{"id":574,"date":"2010-08-06T09:22:27","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T14:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=574"},"modified":"2010-08-06T09:25:22","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T14:25:22","slug":"phillies-semi-weekly-report-card-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=574","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Semi-Weekly Report Card #11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record since last Report Card<\/strong>: 4-2<\/p>\n

Overall Record<\/strong>: 60-48 (2 behind Braves, 1.5 behind Giants in Wild Card)<\/p>\n

Coming right on the heels of an 8-game winning streak, it was amazing how quickly things started to look really bleak this week.\u00a0 The Phils dropped the first two games to the lowly Nationals, with the second loss coming thanks to another Brad Lidge implosion, and then in the\u00a01st inning\u00a0of the next game, Ryan Howard badly turned his ankle and had to be helped off the field.<\/p>\n

All of those things made the subsequent 4-game win streak all the more crucial.\u00a0 The Phils were able to keep pace with the Braves and, maybe more importantly,\u00a0proved to themselves that they can win without their two best hitters in the line-up.<\/p>\n

There were two roster moves this week.\u00a0\u00a0OF John Mayberry was called up to replace Howard, and the team acquired veteran 1B Mike Sweeney from the Mariners, for basically nothing.\u00a0 Cody Ransom was designated for assignment.\u00a0 It looks like Sweeney will platoon with Ross Gload at\u00a01B\u00a0for now, and\u00a0he could stick around for the rest of the season (and post-season) as a pinch-hitter,\u00a0if he produces at all.<\/p>\n

This week’s grades:<\/p>\n

\"ruiz\"Position Players:\u00a0 <\/strong>We’ve gotten\u00a0used to seeing Charlie improvise with his line-ups\u00a0this season, but things just started to get weird this week.\u00a0 Carlos Ruiz batting 6th?\u00a0 Ross Gload batting 3rd??\u00a0 A right-side of the\u00a0defense made up of Wilson Valdez, Cody Ransom, and Dom Brown?\u00a0\u00a0Tuesday’s game\u00a0saw the normal 2 and 5 hitters, Polanco and Werth, hitting 3rd and 4th.\u00a0 It was as if the heart of the line-up, Utley and Howard, were just ripped out and everyone else pushed together, with a couple guys that should probably be in AAA tacked on at the end.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t a banner week for run-scoring, but these guys certainly deserve credit for finding ways to put runs on the board without their two top guns.\u00a0 The hero of the week was definitely Ruiz.\u00a0 Not only did Chooch hit .379 (11-29) with 3 HR and 3 doubles, but he delivered hits at key times.\u00a0 He put the Phils ahead with a 2-out RBI single in the 9th on Saturday (only to watch Lidge blow it).\u00a0 His 4-hit assault on Tuesday included another 2-out RBI single.\u00a0 On Thursday, he stroked a two-run double to break a scoreless tie in the 6th, then delivered the game-winning home run in the 10th inning.<\/p>\n

Polanco continued to produce, hitting .370 (10-27) and Raul Ibanez has been red-hot at the right time, hitting .474 (9-19) with a HR\u00a0this week, raising his season average to .275.\u00a0 Ben Francisco chipped\u00a0in\u00a0with a nice week, hitting .375 (6-16) with a\u00a0HR.\u00a0\u00a0The Dom Brown Watch:\u00a0 he was just 5-23 with no extra-base hits, but he had a nice game on Wednesday, with an RBI single and a sac fly against a\u00a0tough left-hander.\u00a0 He also got to show off his arm for the first time, gunning down a runner at the plate with a bullet throw from right field.<\/p>\n

On the negative side, Jimmy Rollins had a rough week, hitting .222 (6-27).\u00a0 He fouled a ball off his foot early in the week, and it looks like it’s still been bothering him as he wasn’t running that well in the Florida series.\u00a0 All in all, the offense responded well to all the tumult caused by injury.\u00a0 We’ll have to wait and see what they do against quality pitching when they face Johan Santana on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/em> B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting Pitchers:<\/strong>\u00a0 It was a tale of two series for the starters this week: mediocre against Washington but excellent against Florida.\u00a0 This was epitomized by the newly arrived Roy Oswalt, who struggled in his Phillie debut on Friday, but was excellent in shutting down the Marlins on Thursday.\u00a0 Oswalt admitted after his debut that he\u00a0was too “amped up” and “held the ball a little tight.”\u00a0 No doubt, part of that had to do with all the Phillie fans in attendance in Washington.\u00a0 But on Thursday he had his wicked curveball really working, and he left the game in the 7th inning, having not allowed a run, but J.C. Romero came on and allowed both inherited runners to score.<\/p>\n

The Start of the Week goes to Mr. Halladay, who allowed 1 run, with 9 K’s, over 7 innings on Tuesday.\u00a0 Kyle Kendrick had his 3rd straight impressive start since being briefly demoted, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings on Wednesday.\u00a0 It was especially impressive because he had to warm up twice thanks to an hour rain delay at the start of the game.\u00a0 Hamels and Blanton were unspectacular on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

Grade<\/em>: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bullpen:\u00a0 <\/strong>On Saturday, Lidge was as bad as I’ve ever seen him.\u00a0 Coming in with a 1-run lead, the inning went: single, sac bunt, walk, 3-run walk-off homer.\u00a0 Every pitch he threw was either way out of the strike zone or very hittable.\u00a0 I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Ryan Zimmerman crushed one to dead-center to end it.\u00a0\u00a0Lidge had three other save opportunities after that, and he converted all three, allowing just one hit.\u00a0 But he still doesn’t look\u00a0very good.<\/p>\n

We came into this season wondering if we would see the ’08\u00a0or ’09 versions of Lidge.\u00a0 We all expected it would be somewhere in between, and it has been, but\u00a0the unfortunate truth is that\u00a0he’s definitely been closer to the ’09 Lidge.\u00a0 People smarter than me may have come to this conclusion months ago, but I’m just now ready to admit: Lidge can’t be trusted.\u00a0 Of course, we have no other options to close, so we’ll just have to watch between our fingers and hope.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, Jose Contreras and Ryan Madson have been good lately.\u00a0 Both had unblemished weeks and\u00a0each picked up a win.\u00a0 Contreras has allowed just\u00a0one run in his last 10 appearances, while\u00a0Madson has allowed\u00a0one in his last 8.<\/p>\n

Grade<\/em>: C-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Up Next:\u00a0 <\/strong>Six games at home with the Mets and Dodgers.\u00a0 Phils starters for the Mets series: Blanton, Hamels, Halladay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record since last Report Card: 4-2 Overall Record: 60-48 (2 behind Braves, 1.5 behind Giants in Wild Card) Coming right on the heels of an 8-game winning streak, it was amazing how quickly things started to look really bleak this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1028],"tags":[23,377,382,1058,14,1031,367,1057,16,788,408,309,322,218,213],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","category-phils-weekly-report","tag-brad-lidge","tag-carlos-ruiz","tag-charlie-manuel","tag-cody-ransom","tag-jimmy-rollins","tag-jose-contreras","tag-kyle-kendrick","tag-mike-sweeney","tag-phillies","tag-placido-polanco","tag-raul-ibanez","tag-roy-halladay","tag-roy-oswalt","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ryan-madson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}