Results tagged “brettmyers”

During his meeting with members of City Council yesterday, Willie Brown said he regretted calling for the strike at 3 a.m. "I regret calling [the strike] the time I did," he said after the meeting. "But I don't regret the strike."

Who needs an RSS feed when you have us? Bringing you the best of the 215 blogosphere this week...

Ah, the transience of the MLB off-season. I, for one, am sitting on the outfield fence this year. It does seem like it was just yesterday that I was on Broad Street, climbing all over every male friend that I have in attempts to gain a bird’s-eye view of what a City of Champions truly looked like. (I mostly just got a face-full of aerial Bud Heavies and some wayward champagne spray, but I figured that came with the territory.)

We’ve had some amazing athletes grace our city in the last 25 years. Some of the greatest to ever play their game have suited up and thrilled the fans of Philadelphia.

Well, this Phillyist was going to write a nice little article comparing the Phillies and Rays at each position and determine who has the edge. I had this idea yesterday, but decided to hold off a day on writing it. Unfortunately, the Inquirer already wrote it this morning and I am, as Lao Tzu once said, “shit out of luck.”

You gotta give Derek Lowe some credit for taking it like a man. After his sinkerball silenced the Phillies’ bats for five innings, he hung a few up in the zone and suddenly the Dodgers were trailing the game. Even though those homers were just over the wall, he didn’t blame the ballpark. Even though Shane Victorino only got on base in the sixth because of a botched play by Rafael Furcal, Lowe didn’t fume and call out his players like John Lackey did in the Angels-Red Sox series.

Showtime continues as the Phillies put a little mustard on their mustard last night and sent CC Sabathia packing in the 4th.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey will hold six town hall meetings in July. Each public meeting will focus on particular neighborhoods, and residents will be asked about local problems and suggestions on making the areas safer.

It’s still hard to believe. The Phillies have found their way into October, alive and thriving. And they are National League East champions. Sounds a little foreign, but we’d be lying if there wasn’t a sweeter sound in Philadelphia. The moment when Brett Myers struck out Wily Mo Pena, threw his glove straight into the air, and his teammates mobbed him was a defining moment for this Phillyist. After years of hearing Harry Kalas drone...

already. We might be projecting here.)

by Ryan Dougherty

There's a lot of reasons to hate today. Either you were alone last night or are now hung over from Valentine's Day celebrations. And everyone's cold -- mind-numbingly cold.

Instead of writing a long screed about Phillies pitcher Brett Myers allegedly beating his wife (so bad, in fact, that it garnered multiple 911 calls) and the Phillies’ piss poor handling of the situation i.e. letting him pitch this weekend, we’ll let Myers’ and GM Pat Gillick’s comments stand for themselves. They’re more powerful and disgusting than anything we could ever write. Emphasis ours.

It wasn’t a pretty win. Far from it. Tom “Flash” Gordon blew his first save. The Phils managed to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth with Bobby Abreu up to bat. Last year, this was never a good sign – Abreu could never hit in clutch situations. And what he did last night wasn’t really a hit. It was a squeaker, really, but he bolted to first base, and when New York Mets pitcher Aaron Heilman threw the ball away, the Phils pulled out a 5-4 come-from-behind win for their ninth victory in a row.

Brett Myers gave Phillies fans a nice Easter gift: a big, fat, round egg in the runs column. He pitched a gem yesterday afternoon (7 2/3 innings, no runs, 7 hits, five strike outs and one walk) to close out the Colorado Rockies, and Arthur Rhodes and Tom Gordon wrapped up the shut out. Not that the Phillies did much better offensively than Colorado, winning the 1-0 game on a solo Ryan Howard home run. But, hey, a win's a win, so we'll take it.

Every local sports columnist and TV anchor tried to remind us heading into the weekend that the Cincinatti Reds put an end to the Phillies' playoff hopes these past two years. They all seemed dead-on Friday night as the Phillies blew a 6 - 1 lead to fall behind the Reds, 10 - 6. The Phillies, it seems, had blown it again.

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.

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 capped off a terrible Labor Day weekend with a heartbreaking loss to the Houston Astros last night, 4-3. The game seemed to get out of hand immediately as an error, as well as two Brett Myers walks, led to four first-inning runs for the Astros. Last week, we agreed with disputed lanky columnist Phil Sheridan that Myers was beginning to look like the team's ace. We started to doubt ourselves after the first inning last night, but Myers came through afterwards, shutting down the Houston bats for the next six innings. Meanwhile, Sheridan don't gotta believe.

This was the kind of win that makes you think, "Hey, the Phils can do this." Granted, we still don't think they can do it - it being making the ever-elusive MLB playoffs - but we were hopeful, if only for a little while.

Bobby Abreu’s first inning grand slam off of Mark Prior in the 92 degree heat at CBB gave Brett Myers a four run lead, enough room to pitch with a good amount of sloppiness. Myers flirted with disaster, giving up 10 hits to the 30 batters he faced. But luckily for Myers, and for the Phillies, Myers held off the Cubs without giving up one home run, although he did allow five doubles. The Phillies hit three home runs off of Prior, adding a Chase Utley shot in the fifth and a Todd Pratt blast in the fourth. Because the long ball tallies were all courtesy of the Phillies, the Cubs were never able to score more than 2 runs in an inning. Due to the early Phillies lead, Brett Myers could afford to be a little more aggressive to Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez than he otherwise might have been.

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.

Normally, coming off the all-star break with a win over a pretty tough team like the Marlins would warrant praise; however, we can't help but feel worried by the Phils’ performance last night. The style of play that the Phillies demonstrated was the same thing that gave them the 12-1 homestand and made them lose on the road to Seattle and Oakland: taking advantage of the deficient left field wall at Citizen’s Bank Park and hitting homeruns that would be merely pop-flies in any other park. This style might serve them well in the short term while playing at home, but it is not sufficient to make them a winning team.

Look at the box score of this game; just look at it. How can you have 9 hits and just one run? In last night’s game versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Phillies could not find their way if home they Mapquested it. The story of the night was “stranded runners.” Even with their ace pitcher, Brett Myers, on the mound, the Phils could not pull out the win. Brett Myers pitched a very good game, but it was not enough to overcome Pittsburgh's rookie sensation, Zach Duke, who pitched seven shutout innings. The game was won by a fourth-inning, two-run homer by Humberto Cota. Myers said of his performance, “I made one mistake and I lost the game.'' We can be very rough on our home team, but we give credit where it is due. Brett Myers is an excellent pitcher and we, in no way, fault him for losing this game. It’s true that he gave up the homerun that put the Pirates over the top, but 2 runs should not be an insurmountable lead in Major League Baseball. The Phillies’ bats were just cold when it mattered. The Phillies did manage to find home in one way, though: they found their way home to the basement of the NL East. The Phils are back, once again, to .500 and a half game behind the Mets. They will try to temporarily climb out of the basement tonight, as Robinson Tejeda takes on the first-place Nationals’ Ryan Drese at 7:05pm.

WIP is reporting that Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins and Phillies closer Billy Wagner will join the National League's 2005 All-Star Team. The two are expected to join as replacements for Los Angeles Dodgers SS Cesar Izturis and New York Mets P Pedro Martinez. Rollins, who was recently inked to a contract extension by the Phils, is actually having a subpar year, especially compared to his career-year last season. His fielding is still strong, but he has struggled to get on-base as the Phillies' leadoff hitter. Rollins, however, finished second in the players and coaches voting. Typically, the runner-up replaces an injured All-Star. Wagner placed fourth in the MLB's "Final Ballot," where fans get to vote one of five players onto the team as its final, 32nd player. Brett Myers, a Phillies starter, was also on the ballot. He finished in last place. With 3 representatives (RF Bobby Abreu was voted as a starting outfielder by the fans), the struggling Phils probably won't see any more All-Star additions. There may be further changes and additions to the team, but it's unlikely that the team will be tapped for any more players. If, by chance, that does happen, likely additions are Myers and OF Pat Burrell.

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.