Phillies Semi-Weekly Report Card #7

Record in Last Seven Days: 4-2

Overall Record: 38-32, 3rd in division (2.5 behind Braves and Mets)

After a month-long hiatus, the Phillies Semi-Weekly Report Card finally makes its return.  Since I handed out a slew of high grades and an A- Overall Grade for the 1st Quarter of the season, the team basically went into the toilet.  On that day, May 22nd, the Phils had the best record in the NL (26-15) and the biggest division lead in baseball (4.5 games).  As of a few days ago, they were barely over .500 and were 5.5 games behind the division-leading Braves, and sitting in third place, thanks to a 9-17 record since that May 22nd Report Card. 

What went wrong?  Honestly (and luckily for me), I don’t really know, because I barely watched any games throughout that whole stretch.  Obviously, the main thing that went wrong, though, is the offensive firepower fizzled out to a staggering degree, led by two guys that I touted as MVP candidates a month ago, Chase Utley and Jayson Werth.  The tough schedule also didn’t help.  They played road series against the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, and Mets in that stretch, and their only opponent with a losing record were the always-feisty Marlins.  But this is a team, of course, with championship aspirations, and a tough stretch of the schedule is no excuse for not winning games.

But, just like the team needs to do, we’re going to put that tough stretch behind us and get back into the swing of the semi-weekly report by handing out grades for just the past 7 days, a week that has seen the start of a turn-around.  This afternoon, they beat the Indians to complete their first sweep since mid-May.  It was an easy rout today, but the first two games of the series were both good, hard-fought wins.  The kind of games that good teams win (even if they were against the lowly Indians). 

Before we move onto the grades, we have the obligatory injury updates:  Carlos Ruiz and Chad Durbin both landed on the DL this week, but both should be out for the minimum 15 days.  J-Roll returned from his second lengthy DL stint, and made his presence known on Wednesday night with a walk-off 2-run homer.  Dane Sardinha is up as the backup C, and Mike Zagurski and Nelson Figueroa have re-joined the pen.  Also, in a surprising move, Greg Dobbs was designated for assignment as the team decided to keep both Juan Castro and Wilson Valdez following the return of Rollins.  You have to think Ruben Amaro will be in the market for a bat to replace Dobbs as the trade deadline approaches next month.

Position Players:  The offense really began breaking out of its LONG slump with a couple of wins at Yankee Stadium last week, and that carried that over to this week, for the most part.  They didn’t do much on Sunday or Tuesday, but they scored at least 7 runs in all four of the other games. Utley and Werth had really productive weeks, but Ryan Howard had the best week, with 11 hits and 3 homers, including Friday’s performance against the Twins, when he was 4-4 with 2 homers, a triple, and a double.  Rollins started off 0-8 before launching that game-winner, to get Hit of the Week honors.  And although it took him a little while to get the bat going, his defense looked good right away, as he stole a hit on a groundball up the middle in his first inning back.

Grade: B+

Starting Pitchers:  It was a fairly typical week for this group: rock solid, if unspectacular.  Most of the starts were of the 6-7 innings, 3 run variety, including both by Joe Blanton, which was good to see after his recent struggles.  Kyle Kendrick had a rough go against Cleveland, pitching 4+ shaky innings in a no-decision.  The best start of the week was clearly Jamie Moyer, who had all his pitches working against Cleveland on Tuesday, going 8 innings and allowing 1 run on just 2 hits.

Grade: B+

Bullpen:  When it comes to bullpens, the bad performances will always stand out more than good ones.  That’s just the way it is.  And so, when you look back on this week, the utter disaster on Saturday easily overshadows some solid work that the pen did at other times.  The Phils entered the 9th inning with a 9-4 lead.  Contreras and Lidge tag-teamed to give up the 5 runs to tie it.  Durbin gave up the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th, but the Phils tied it up.  Then, just when it seemed like they had taken the momentum back, Danys Baez promptly surrendered 3 runs in the 11th to complete the scoring in a gut-punch 13-10 loss.  The final tally for those four relievers: 3.1 IP, 9 earned runs.  Ouch.

Scott Mathieson, pitching in the bigs for the first time in four years following two Tommy John surgeries, showed a 99 MPH fastball on Friday night, but still gave up two runs.  Due to all the roster juggling, the team was forced to designate him for assignment before he pitched again.  He has the kind of live arm that could be helpful down the road, so hopefully we’ll see him back on the team before the end of the season.  The high point of the week for the pen was following Kendrick’s struggles on Wednesday, when the pen put in five innings of work, allowing one run, setting up J-Roll’s game-winning blast.  Making his first appearance since 2007, Zagurski looked solid, and he’ll have a chance to supplant Bastardo as the second lefty in the pen, behind Romero.

Grade:  D+