Phillies season 7

Started by MURP, August 14, 2005, 12:05:43 AM

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MDS

Floyd makes no sense. Send him home for the year or to the Arizona Fall League. Everyone else, eh. Extra bodies can't hurt. Victorino could actually help, if he gets in.

David Bell now hitting .200 on the dot against RHP. .243 overall. He sucks. He sucks. He sucks. He sucks.
Loserthal up to .254--.323 in August. Keep it up  :yay

Myers went 7 innings, 6 hits, 2 er, bb, 7 k on 102 pitches. Awsome job.

Glavine tommorrow. Some numbers:
Lieb- .333
Pat- .295
Jim- .395
Bell- .318
Pratt- .364 (will probably catch)
JMike- .188....surprising since he hits lefties so well
Bob- .200
Utley- 0/3

In the past 3 years, he is 3-6 with 4.40 era

Lieber for the Phils. Mets against him:
Floyd- .362
Beltran- .364
Reyes- 4/6

He's had 3 starts in the past few years against the Mets, 2 of them were very good, 1 was bad.

Zero hour, Michael. It's the end of the line. I'm the firstborn. I'm sick of playing second fiddle. I'm always third in line for everything. I'm tired of finishing fourth. Being the fifth wheel. There are six things I'm mad about, and I'm taking over.

PhillyGirl

I was going to say (after Leiby's HR) that he seemed to have finally gotten out of the slump he was in. He's hitting much better right now. Good to see.
"Oh, yeah. They'll still boo. They have to. They're born to boo. Just now, they'll only boo with two Os instead of like four." - Larry Andersen

MDS

He should be hitting 7th in the lineup now against RHP, still 8th against LHP cause Bell magiaclly hits them fairly decentley. Manuel has to realize this and make the change.
Zero hour, Michael. It's the end of the line. I'm the firstborn. I'm sick of playing second fiddle. I'm always third in line for everything. I'm tired of finishing fourth. Being the fifth wheel. There are six things I'm mad about, and I'm taking over.

BigEd76

Phils gained ground on every NL East team today  :yay

Don Ho

Quote from: BigEd76 on August 31, 2005, 11:30:58 PM
Phils gained ground on every NL East team today  :yay

Buckle up, sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride.
"Well where does Jack Lord live, or Don Ho?  That's got to be a nice neighborhood"  Jack Singer(Nicholas Cage) in Honeymoon in Vegas.

PhillyGirl

Quote from: PhillyGirl on August 31, 2005, 10:02:49 PM
PS...Myers = Ace.

;)

QuotePhil Sheridan | Myers shows he is an ace in the making
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Columnist

NEW YORK - Everyone knew this was going to be impossible for the Phillies. Everyone knew the Mets had their ace pitching with a chance to seize momentum in the wild-card race.

A festive Shea Stadium crowd of 43,780 bubbled with that NYC sense of entitlement after the Phillies blew the series opener Tuesday night. Pedro Martinez, his fans literally singing his praises from out in left-center, would take the mound and take the Phillies' hearts.

Everyone knew it. Confidence crackled from the talk-radio stations. More than 8,000 fans walked up and bought tickets yesterday. They wanted to be there when the Mets cast the Phillies aside and started their run toward the postseason.

It didn't turn out that way. Turned out the Phillies had their ace going, too.
Eat it, Mutt fans.

"It was a game where the adrenaline was really pumping," Brett Myers said. "It was loud. It sounded like there were 100,000 people there. That really makes you want to stick it to them."

Myers did just that.

The still-young, still-undefined righthander had the job of out-big-gaming the big-game star. He did it, too, in a game that served as a snapshot of their careers.

Martinez, the likely Hall of Famer, started strong and faded. Myers, headstrong and unpredictable, fell behind by 2-0 early and then got stronger.

"Pedro deserves that respect," Myers said. "He's earned it. He's an icon in New York and in Boston. But whenever you face anybody's ace, you want to be your team's ace."

If you're thinking it's a little early to label Myers the Phillies' ace, then fine. But this is how aces are made. They're forged in the heat of games like this.

First inning, it looked as if Myers just might melt instead. Carlos Beltran, who seemed to be awakening as September loomed, singled, stole second and scored on a base hit by Cliff Floyd. Myers ran a full count on David Wright and then threw a wild-high pitch to walk him.

Then came a sight both familiar and strange.

Familiar, because the pitching coach was up and out of the dugout, striding toward Myers. How many times did we see that early in games over the last couple of years?

Strange, because we haven't seen this particular pitching coach do that. Rich Dubee picks his spots, and he picked this one.

Myers got Mike Jacobs to ground out, ending that threat. Then he tossed up a second-inning tomato that Ramon Castro slammed into the same part of the left-field seats as his Tuesday night game-winner.

Aces don't fall behind by 2-0 with Pedro on the mound for the other guys. Aces don't give up home runs to the eight-hole hitter in the second inning of their most important start of the season.

But here's what aces do. Down by 2-0, Pedro owning the top halves of innings, aces get themselves under control. Aces give up just one harmless single over the next three innings, allowing their teammates to get back into the game. Aces pitch out of trouble in the sixth (with spectacular defensive help from Kenny Lofton).

And in the seventh, after their teammates score three runs to open a lead, aces slam the door.

Myers did those things in a game the Phillies absolutely had to win. Think about it. A loss would have meant a four-game losing streak and an overwhelming sense of big-game shrinkage. A loss would have given the Mets a huge momentum boost and a chance to sweep this series today.

The TV cameras caught Myers and manager Charlie Manuel in the dugout after the seventh. Manuel had his left arm around Myers' neck and was hugging him like a favorite son. Myers was smiling like same.

The last few years, if Myers and the manager were seen in such a posture, it would more likely have been a headlock.
  :-D

"I've got a lot of confidence in Brett," Manuel said. "I thought about letting him go. But he was up over 100 pitches and we had that three-run lead. We still have 29 games left and he's going to be out there every fifth day."

If you're excited that young players like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard hit home runs off Martinez, consider this. At 25, Myers is younger than either of them. (Howard turns 26 in November.)

The last time the Phillies had a no-doubt-about-it ace on their staff, his name was Curt Schilling.

Schilling was once a young guy with a good fastball whose confidence far outstripped his accomplishments. Then came 1993. Schilling got into big games and came up big. That's how you become an ace.

"I think this staff, we have five guys who could be an ace on any team in the league," Myers said.

Last night, the Phillies had just one. It was enough.
"Oh, yeah. They'll still boo. They have to. They're born to boo. Just now, they'll only boo with two Os instead of like four." - Larry Andersen