Phillies Recap: September 16, 2009

Philadelphia Phillies 6, Washington Nationals 1

W - Blanton (10-7), L - Hernandez (8-11)

The Phillies were again stifled on offense early, but were saved by a solid pitching effort. Joe Blanton pitched his way through six innings of trouble without allowing a run. And the Phils scratched out a couple of runs against Livan Hernandez, one on a steal of home by Chase Utley. Finally in the seventh, they broke through as Jayson Werth crushed a grand slam. The Phillies kept the Nationals off the board until the ninth and nearly tossed up their third consecutive shut out in a 6-1 decision.

Joe Blanton clearly did not have his best stuff all night. He struggled with command and walked four batters. However, he made the pitches he needed to every inning to get out of jams and was aided by some poor base running by Washington. This led to a high pitch count and a relatively short outing for Blanton, who only went six innings. On the night, he also allowed five hits and struck out seven. The bullpen was strong but was dealt a serious blow as Chan Ho Park went down with an apparent leg injury.

The Phillies again could not do much against Livan Hernandez. After allowing a quick run in the first, Hernandez settled in and kept the Phils from adding on to their lead. He went six innings, allowing two earned on seven hits and two walks. Hernandez also struck out four Phillies on the evening. The Nationals' bullpen came on and allowed the grand slam to Werth, his second of the year. From there, the game was busted wide open and gave the Phillies a comfortable cushion.

The Phillies nearly shut out their opponent for the third straight game and did not allowed a run for 26 consecutive innings. In the process, they lowered their magic number to 11. With the win, the Phils are now 24 games over .500 at 84-60 and have overtaken the Cardinals for the second-best record in the National League, and are 4.5 games behind the Dodgers for the best mark. Currently, they are in line to face the winner of the NL wild card in the first round of the playoffs.

Phillies Recap: September 7, 2009

Houston Astros 4, Philadelphia Phillies 3

W - Wright (3-2), L - Park (3-3), S - Valverde (22)

Jamie Moyer got a spot-start for the Phillies, replacing the ailing Jay Happ. He pitched very well over six innings but the Phillies bullpen failed to hold a lead, the Phillies were swept by the Houston Astros. Behind a pair of solo homers, the Phillies took a lead against Brian Moehler and the Astros, but that was wiped away by the final score of 4-3.

Pitching on short notice, Jamie Moyer proved that he still has something to offer the team. He went out and tossed six solid innings in place of Jay Happ. Moyer surrendered two earned runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out four and allowed a home run. Unfortunately, Chan Ho Park came in and allowed the deciding runs on a pair of hits and three walks.

The Phillies offense was again stagnant. They did manage a pair of solo home runs from Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez, but got little else going against Brian Moehler. Moehler tossed 5.2 innings and allowed three earned runs but the Astros got him off the hook for the loss. He scattered five hits and walked three. However, once they had the lead, the Astros strung together five relievers to seal the victory.

In what was yet another frustrating loss, the Phillies dropped all four games of the series and got swept out of Houston. In a weekend highlighted by poor offense and not quite enough pitching, the Phillies fell to 77-58 on the season. Their magic number remains at 21 and their lead in the NL East is just six games. The team will look to regroup in Washington this week for a three game set.

Phillies Recap: August 11, 2009

Philadelphia Phillies 4, Chicago Cubs 3

Rich Harden had his best stuff tonight and at times looked nearly unhittable. He took advantage of a more generous strike zone than J.A. Happ had and worked through the Phillies order with ease in the early going. Meanwhile Happ struggled with his command as he danced through raindrops before surrendering two runs in the third. However, one word can be used to describe the Phillies' effort tonight: gritty. The Phils fought tough, were patient, and found a way to beat the Cubs, 4-3 on three hits.

Happ was not his normal, confident self tonight as he seemed rattled at times on the bump. Perhaps it was playing at historic Wrigley Field or perhaps it was pitching so close to his hometown. Either way he allowed an uncharacteristically high number of base runners, but survived six innings. The Cubs lacked the one big hit to put the game out of reach, but Brad Lidge blew his seventh save of the season in the ninth after the Phillies took the lead. A strong performance by Scott Eyre (2-1) earned the win and Chad Durbin picked up the save.

No one disputes that Rich Harden is one of the best pitchers in the game today. He had everything working to his advantage as he was perfect through the first 16 batters. Backed by a few circus-type catches by Milton Bradley in right field, Harden did not surrender a base hit until Jimmy Rollins crushed a two-out, two-run homer to tie the game in the sixth. The Phillies would add a run later on a bases loaded walk to Ryan Howard against Carlos Marmol. In the top of the 11th inning, Ben Francisco came through with a wall-scraping homer for the winning margin.

This was an important game for the Phillies. They came out after the sweep at home and looked lost. Rich Harden was dealing and it looked like the Phils would have their offense shut down again. But great teams find ways to win, even with three hits, and the Phillies did just that. They fought back after a blown save by Lidge to win the ballgame. On the eve of Pedro Martinez's inaugural start with Philadelphia, they improved to 62-48.

Phillies Recap: August 8, 2009

Florida Marlins 6, Philadelphia Phillies 4

The Phillies offense waited out the Marlins rookie Sean West, but left a lot of runners on base all night. Meanwhile, Cole Hamels battled command problems and lots of foul balls and departed the game early as well. In the end, the Fish squeezed out another tight win, as they defeated the Phillies 6-4.

After surrendering an early homerun, Hamels (7-7) looked like he had his good stuff tonight. However, as the night wore on, he lost some control and fought a high pitch count, giving up four earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. Tyler Walker came in to finish the sixth, but Chan Ho Park surrendered two more runs which proved to be the difference in the game. All night, the Marlins got good swings against Phils pitching.

Sean West (3-4) didn't fare much better than Hamels as he went just four plus innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. The Phillies seemed to lack the one knock-out punch to really break the game open, and as such, they let the Marlins hang around. The Florida bullpen was sharp again as the Phillies could only muster one ninth-inning run, despite multiple opportunities. Leo Nunez recorded his second save of the series.

It was another frustrating loss for the Phillies, who stranded over 10 runners on base and did not come through with runners in scoring position. The Marlins have now won the first two games of the series and moved within five games of the NL East lead. They will be sending their best pitcher, Josh Johnson tomorrow afternoon, so Jamie Moyer will have his work cut out for him. The Phillies will look to Moyer to end their two-game skid and finish off the homestand 3-3.

Phillies Breakdown: Pitching Depth

With the acquisitions of Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez, the Phillies seemingly have a surplus of starters on their 40-man roster. Once the relief pitcher injuries straighten themselves out, the Phillies bullpen might be just as deep. Rodrigo Lopez, who as spot-started five games, made his first appearance out of the pen last night. That still leaves six starters for five potential starters:

1. Cole Hamels
2. Cliff Lee
3. Joe Blanton
4. J.A. Happ
5. Jamie Moyer
6. Pedro Martinez

Meanwhile, the relief corps has been hit by injuries and some inconsistency this year, led by Brad Lidge's less-than-perfect season. Chan Ho Park has been a pleasant surprise in the pen, becoming much more dominant there. And, with Brett Myers' recovery from hip surgery way ahead of schedule, the bullpen could get a shot in the arm. Assuming everyone regains their health, here is how their relievers would stack up:

1. Brad Lidge
2. Ryan Madson
3. J.C. Romero
4. Chan Ho Park
5. Scott Eyre
6. Chad Durbin
7. Clay Condrey
8. Rodrigo Lopez
9. Brett Myers

Obviously there are a total of 15 pitchers listed and the Phillies will most likely carry 12 or 13 into the playoffs. However, once Major League rosters expand to 40 players on September 1st, you can expect to see all of these names, health pending, on the active roster. You would expect that all six of the starters identified will remain on the roster, leaving the question to be which of the latter three will be moved to the pen. Despite his dominance this season, the most likely candidate is Happ.

This also begs the question of Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched all season. Martinez pitched well in an August 5th rehab start, and he could be able to join the Phillies rotation as soon as their August 11th or 12th in Chicago. This might make sense, considering Pedro has such dominant numbers against current Cubs (mostly against Alfonso Soriano).

So now for the statistics. Here are the current statistics for the afore mentioned starters (excluding Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched) in 2009, through August 5th:

Hamels: 7-6, 21 G, 123.0 IP, 4.68 ERA, 107 K
Lee: 8-9, 23 G, 161.0 IP, 3.02 ERA, 113 K
Blanton: 7-5, 20 G, 125.1 IP, 4.02 ERA, 107 K
Happ: 8-2, 26 G, 115.0 IP, 2.74 ERA, 86 K
Moyer: 10-8, 21 G, 118.1 IP, 5.55 ERA, 68 K

Clearly, the weak link here is Jamie Moyer. Despite not having appeared in relief since 2004 when he was with the Mariners, Moyer fits the bill of an inning-eater out of the pen. However, his style of pitching does not typically lend itself to any type of situational relief. As a result, it would not surprise me to see Moyer left off of the playoff roster, especially in a short NLDS series.

The next assumption, barring a waiver wire acquisition, would be that Brett Myers can return to a relevant role in the bullpen. If he can capture some of the magic that he had as the Phillies' 2007 closer, the team would have another power arm in the back end of their bullpen. This would most likely leave either Rodrigo Lopez or Clay Condrey off of the roster. Nevertheless, it is always good to have options, especially with injuries and inconsistency prevalent this season.

With these 15 arms, there is no doubt that the Phillies will construct a championship-caliber rotation led by Hamels and Lee. If they can creatively build the bullpen to be as effective as the starters, the Phillies' pitching depth should become a strength of the team down the stretch.

Phillies Recap: August 2, 2009

San Francisco Giants 7, Philadelphia Phillies 3

Neither Cole Hamels nor Barry Zito was nearly as sharp as their teammates from last night's game. However, while Chip Caray practiced his over-reactive inflection points, both starters battled hard and kept their teams close early. The Phillies utlimately lost a tough get-away game to the Giants by a final score of 7-3.

Hamels (7-6) fell victim to some early misfortune, as the Giants dinked and dunked hits on him. In the bottom of the second, former Phillie Aaron Rowand opened the scoring with a run-scoring triple with no one out. Hamels bounced back though and limited the damage by stranding Rowand at third. After cruising through the next couple of innings, Hamels found two-out trouble when Zito blooped a broken bat single that led to a three-run outburst. Hamels ran into another jam in the sixth inning which ended his afternoon, as he was tagged for six runs over five plus innings. Chan Ho Park, who allowed two of Hamels' runners to score, Ryan Madson, and Scott Eyre threw an inning each in relief.

Barry Zito (7-10) started out much stronger, facing the minimum through three frames. In the fourth, Jimmy Rollins tied the game with his 11th homer of the season, a no-doubt-about-it shot to left. The Phils then scratched out another unearned run. They added another run in the fifth as Carlos Ruiz came through and proved my theory right. But, as the game progressed, impatient at-bats by the Phillies hitters led to five strikeouts in six innings by Zito. He was lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth, and he was propelled to his seventh win of the season. The Phillies' only other major threat came in the eighth inning when they had two aboard for Utley and Howard, but lefty Jeremy Affeldt escaped unharmed.

The Phillies lose a series for the first time since they were swept by the Braves to start July and finish the road trip 3-4. It was not the start the Phillies or Hamels wanted, as they stumble home for an off day, before taking on the Rockies. The Phillies are now 59-44 on the season. They are currently 5.5 games ahead of the Marlins, who were still in play when the game ended.

Phillies Recap: August 1, 2009

San Francisco Giants 2, Philadelphia Phillies 0

As expected, tonight's Phillies-Giants matchup was a fast-moving pitcher's duel. Unfortunately for the team in red, Tim Lincecum was just a little bit better than Joe Blanton. The Phillies fell to the Giants 2-0 and were shut out for the second time this week. The Phillies' offensive inconsistencies continued on their west coast swing, as they missed several early opportunities to get to Lincecum. The Phillies are now 3-3 on the trip and will look to leave California with a split with the Giants tomorrow.

Joe Blanton started out sharp and was efficient with his pitches. He gave up only one baserunner in the first four innings. However, he was met with some trouble and bad luck in the fifth, as the Giants strung together several hits and scored on Juan Uribe's sacrifice fly. The Giants again put together a run-scoring inning in the seventh inning, culminating with another Uribe sac fly. Overall, Blanton was the hard-luck loser as he went seven strong innings, yielding seven hits and two earned runs while striking out five. He is now 7-5 on the season. Chan Ho Park came in for one inning of relief and tossed a scoreless frame.

Tim Lincecum was simply superb tonight. He had all of his pitches working and was hitting his spots consistently. The Phillies did a good job being patient with him early, and worked him to almost 50 pitches through the third inning. However, they lacked the clutch him in several key points early, which could have given them the lead. In the third inning, Chase Utley grounded out with runners on the corners and two out. In the fourth, the Phillies again had two aboard before Paul Bako struck out to end the threat. And in the fifth, the bases were loaded up for Raul Ibanez's ground out. After that, Lincecum really settled in to shut down the Phils, en route to his eight inning-eight strikeout performance. He scattered seven hits and a walk, before Brian Wilson came in for a 1-2-3 save in the ninth.

It was a tough loss to watch for the Phillies. After coming out of the All-Star Break on fire, the Phillies have cooled down despite solid pitching efforts. With the Marlins' extra-inning loss, the Phillies do maintain their six game lead in the NL East. There's one more game on the road trip, and they will look to go home on a high note as Cole Hamels faces off with veteran Barry Zito. This matchup of southpaws will be another tough test for the Phillies and will be aired on national television.