Singin', don't worry 'bout a thing,
'cause every little thing is gonna be all right
'cause every little thing is gonna be all right
-Bob Marley
Shane Victorino likes reggae, specifically Bob Marley. And, in the eighth inning yesterday, as Victorino walked to the plate, the folks in charge of such things at the Bank made sure that those Marley lyrics were blaring over the sound system. As far as we know, there wasn't any hidden message or subliminal agenda, but after the game, Victorino and his teammates seemingly repeated Marley's refrain over and over as they packed their bags for Oakland.
So what if the Phillies have lost five games? Who cares if their feast-or-famine offense has gone colder than the North Pole? Never mind that they can't seem to manufacture runs, especially against quality pitching. And pay no mind to the Grand Canyon-sized gap between them and the two best teams in the American League.
Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'cause every little thing is gonna be all right.
"Every team goes through ups and downs. Right now, it's our down," Jimmy Rollins said. "But we'll come out of it. Don't worry about that."
Within the game story, we outlined the stark numbers, including the Phillies' .190 average with runners in scoring position since their 20-run, 21-hit outburst June 13 in St. Louis. To me, though, this goes beyond statistics. The series against the Red Sox and Angels -- and, to a certain extent, even the previous series against the Cardinals -- revealed serious flaws in the way the Phillies' offense is constructed. Ryan Howard, the all-or-nothing slugger, has become the embodiment of an offense that scores when it hits doubles and home runs but doesn't make enough consistent contact to avoid falling into sustained ruts. The Phillies don't move runners, and even when Rollins and Victorino reach base and get into scoring position by stealing, the heavy hitters behind them aren't particularly adept at driving in runs by hitting ground balls or sacrifice flies.
Rollins is right. All offenses go through slumps, even team-wide slumps. But the Phils' offense, so reliant on extra-base hits, goes through more slumps than most. And while they may well score close to 900 runs again (they've already scored 398 through 76 games), you have to worry about them going cold once again in the postseason when Cole Hamels will be facing Josh Beckett, not Bartolo Colon, in the first round of a series.
Thoughts?
Check back later today for more, including a few words on So Taguchi, who isn't winning any popularity contests these days.
2 comments:
It's incredibly frustrating to see leadoff baserunners get stranded on first. Watching each player's at-bats over the past week has shown me that every single player in that lineup is swinging for the fences on every pitch, trying to be the hero. For the time being, the entire team seems to have abandoned the fundamentals of station-to-station baseball.
I'd like to see some more lineup changes for the next few games. Put Pat in the cleanup spot. Leave Taguchi in Philadelphia. Give Werth a start in center. I can't imagine how frustrated Hamels must be to go out and throw seven or eight quality innings each day and only occasionally get a (winning) decision.
Scott, while I share your frustration, everyone thinks their own team has an inconsistent offense, but there is simply no reliable basis for thinking that teams that rely on the longball to score runs are any more inconsistent than anyone else.
In fact, Sal Baxamusa has shown at The Hardball Times in the last year or so (sorry, no link) that among offenses with the same cumulative runs scored, those who are more reliant on homeruns are in fact less likely to get shutout. Contact-based offenses can go cold too, and power-based offenses can hit their stride in the playoffs like the Rockies did last year.
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