think. Knowing them, they definitely didn't pull any punches." No, Charlie, they did not. In fact, the punching continued deep into the July 4th weekend. Centerfielder Jason Michaels allegedly punched a Philadelphia police officer, wrestled him to the ground, and ripped his shirt early on Sunday morning. Officers were in Old City clearing people out. Michaels didn't comply and allegedly assaulted the officer. Michaels was released on his own recognizance at noon on Sunday. He was in uniform for the Phils during their 4 - 3 loss to the Braves on Sunday evening. Before the game, Michaels didn't speak much on the matter. "I really would love to talk to you guys about this," Michaels said. "But I've been advised by my attorney not to say anything." Michaels is due at court on Thursday. For his sake, we hope he and the Phils learn to win by then. Photo credit: AP/Philadelphia Police

Un-freaking-believable. That’s all that can be said about tonight’s heartbreaking loss to the Atlanta Braves. Never before were the Phillies’ relief pitching needs as apparent as they were tonight. Robinson Tejeda had another sterling start, as he led the Phils through 6 shutout innings with only two hits surrendered. This kid is on fire. He hasn’t allowed a run in three of his five starts. No one expected Tejeda to come up this big when he filled the void left by the injured Randy Wolf. It really looked like the Phils were going to take this one. It actually took more effort to lose this game than it would have to win it. The loss can be chalked up to horrific relief pitching. The blame can be divided amongst Rheal Cormier, Ryan Madson, Ugueth Urbina, and Billy Wagner. All of them contributed to the Braves coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the final innings to win 4-3. The Phils’ runs were scored by a 3-run homer from young prospect Ryan Howard. Howard will continue to play for the Phils while Jim Thome is on the DL. So what do the Phils do now? Do thet need to make some trades by the deadline and pick up better starting and relief pitching? Do we really want Ed Wade to pull the trigger on such a decision? Who would the Phils trade – Howard, Wagner, Burrell, Utley? These are all questions that will need to be answered in the near future. Here’s what I think they should do: in true Philadelphia tradition, the Phils need to trade some of their most valuable prospects for a washed-up player who used to be good. The Phils need to offer this player a big-money deal for a long time-period. Also, whoever the Phils trade should promptly become a spectacular player – ala Scott Rolen. Might I suggest Ryan Howard for Mike Piazza at 10 million a year for 7 years?

Today, all of us suffering from the heartbreak of watching the Phillies come off of a 12-1 homestand in early June only to plummet to last place in the NL East were dealt a very small dose of relief as Brett Myers and the Phils shut down the Altanta Braves to escape last place. Could this be the beginning of the next great Philadelphia winning streak? Probably not. The Phils really needed a win today and Brett Myers came up big for our struggling home team. Myers pitched a stellar game, where he gave up no runs and only one hit going into the ninth inning. It looked like he would pitch a complete one-hitter. Unfortunately for Myers, he struggled in the ninth, giving up 3 runs. Fortunately for the Phils, Billy Wagner was able to close the game. Myers was even able to contribute to the scoring with an RBI single in the fourth. Other Phillies’ runs came from a 3-run homer by David Bell, a solo homerun from Pat Burrell, and an RBI single by Jason Micheals. Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said of Myers, "That's one of the best jobs against us all year. He was absolutely dynamite." Dynamite, indeed, Bobby. May you receive many more poundings like this one from Brett Myers. The only way the Phillies could avoid being demolished this season would be to have more pitching performances like Myers’ today. Maybe seeing today’s performance in contrast to yesterday’s shelling of Vicente Padilla will inspire the Phillies to make some big moves for starting pitchers before the trade deadline. Even with this pitching clinic that Myers put on today, this writer refuses to get his hopes up. Too many times have the Phils looked like they were going to pull themselves together only to fall short. We'll see what happens tomorrow as Robinson Tejada takes on the Braves' Jorge Sosa at 8:05pm.

I began to write this post before tonight’s game even took place. Really, all I needed to do after the game was to fill in the correct losing score for the Phillies and add a couple of details about the game. So, how did I know what the outcome would be, you ask? Well, it doesn’t take Miss Cleo or any other 1-900-PSYCHIC to see that the Phils were in trouble when they started the perpetually-struggling Vicente Padilla against the Braves ace, John Smoltz.

Smoltz pitched 6 strong innings, allowing only one run and five hits. In contrast, Padilla tossed four innings, giving up nine hits and four runs. I was relieved when the Phils finally decided to remove Padilla from the game, but relief soon turned to dismay when I saw Vicente’s replacement the making his way to the mound. What’s the best way to complement your worst starting pitcher? By bringing in your worst middle reliever – Geoff Geary.

Geary gave up a 3-run homer to Andruw Jones to make the score 7-1. The Braves remaining runs would come from a ninth inning homerun off of Amaury Telemaco by Adam LaRoche.

Aside from abysmal pitching, the other factor plaguing the Phillies has been injuries. Jim Thome was just placed on the 15-day DL with tendonitis in his right elbow. His intended replacement for tonight’s game was Ryan Howard, but he encountered weather-related delays on his way from Buffalo. Tomas Perez ended up playing first based and knocked in the Phils’ sole run. On the DL in addition to Thome is Randy Wolf. He will undergo elbow reconstruction this Friday that will put him out for at least the rest of this season, and up to half way through next. Wolf was the Phillies only starting left-handed pitcher.

The Phillies are in some real trouble. With the Mets’ win tonight, they find themselves back in last place with a .500 record (40-40). They'll try again tomorrow against the Braves, as Brett Myers (3.18 ERA, 5-4) takes on Horacio Ramírez (4.75 ERA, 7-4) at 1:20pm.

As reported on Phillies.com, Jim Thome has been placed on the disabled list due to an elbow problem. Thome has been struggling at the plate this season. He has had well-known back issues this year. There's no word right now whether or not this elbow problem is a nagging injury, or a new problem. Hopefully Phils fans aren't sick enough to be celebrating an injury (although Dallas Cowboy fans think otherwise), but this injury does have a silver lining. In sitting Thome down for at least fifteen days, the Phils called up stud prospect Ryan Howard to replace him. Howard has been tearing up the minor leagues, although he hasn't had much major league success due to limited at-bats. While Charlie Manuel is capable of many stupid moves, the logical assumption to make is that Howard will start every day in Thome's absence. The Phils are scheduled to face the Braves tonight at 7:05 pm here in Philadelphia. The Phils send Vicente Padilla to the mound. Padilla has struggled recently, and many think this may be his last start if he doesn't turn it around. The Braves will counter with John Smoltz. Rain forecasts may delay tonight's game. We do not yet know if Howard is with the team yet, and if he is, if he will start.

Charlie Manuel and Todd Pratt defended their pitcher against home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez's tight strike zone. Marquez, though, fought back and ejected both in the second inning of today's series finale between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets won the series with a 5 - 3 win in today's game. Pedro Martinez pitched six innings for the win. Jon Lieber pitchedo only four innings for the loss. Lieber wasn't bolstered by the support from his catcher and manager. He left pitches up in the zone that inning, as well as in the fourth inning. That was enough for the Mets, who scored all of their five runs in those two innings. Charlie Manuel tried to mix things up with a new lineup that featured Kenny Lofton leading off, Endy Chavez hitting second, and Jimmy Rollins hitting fifth. These three Phils accounted for 6 of the 8 hits that the Phillies had on the day. Going 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored, Lofton made a strong case for retaining the leading off spot in future days and weeks. The Phillies started their scoring with a solo homerun from Jimmy Rollins. They chipped away with two more runs, but couldn't make the Mets' bullpen pay. Manuel and his team will return to Philadelphia tonight. They begin a weekend series with the 2nd place Atlanta Braves. Today's loss leaves the Phillies one game above .500 with the Mets very close in their rearview mirror.