Kill or be killed. That should be the Phillies' motto. Check out the scores of their last three wins: 13-3, 10-4, 15-3. And their last two losses: 10-2, 10-3.
Last night, the Phils did the killing. It was, quite literally, an offensive performance for the ages. They pounded 26 hits against the Dodgers, tied for the second-most in one game in franchise history. They also had 26 hits Aug. 25, 1922, against the Cubs.
1922.
This just in: the Phillies can hit. But you already knew that. You didn't need to see five-hit games from Shane Victorino and Aaron Rowand, a two-homer night from Ryan Howard and three more hits by Jimmy Rollins and the machine-like Chase Utley to know the Phillies can swing the lumber.
But, on that big day in 1922, they allowed 25 hits and actually lost, 26-23. (Incredibly, the entire thing lasted only three hours). And, with rookie right-hander J.D. Durbin making his second start for the Phillies and taking a 13.50 ERA to the mound, last night's game had the makings of another mutual slugfest. I even gave Durbin next to no chance to win yesterday when I was a guest on Jody Mac's radio show on 950-AM. But Durbin pitched very well, holding the hot-hitting Dodgers to one run on six hits in seven innings to pick up his first major-league victory in his third career start.
Who knew?
Actually, it wasn't long ago that Durbin was a hot-shot prospect in the Twins' farm system, and Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee have repeatedly said they like his arm. Can he finally harness his ability and become a reliable starter? Based on last night's performance, he should get another chance when he starts again Sunday in San Diego against the offensively challenged Padres.
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The most important inning of last night's game was played when the Phillies had a 15-3 lead. In his first appearance since May 1, Tom Gordon, who revealed he's been pitching with a slight tear in his labrum (Pedro Martinez and others have pitched through similar tears), allowed one hit in the ninth, a leadoff single by Tony Abreu. But, overall, Gordon looked good. He threw 13 pitches, 11 strikes and almost entirely fastballs, repeatedly hitting 91 mph and occasionally popping 92. He got Luis Gonzalez to fly to center field on a cutter and Nomar Garciaparra to fly to center on an 85-mph breaking pitch before Matt Kemp flied to right to end the game.
Gordon's admission about pitching with the tear was significant. It also helps to explain why the Phillies moved Brett Myers to the bullpen. But, it should be noted, Gordon told The News Journal in February that his shoulder had been bothering him since late last May. He didn't specificially reveal the tear, but he alluded to having problems in his shoulder long before anybody knew about it. Needless to say, I'm hardly surprised that he has a partial tear.
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All those hits and all those runs didn't give Dodgers superfan Alyssa Milano, one of my first celebrity crushes, much to cheer about last night.
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Heard from a reliable source that the Phillies had a scout at Camden Yards last Sunday to watch Jose Contreras pitch for the White Sox. Think he's the answer to the pitching woes?
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Myers will enter the next phase of his rehab Friday when he pitches in a minor-league game for single-A Clearwater. The Phillies are still hopeful he'll be back during next week's homestand.
13 comments:
I don't like the idea of getting Contrares for anything significant. The guy is getting shelled. Did you see what the Phillies did to him at home. He doesn't seem like a good fit at the Bank.
Which of the higher ups is it who sees anything out of Condrey right now, to have him in the bigs? He's clearly not ready, yet they keep calling him up.
Chris: I agree with you on Contreras. I've heard his velocity is down, and he's given up 124 hits in 107-2/3 innings. Definitely not a fit for the Bank.
Paul W.: OK, so maybe Condrey isn't a major-league-caliber pitcher. But neither is Sanches. Bisenius is just coming back from an injury. They don't really have much of a choice, which is why they keep recalling Condrey.
please, please, please don't have gillick get contreras. please don't let him get anything. our prospects are lacking in the high end and i'd rather not give away any of them because we will need them in 2 years when we have no one on this team.
I agree with all the comments posted above. Contreras would be a terrible move. He's washed up and has been flat out awful.
With that said, I fully believe Gillick will trade Bourn for a 4th or 5th starter. Furthermore, I think it will be a guy like Jose Contreras or a Kyle Lohse. I couldn't be anymore against this type of move but I am fairly confident that if the Phillies are hovering 5 - 7 games out, he'll make a deal like that. I'm just praying he doesn't give up a guy like Carlos Carrasco.
he's going to see the past 5 games for the phils. and how in the 3 wins they have scored more than 40 runs. so he's going to figure that ANY pitching help is going to make this team a playoff contender because this team can flat out hit.
trading bourn isn't a huge detriment. his career would probably go like juan pierre's has. but if you let go of bourn, then you'll have a problem because rowand won't be back. so now you're missing a CF/RF.
i really doubt carrasco will go anywhere. he's probably one of the few on the 'don't touch' list.
oh, and check out my man pat burrell.
Jamie,
You make my point for me. If you trade Bourn, you almost have to sign Rowand for probably 10M a year. That is a big mistake, in my humble opinion, as the guy is having a career year in a contract year. If Bourn turns out to be Juan Pierre, trading him is an even bigger mistake than I initially thought.
It's funny you bring up Burrell after one week of playing well. Isn't this how a guy who makes 13M is supposed to play? Where were you when he couldn't get out of his own way for the last 3 months?
Check out the second post on phuturephillies.com - it relates to which prospects should be considered "untouchable" and whether or not the Phils should buy or sell.
I do know one thing - trading for Contreras would be the second time the Phils got hosed by the ChiSox in the same year (See Garcia, Freddy).
Rob,
You make a good point on that phuture site. Those are definitely guys the Phillies should not trade. But, we have learned in the past that this organization is absolutely clueless in valuing some of these young talents (Gio Gonzalez and Justin Germano come to mind). Unfortunately, we can't put anything past them with the trading deadline. As Jamie said, they are going to think a pitcher or two will put them over the top and will likely mortgage a young talent like Bourn or even a young pitcher like Outman. Obviously, I hope they won't do this but history has proven otherwise.
I'm not exactly sold on Bourn - one reason: he hits from the left side, as do Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Shane Victorino. Another thing - he's a speedster. We've got tons of speed in the lineup as is (Rollins, Victorino, and Utley if he wasn't hitting in front of Howard). If he can bring in a PRIME talent, I'd trade him and try to re-sign Rowand.
matt:
juan pierre isn't good. he's been a below average talent for most of his career.
they can't trade outman/carrasco/bisenius/happ because they are going to need them to fill out the rotation/bullpen in the next 2 years. moyer will be gone, no 5th starter as it is. a bad bullpen full of old men. if they trade any of them away they will be hamstringing much of their future.
Jamie,
For a few weeks there, you were making a lot of statements that I agreed with. The last two days are slowly moving back to me disagreeing with most of what you are saying.
Your statement on Juan Pierre simply false. It reminds me of when for the first 8 weeks of the season you told us Pat Burrell was better than Alfonzo Soriano. Anyway, here are Pierre's stats:
2007 = .287, 23 RBI, 59 Runs, 38 Stolen Bases
2006 = .292, 40 RBI, 87 Runs, 58 Stolen Bases
2005 = .276, 47 RBI, 96 Runs, 57 Stolen Bases
Those stats don't look like a guy who is performing below his talent level. In fact, I believe Pierre is one of few athletes who gets the most out of their talent.
cool, batting averages. but when your job is to get on base to utilize that speed, then OBP matters.
lets check out his last 3 seasons
OBP - Slugging
07 - .316 - .339
06 - .330 - .388
05 - .326 - .354
THOSE ARE TERRIBLE NUMBERS. this year he's one of the worst starting every day men in the league. if you park adjust his OPS numbers he consistently comes out to around 20% BELOW THE AVERAGE MAJOR LEAGUER.
oh, and his career SB% is ~65%. which is terrible. you need to average at least 75% to be worthwhile.
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