Results tagged “nleast”

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... more ›

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. more ›

Ugh. Milton Street is more of a fiasco than a real candidate, something of a sideshow in the political circus. He may even sideline Brady's chances! Oh the shame! more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

When you take a closer look at the Phillies' starting lineup from Sunday afternoon’s game against first-place Washington, and you compare it to the Nationals' starting gang, you might get the crazy feeling that the teams are not that different from each other. On paper there are many similarities: a talented, all-star caliber middle infielder (Jimmy Rollins and Jose Vidro), a power-hitting, speedy outfielder (Bobby Abreu and Jose Guillen), and a solid hitting but prone to slumping outfielder (Pat Burrell and Brad Wilkerson). After that, even a lot of gap-fillers and journeymen seem to have a lot in common, including 2 former teammates now at the tail-end of their careers, yet still playing well (Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga), 2 pinch-hitters who were swapped for each other in May (Endy Chavez and Marlon Byrd) 2 catchers who were once traded for each other in 2001 (Todd Pratt and Gary Bennett), and two starting pitchers who each lost a game to Boston in last year’s ALCS (Esteban Loaiza and Jon Leiber). The Phillies, on the field, have in no way resembled the Nationals this season until this past weekend. The Phillies borrowed a little bit of the Washington magic and pulled out a win in their second straight one-run game. Prior to this series, the Nationals had been nearly unbeatable in one-run games. Winning close, late games means you have to have timely hitting but more importantly, a solid bullpen. Yesterday, at Citizens Bank, over six innings of relief, four Phillies relievers gave up only one run. Jon Lieber, who pitched well striking out six, gave up three runs in his six innings. To take 2 out of 3 from the first place Nationals would have been exciting enough, but 2 Washington-style wins, with the added treat of seeing Ryan Howard carry the offense with 3 RBIs and a line drive to the shrubs in dead center field, makes the victories that much sweeter for the Phils. They also borrowed another Nationals trope: heroics by players you may not believe are in the major leagues (i.e. Matt Cepicky and Gary Majewski). The Phils pulled it out on a 12th inning pinch hit by veteran role player Ramon Martinez. No, not that Ramon Martinez, not Pedro’s brother who used to pitch for the Dodgers. This Ramon Martinez, a shortstop with no relation to the Martinez brothers, chopped a ground ball into left field in the bottom of the 12th inning to score David Bell, who had driven in the winning run on Saturday. This marks the first series victory for the Phillies since June 10th-12th against the Milwaukee Brewers. In a season that has made Phillies fans feel like they are in the middle of a traffic jam on I-95, with every team in the NL East bumper to bumper, at or above .500 at the All-Star Break, the Phillies will try to stay close enough to the Nationals so that Washington is still in sight when the Phillies match up with them on September 30th through October 2nd, the last series of the 2005 season. more ›

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.



more ›

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. more ›

The Phillies and the Mets are in the midst of an epic battle for sole possession of last place in the NL East. It’s kind of like Lord of the Rings, except, in this case, the winner is the one who ends up farthest from the ring – the World Series ring, that is. But in all seriousness, the Phillies played a very good game and were able to take advantage of struggling Mets pitcher Kaz Ishii. The Phillies clearly had the pitching advantage in this game, starting the very talented Cory Lidle (more talented than his 4.10 ERA would let on) against Ishii, who was sporting a less-than-impressive 2-6 (now 2-7) record this season. Lidle was able to pitch 7 strong innings in the rain. more ›