Quick Stains: Phillies Phodder for June 7th

For three consecutive nights in a row, the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East. Shocking, isn’t it? I never expected this after dropping an entire series to the Diamondbacks. There is really no way to pinpoint the cause of this ebb and flow of the Phils’ play as this has been their M.O. the past few years. Perhaps one thing to look at is the play of the bullpen. If the pitchers in this bullpen, namely Madson, Geary, and Alfonseca, can churn out the sort of numbers that they did during this series more consistently, the pitching staff may finally be stabilized. The key word is “may” as their performance for the rest of the season will determine that.

Another issue could be the tendency to have letdown games/series. We’ve seen it every time the Eagles play a tough game, especially against the hated Cowboys. Players play their hearts out, get caught up in the emotion of the game, and leave it all on the field during intense rivalry games and series. It can take a lot out of a team to come out the next week or the next day and elevate their game that sort of level on regular basis. Maybe that’s what happened after sweeping the Braves, but the Phils should have at least recovered by the end of the series to snatch away one game. It is good to see, though, that they have bounced back with a significant sweep of the Mets at Shea Stadium. They were able to tighten the race in the NL East and maybe, just possibly, start playing like the contenders that J-Roll touted them to be.

Un-Sloppiest Performer of the Game
Pat Burrell—Clearly, this guy has taken a lot of heat as he has been slumping for the past few weeks with an average that, during that time span, isn’t even close to the Mendoza Line. But tonight, he used his BPAS just as Jimmy did last night. Not only did his smash tie up the game, but Pat the Bat did it off of Billy Wagner, a man who is no friend of Burrell’s. To top it all off, he provided a little more insurance for our bullpen, which for some reason has not needed it at all these past few days, by doubling in Ryan Howard. I tip my hat to Pat Burrell, and hopefully, this is the spark he needs to get out of his slump.

Sloppiest Play(s) of the Game
Cole Hamels’ two first pitch fast balls—Understand that I’m not coming down hard on the kid for his performance as he pitched a great game except for those two fastballs that Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca plastered (I don’t count David Wright’s home-run as Willie Randolph found a red challenge flag, which permitted the umps to view the replay on the big screen which they are not supposed to do). The wham-bam-bam-thank-you-ma’am homers let the Mets back into the game, but Cole and the rest of the bullpen kept it close for the next two innings, setting it up for Burrell’s blast and, ultimately, a Phillies’ victory.

Kansas City still has the worst record in the Majors so let’s hope the Phils can, at the very least, take two out of three this weekend. I mean, it’s the Royals…C’MON!