Cole Hamels refers to it as "the bandwagon of freaking out." Even after two almost-lifeless losses, it is still way too soon to jump on that bandwagon. The Phillies lost the second game of their season, 4-0, to the Atlanta Braves tonight, dropping to 0-2. They also started 0-2 in 2008, and we all know how that turned out. (WFC!)
Phils starter Jamie Moyer surrendered a home run to Braves 2B Kelly Johnson on his first pitch of the season, and permitted four runs over five innings in a mediocre performance. The Phils offense continued to struggle, with only six hits, one for extra bases (a double by Raul Ibanez).
Kingdom of The Netherlands native Jair Jurrjens pitched well for the Braves, making his decision to skip the WBC, in order to focus on the 2009 season, seem prudent. (Note: The "C" in "WBC" stands for "Classic", which it most certainly was.) The Phillies left eleven men on base, and had several potential extra-base hits turned into outs by the heavy wind. It was a rough night, but Moyer and the Phils are bound to improve. Bill James, Marcel the Monkey, and The Laws of Probability are all in agreement on this. (Moyer certainly left himself plenty of room for improvement, with a 7.20 ERA and 2.00 WHIP after his 2009 debut.)
There were some positives. Charlie Manuel batted Jayson Werth between Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez, breaking up the lefties in the order. (Apparently, Charles Fuqua had been traversing the blogosphere, prior to filling out his lineup card.) Howard and Chase Utley each had a pair of singles. Ibanez gunned down a runner at the plate. The Phillies bullpen threw another four scoreless, hitless innings, and has not allowed a baserunner in seven innings. Jack Taschner threw a pair of scoreless frames, continuing his bid to stay on the roster, and appear in The MLB Network's reality show. Chan Ho Park threw a scoreless inning, as he did his between-starts side session throwing to live batters. (Rather innovative, Charlie!) Park is still slated to make his first start on Sunday. Clay Condrey struck out two Braves in the 9th, and 25th man Miguel Cairo used his elite pinch-hitting skills to coax an error out of Kelly Johnson on a routine ground ball.
The Phillies will attempt to pick up their first win Wednesday afternoon, as Joe the Lumber matches up against Javier Vazquez. The WFC will also receive their World Series Championship rings in a pregame ceremony. The ceremony will be streamed live on phillies.com at 2:15pm, so tune in! Pat Burrell will be there, but I suspect that the Phils will go ahead and just mail Adam Eaton's ring to Baltimore. Burrell's bulldog, Elvis, was more instrumental in the WFC than Eaton.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment