Results tagged “vicentepadilla”

John Street is talking down men from ledges. Al Gore is visiting the city and people aren't making a billion Al Gore/Internet jokes. There were no posts on the Sixers/Knicks preseason tilt. It's been a bizarre week for Philadelphia and the blogosphere. And yet, we're still doing our weekly round-up. Comforting? No. Worth a few lines for a rushed intro? Definitely.

The Philadelphia Phillies lost to the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park last night, 3 - 2. While the Phillies are not mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt, their chances are now very slim. They sit 2.5 games back of the Wild Card leading Houston Astros, who beat the St. Louis Cardinals last night, 3 - 1.

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.

David Bell is hitting .251. Bell’s counterpart on the Chicago Cubs, Aramis Ramirez, is hitting .309 with 27 homers. David Bell has 28 homers in the last 3 years. After last night, Chris Mustazza and I are growing frustrated. Bell may be single-handedly bringing down the Phillies season.

. It’s the second in a row of Lieber’s starts where the he had pitched an excellent game and the team could not score a few runs to get him the win. In his last start before last night, the Phillies lost 1-0 to the Dodgers; last night, they lost 2-1 to the Astros. Just score some freaking runs and give this guy a break! Phillies, you have no excuse for last night: you had all of your starters playing (except for Lieberthal, but that’s a good thing), you had an excellent game from Lieber, and you even had that ridiculously shallow 315-ft left-field wall.

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.

What happened? Can you tell me? How does a guy go from a 6+ ERA, a reputation for being the worst pitcher on a team’s starting rotation, and being in jeopardy of losing the said starting position to pitching back-to-back near-flawless games and decimating the best pitcher in the National League? Well, you’d have to ask Vicente Padilla for the answer to that question. The flotilla seems to have bailed out and set sail again.

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.

I’ve always been a person of extremes. I believe you should jump in head-first or don’t even bother putting on your bathing suit – and by that I mean, “Don’t swim,” not “Swim naked.” And that is why it’s infuriating to me to see the Phillies be a perpetually mediocre team. If they win a game, they lose the next. I wish that they would either win or just concede the season and become the worst team in baseball. Then, at least they would have some distinction. Last night’s game was a perfect illustration of my point: the Phils decimated the Pirates in the first game of the series and then went on to get shutout last night. What will it take to get a little consistency? Last night started off downhill when, in the first inning, starting pitcher Jon Lieber was struck by a line drive ball on the same elbow where he received Tommy John surgery – a ligament reconstruction procedure – earlier in his career. Later, X-Rays would show no fracture. Lieber will be further examined to determine whether he will make his scheduled start against the Nationals on Sunday. This game should have been titled “The Kip Wells Show,” because that’s exactly what it was. Struggling Pittsburgh pitcher, Kip Wells, was determined to prove himself last night, and came up big. Wells struck out 12 and allowed only 4 hits. He even contributed to the scoring with an opposite field double, from which he would later score. It just seems incomprehensible that this is the same Phillies team that won the game before this one by a score of 12-1. This sort of inconsistency has been present all season. For example, in early June the Phils swept the (at the time) first place Texas Rangers. Shortly after, they went on to lose series against the horrible Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s. The Phils will battle mediocrity again tonight, as the sure-to-lose Vicente Padilla takes on the Pirates’ Mark Redman. I’ll start writing about the loss now.

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.