Results tagged “robinsontejeda”

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.

Let’s play a game of word association. We’ll toss out a word or phrase and you tell us the first word that comes to mind. OK, here goes. “Jim Thome.” Yep, “trade” is correct. One more, “last night’s game.” Right again: “train-wreck.” That’s exactly what last night’s game was. It was horrible but you couldn’t look away. Everything looked like it was going fine, running smoothly along the tracks. Then, BOOM: the 5th inning hits and the Phils are derailed. We stared at the wreck intently hoping that Phillies would recover, but no luck.

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?

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.

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?

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.