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Double Your Displeasure, Double Your Phunk
2007-04-05 12:58
by Mike Carminati
The 2007 season is only a couple of games old, and the Phils are already finding creative ways to blow leads.  Last night, they wasted a great outing by Cole Hamels, even though they handed their highly priced closer, Tom Gordon, the ball with a two-run lead in the ninth.  Those are exactly the situations that they cannot afford to let slip through their fingers.
 
Gordon allowed two runs, and then the putative setup man Ryan Madson allowed another extra-inning homer which resulted in another loss.
 
With a paper-thin bullpen, the Phils have lost the last two games at the hands of ostensibly their best two relievers, Gordon and Madson.   They have had two good outings by their two starters, both of which went at least seven innings.  The bullpen is rested and as fully stocked as possible and still their putative strength in the pen is being overpowered.  Meanwhile, Charlie “I Need a Friggin’” Manuel has yet to call on Antonio “Six Finger” Alfonseca, which tells me he is afraid to use him, which is the best that can be said of Manuel’s evaluating skills.
 
By the end of this weekend a couple of things should be clear even to the dolts running the Phils’ front office:
 
1) The Phils need at least one, preferably two, premier relievers.  This is not 1978.  Pat Gillick has to understand that cobbling together three or four decent relievers does not constitute a bullpen.  With teams averaging about four pitchers per game, this staff is just not going to cut it.  This will become more and more apparent as the short and abysmal starts by Adam Eaton start to pile up. Also, Madson must move back to his long relieve role.  He is just not a setup man. He needs longer appearances to establish himself.
 
2) Manuel’s experiment with Ryan Howard batting third has to stop.  Howard is just too slow and he and Utley look too tentative in their new spots in the order.  Why tinker with the two best guys in the lineup? 
 
I know why—Manuel spent his winter trying to solve ways to “protect” Howard.  He’s disenchanted with Burrell, who was almost jettisoned in the offseason, but Burrell is far from an unproductive hitter.  Yes, he strikes out a lot, but doesn’t everyone in this lineup? Besides, Burrell can also pick up a walk or two, which is a lost art on this team.  Burrell is the logical number five hitter behind Howard.  Put the order back in order and leave it there.
 
These are their two biggest problems right now.  And I haven’t even gone into their unresolved problems from last year like not having a real right fielder (just two center fielders), not having a leadoff man (Rollins is too streaky and does not walk enough), not having a starting third baseman (Helms is just a brick-gloved journeyman with decent pop), and the tail-end of the rotation (Moyers and Eaton and let’s wait to get beaten).
 
On a tangentially related note, the Phils have now become just the eighth team in baseball history to lose their first tow games of the season in extra innings.  Maybe it bodes well since the previous seven were for the most part very good clubs:
 
Season
Game 1
Game 2
Yr
Tm
W
L
H/A
R
Opp
RA
Inn
H/A
R
Opp
RA
Inn
1910
DET
86
68
H
7
CLE
9
10
H
2
CLE
6
10
1943
SLN
105
49
A
0
CIN
1
11
A
0
CIN
1
10
1964
NYY
99
63
H
3
BOS
4
11
A
3
BAL
4
11
1969
MIN
97
65
A
3
KCA
4
12
A
3
KCA
4
17
1985
SLN
101
61
A
5
NYN
6
10
A
1
NYN
2
11
1999
ARI
100
62
A
6
LAN
8
11
A
2
LAN
3
10
2004
CLE
80
82
A
4
MIN
7
11
A
6
MIN
7
15
 
Only one team has started the season with three straight extra-inning losses.  That was the 1964 Yankees, and they went to the Series:
 
Season
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Yr
Tm
W
L
H/A
R
Opp
RA
Inn
H/A
R
Opp
RA
Inn
H/A
R
Opp
RA
Inn
1964
NYY
99
63
H
3
BOS
4
11
A
3
BAL
4
11
A
1
BAL
2
12
 
But don’t get too excited: these guys aren’t the ’64 Yankees. Besides Eaton will give up a handful of runs in the first three innings today obviating the need for extra innings to loss the game.  And who’ll relieve him in the fifth?  Where’s Warren Brusstar when you need him?
Comments
2007-04-05 23:00:27
1.   das411
Ah but Mike, who was the last Phillies pitcher to lose the team's first two games in a season?

.....(please don't tell me it was Warren Brusstar...)

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