Results tagged “geoffgeary”

-Ryan Howard has always been a great home-run hitter, but before yesterday, we couldn’t call him anything more than "2005 NL Rookie of the Year," and "2006 NL MVP." Boo hoo, we know. But let’s face it, there have been countless rookie greats and MVPs since we’ve been born, and we don’t care to put Howard in the same category as Barry Bonds, because Bonds is a clown. We could introduce him as the...

Since spring training, it’s been the same story for the Phillies – they hit the snot out of the ball, but have huge question marks in the bullpen. Flash forward half a season and the same problem still exists. They're an average team that makes three-run leads in the seventh inning nerve-wracking. In the latest episode of late-inning drama, Geoff Geary has been so bad lately he's shaved his goatee and cut his hair in hopes that he'll get out of his recent funk.

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.

With 2 men on, a full count, two outs, and down by two in the seventh inning, Jimmy Rollins launched a high fly to deep right-field. Everyone who was watching the game held their breath – everyone but Rollins. He watched it take off, dropped his bat, took a quick skip, and began to round the bases.

by Ryan Dougherty

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 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.

In their usual inconsistent style, the Phillies showed us a glimpse of promise as they shutout the Nationals last night. Usually, it would not be wise to count on the Phils winning a tight game against the first-place Nats, but they were able come out on top. If they could only play like that every night, they would be the ones in first place. The game was a stalemate until the bottom of the ninth inning, when David Bell came up with the game-winning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded. Bobby Abreu came in to score the go-ahead run. Cory Lidle had a great game with seven strikeouts and only one walk in eight innings. Lidle has been playing very well lately and is on of the key parts of the Phils’ starting rotation. We also have an update on Geoff Geary, the Phils’ relief pitcher who was hit in the eye two games ago with a foul ball. Geary will miss the rest of this series with the Nationals, but should return after. We believe that the Phillies deserve a lot of credit for winning this game. The Phils usually struggle in close games, whereas Washington has won 24 of their games by a margin of one. In a tight game like this, the Phils were clearly at a disadvantage, but they manged to stay cool under pressure and pull out the win. Congratulations, Phillies – we still want a new manager, though.

Sometimes there is a dramatic difference between a first and a last place team - just look what happened when the Phillies played the Red Sox. Other times, there are subtle differences that differentiate the two. Last night’s game was a perfect illustration of the latter. The game was not a blowout, but the Washington Nationals displayed the well-tuned playing style that keeps them in first place. The Phils showed the sloppy playing style that holds them in last. The Phils’ usually-competent rookie starter Robinson Tejeda had a very rough outing. He lasted only 3 1/3 innings and gave up 5 earned runs. This was clearly his worst start as a major leaguer. It seemed that Washington knew exactly how to play him: they saw that he was getting frustrated and just kept taking pitches, forcing Tejeda to get behind in the count. The thing that lost this game for the Phils was a series of small mistakes that stacked into a mountain. Their catching deficiencies were once again obvious as they blew a play-at-the-plate – a mistake they make routinely – that cost them a run, a run that would be the difference in the ballgame. In addition to player errors, there were also management mistakes that cost them big. For example, the Phillies waved Pat Burrell around third toward home plate where he would get gunned down by a perfect throw. Everyone knows that Burrell is not a fast runner, yet they sent him anyway. The Phils also got David Bell caught in a run down between third and home when they used the contact play - the contact play is when the runners are told to run as soon as the bat makes contact with the ball, regardless of where the ball goes; it's usually used in 2-out situations - on an infield grounder. Washington, on the other hand, did what they do best: close games. They brought out their all-start closer Chad Cordero and shut the Phillies down. There was a brief moment in the ninth when it looked like Ryan Howard had hit the game-tying homer, but it was caught at the fence by Brad Wilkerson. Howard (and just about everyone watching) thought that the ball was going to leave the park. Wilkerson later joked, "Probably in our ballpark it would have been 20 or 30 feet short," which is a jab at Philadelphia's hitters paradise, Citizens Bank Park. On a side note, relief pitcher Geoff Geary fouled a ball off home plate that bounced up and struck him in the eye. Geary left the game and was taken to Wills’ Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. We will try to get a follow-up on Geary’s condition. The Phillies should look at the Nationals as a model of what they could be (or even be better than) if they tuned their game. If any of the Phils’ aforementioned mistakes were avoided, they could have won this game. Instead, the errors – mostly the management errors - grew into a large handicap that cost Philadelphia this game. Can we please have a new manger now?

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.

Everyone knows the feeling of when a long-term relationship with a significant other begins to go bad. All of the warning signs are clear, yet they're ignored in favor of blind faith. Such is the feeling that we, the fans, feel whenever we watch our Philadelphia Phillies. Our warning signs are getting clearer and clearer that things are not going to end well this season: lethargic base running, apathetic fielding, and little to no offense. Last night's game (if you want to call it that) against the Mets only served to illustrate this point. The game started off promising. Robinson Tejeda, the Phils' impressive rookie pitcher, was on the mound, entering the game with an ERA of less than two. He would face the Mets' Victor Zambrano. Now, I know that Tejeda is just starting out and most rookie phenoms end up falling on their faces, but "promising" when in reference to the Phillies pitching translates to "not Padilla." Tejeda pitched a very good (but short) four innings and left the game with the Mets leading 2-1 -- not too bad. In the top of the fifth Zambrano looked like he was starting melt down. He beaned Jason Michaels for the second time that game and walked the bases loaded. With two outs and the bases loaded, the game rested on the shoulders of Chase Utley. After getting ahead 3-1 in the count, Utley went down swinging, stranding the three base runners. Enter: Phillies relief pitcher, Geoff Geary. Exit: any chance of winning. Geary gave up 4 earned runs in the fifth before being pulled.