GaryMrMets
06-02-2006, 02:23 AM
http://philadelphia.comcastsportsnet.com/view_content_1p.asp?ID=31446
Walks, Lack of Offense Doom Phillies in Loss to Nationals
by John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com
There was a stretch of games during early April when Cory Lidle refused to walk a hitter. If, by chance, he reached a three-ball on any batter he’d fire one in there that would be an unmistakable strike. During a battle with Braves catcher Brian McCann, that tact cost Lidle when his three-ball fastball was grooved so well that it was blasted for a home run.
It wasn’t the first – or the last – time that Lidle’s penchant for refusing to walk a guy cost him. Actually, the eight-year veteran remembered a time when he was pitching for Cincinnati when Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench approached him after a game and offered him some sage advice.
“Johnny Bench said to me, ‘You know, it’s OK to walk a guy occasionally,’” Lidle recalled.
But in Wednesday afternoon’s hard-luck, 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals at the Bank, it was a dreaded bases on balls that came back to bite him on the rear. Working in the seventh inning of a tie game, Lidle issued a leadoff walk to Nationals’ eight-hole hitter Mike Vento, who came around to score the game winning run two hitters later.Oh, those bases on balls.
“That walk in the seventh hurt him,” manager Charlie Manuel pointed out.
Interestingly, walks have been the bane of Lidle’s pitching outings lately. After walking just one hitter in his first three starts of the season and a measly three in the opening month of 2006 in five starts, Lidle has been issuing free passes like a guy trying to drum up business for something. With three added to the ledger during his 6 1/3 innings against the Nationals, Lidle has walked eight in his last two starts covering 12 1/3 innings and 16 this month in six starts.
That’s quite a departure.
“I’m not as sharp as I was earlier in the year, [and] I don’t know why,” Lidle said. “It will come back. It comes and goes, I guess.”
Certainly, the walks weren’t the only things to hurt the Phillies or Lidle on a steamy Wednesday afternoon. Just as troubling was the one-out single opposing pitcher Livan Hernandez picked up in the third inning to set the table for leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano to crush his 19th homer of the season.
Hernandez caused a little damage in the seventh after the walk to Vento, too, by dropping a perfect sacrifice bunt so that Soriano could drive in the game-winning run with a single to center.
Eliminate Hernandez and Soriano from the equation and maybe the Phillies pull that one out?
“You have to make good pitches to get him out,” said Lidle of Hernandez, who has four of his seven hits – including a pair of doubles and a homer – against the Phillies this season. “If you pitch him like an All-Star you’ll get him out.”
That’s probably true. But on the other hand, Soriano is an All-Star and Lidle couldn’t get him out, either. On the third-inning homer, Lidle said he wanted to bounce a two-strike curve in the dirt but Soriano was able to reach it and then smoke it.
Now if the Phillies (27-25) could have figured out how to hit Hernandez as well as he has handled the bat against them, perhaps the team would have sewn up its fourth straight victory. Then again, one-run games and hitting with runners in scoring position haven’t served the Phillies well this season.
With the latest loss, the Phillies are 7-11 in one-run after dropping the last seven one-run decisions in a row.
“That’s a lot,” Manuel said. “If we could have just won half of those we’d be in first place.”
Maybe not, but if the Phillies could hit for a slightly better average with runners in scoring position they very well could be. Then again, one hit in their six chances with runners in scoring position on Wednesday afternoon was the difference between winning and losing despite the walks from Lidle.
With the 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against the Nats, including chances with less than one out in the fifth, seventh and ninth, the Phillies are hitting .235 in those situations this season.
What gives?
“I wish I had the answer,” Manuel said. “Every time we had runners in scoring position today we had a chance to win the game.
“When we really needed a hit, we couldn’t get it.”
The big hits came from David Dellucci, who started in left field to give Pat Burrell a day off, and Aaron Rowand. Dellucci led off the fifth with a line drive homer to right to tie the game at 2 and added a one-out double in the ninth off closer Chad Cordero to spark a late rally, while Rowand smashed his seventh homer of the season with one out in the second.
But that was pretty much it.
“We just couldn’t get it done,” Manuel said. “I really thought we were going to get to Hernandez.”
Not this time.
Nevertheless, it gets a little tougher from here. Strapped with a pitching rotation that is missing opening day starter Jon Lieber and top prospect Cole Hamels, the Phils need some help or some hitting… or both. Worse, the depleted rotation, featuring Eude Brito, Gavin Floyd, and Ryan Madson, who have all of 31 career starts between them, will have to face the streaking Dodgers and Diamondbacks during the longest road trip of the season, beginning on Thursday.
“We have to play over .500 ball on this trip,” Manuel said. “We have to start winning some games.”
Said Lidle: “We’ve been pretty streaky up until now. The way we’ve been playing has been pretty weird. When we’re winning we’ve been getting good pitching and hitting. It would be nice to figure out why we’ve been so streaky.”
The Phillies will get a chance to work on a reason as they jet off to the coast to kick off the 11-game road trip on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. Floyd (4-2, 6.62) squares off against Derek Lowe (3-3, 2.90) in the opener, followed by Madson (5-3, 5.72), Brito in his season debut, and Brett Myers (4-2, 2.80). Jae Seo (2-3, 5.36), Brad Penny (5-1, 2.87) and Aaron Sele (3-0, 2.20) will work in turn for the Dodgers.
Notes
Hamels pitches on Thursday in a rehab start for Single-A Lakewood. … Ryan Howard finished the month with a Major League-leading 13 homers and 35 RBIs. The 13 homers are second in team history for the month of May behind Cy Williams’ 15 in 1923. … Soriano hit 12 homers in May. … Former Phillie Marlon Byrd robbed Bobby Abreu from a home run in the fourth inning.
http://philadelphia.comcastsportsnet.com/images/content/phillies/053106-fasano_small.jpg
Rightfielder Mike Vento beats Sal Fasano's tag in the seventh inning Wednesday afternoon. (AP)
Walks, Lack of Offense Doom Phillies in Loss to Nationals
by John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com
There was a stretch of games during early April when Cory Lidle refused to walk a hitter. If, by chance, he reached a three-ball on any batter he’d fire one in there that would be an unmistakable strike. During a battle with Braves catcher Brian McCann, that tact cost Lidle when his three-ball fastball was grooved so well that it was blasted for a home run.
It wasn’t the first – or the last – time that Lidle’s penchant for refusing to walk a guy cost him. Actually, the eight-year veteran remembered a time when he was pitching for Cincinnati when Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench approached him after a game and offered him some sage advice.
“Johnny Bench said to me, ‘You know, it’s OK to walk a guy occasionally,’” Lidle recalled.
But in Wednesday afternoon’s hard-luck, 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals at the Bank, it was a dreaded bases on balls that came back to bite him on the rear. Working in the seventh inning of a tie game, Lidle issued a leadoff walk to Nationals’ eight-hole hitter Mike Vento, who came around to score the game winning run two hitters later.Oh, those bases on balls.
“That walk in the seventh hurt him,” manager Charlie Manuel pointed out.
Interestingly, walks have been the bane of Lidle’s pitching outings lately. After walking just one hitter in his first three starts of the season and a measly three in the opening month of 2006 in five starts, Lidle has been issuing free passes like a guy trying to drum up business for something. With three added to the ledger during his 6 1/3 innings against the Nationals, Lidle has walked eight in his last two starts covering 12 1/3 innings and 16 this month in six starts.
That’s quite a departure.
“I’m not as sharp as I was earlier in the year, [and] I don’t know why,” Lidle said. “It will come back. It comes and goes, I guess.”
Certainly, the walks weren’t the only things to hurt the Phillies or Lidle on a steamy Wednesday afternoon. Just as troubling was the one-out single opposing pitcher Livan Hernandez picked up in the third inning to set the table for leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano to crush his 19th homer of the season.
Hernandez caused a little damage in the seventh after the walk to Vento, too, by dropping a perfect sacrifice bunt so that Soriano could drive in the game-winning run with a single to center.
Eliminate Hernandez and Soriano from the equation and maybe the Phillies pull that one out?
“You have to make good pitches to get him out,” said Lidle of Hernandez, who has four of his seven hits – including a pair of doubles and a homer – against the Phillies this season. “If you pitch him like an All-Star you’ll get him out.”
That’s probably true. But on the other hand, Soriano is an All-Star and Lidle couldn’t get him out, either. On the third-inning homer, Lidle said he wanted to bounce a two-strike curve in the dirt but Soriano was able to reach it and then smoke it.
Now if the Phillies (27-25) could have figured out how to hit Hernandez as well as he has handled the bat against them, perhaps the team would have sewn up its fourth straight victory. Then again, one-run games and hitting with runners in scoring position haven’t served the Phillies well this season.
With the latest loss, the Phillies are 7-11 in one-run after dropping the last seven one-run decisions in a row.
“That’s a lot,” Manuel said. “If we could have just won half of those we’d be in first place.”
Maybe not, but if the Phillies could hit for a slightly better average with runners in scoring position they very well could be. Then again, one hit in their six chances with runners in scoring position on Wednesday afternoon was the difference between winning and losing despite the walks from Lidle.
With the 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against the Nats, including chances with less than one out in the fifth, seventh and ninth, the Phillies are hitting .235 in those situations this season.
What gives?
“I wish I had the answer,” Manuel said. “Every time we had runners in scoring position today we had a chance to win the game.
“When we really needed a hit, we couldn’t get it.”
The big hits came from David Dellucci, who started in left field to give Pat Burrell a day off, and Aaron Rowand. Dellucci led off the fifth with a line drive homer to right to tie the game at 2 and added a one-out double in the ninth off closer Chad Cordero to spark a late rally, while Rowand smashed his seventh homer of the season with one out in the second.
But that was pretty much it.
“We just couldn’t get it done,” Manuel said. “I really thought we were going to get to Hernandez.”
Not this time.
Nevertheless, it gets a little tougher from here. Strapped with a pitching rotation that is missing opening day starter Jon Lieber and top prospect Cole Hamels, the Phils need some help or some hitting… or both. Worse, the depleted rotation, featuring Eude Brito, Gavin Floyd, and Ryan Madson, who have all of 31 career starts between them, will have to face the streaking Dodgers and Diamondbacks during the longest road trip of the season, beginning on Thursday.
“We have to play over .500 ball on this trip,” Manuel said. “We have to start winning some games.”
Said Lidle: “We’ve been pretty streaky up until now. The way we’ve been playing has been pretty weird. When we’re winning we’ve been getting good pitching and hitting. It would be nice to figure out why we’ve been so streaky.”
The Phillies will get a chance to work on a reason as they jet off to the coast to kick off the 11-game road trip on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. Floyd (4-2, 6.62) squares off against Derek Lowe (3-3, 2.90) in the opener, followed by Madson (5-3, 5.72), Brito in his season debut, and Brett Myers (4-2, 2.80). Jae Seo (2-3, 5.36), Brad Penny (5-1, 2.87) and Aaron Sele (3-0, 2.20) will work in turn for the Dodgers.
Notes
Hamels pitches on Thursday in a rehab start for Single-A Lakewood. … Ryan Howard finished the month with a Major League-leading 13 homers and 35 RBIs. The 13 homers are second in team history for the month of May behind Cy Williams’ 15 in 1923. … Soriano hit 12 homers in May. … Former Phillie Marlon Byrd robbed Bobby Abreu from a home run in the fourth inning.
http://philadelphia.comcastsportsnet.com/images/content/phillies/053106-fasano_small.jpg
Rightfielder Mike Vento beats Sal Fasano's tag in the seventh inning Wednesday afternoon. (AP)