{"id":656,"date":"2010-09-01T09:54:31","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T13:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=656"},"modified":"2010-09-01T09:57:06","modified_gmt":"2010-09-01T13:57:06","slug":"phillies-semi-weekly-report-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=656","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Semi-Weekly Report Card #12"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record since Third Quarter Report Card:\u00a0 <\/strong>4-5<\/p>\n

Overall Record:\u00a0 <\/strong>74-58 (3 behind Braves, 1.5 ahead of Giants\u00a0for Wild Card)<\/p>\n

Tuesday night’s win over the Dodgers closed out the month of August, with the Phils still hanging 3 games behind Atlanta.\u00a0 Conventional wisdom says that it takes a week to gain a game in a pennant race, so with about 4 weeks to go, the Phils still have a very legitimate shot at the division, but their margin for error is slim.\u00a0 Obviously, the six games they have left head-to-head with the Braves will be huge.<\/p>\n

It was a strange 9-game stretch, in some ways.\u00a0 The Phils were swept by the 4th place Astros at home, then swept the Padres, who\u00a0had the best record in the NL, in San Diego.\u00a0 Plus, what would you have said in April if I had told you that the Astros would sweep 4 games in Philly, and\u00a0Roy Oswalt’s only appearance of the series would come as a left-fielder for the Phillies<\/em>?\u00a0 On the other hand, there were some very familiar sights, namely fantastic starting pitching and an inexplicably inept offense.<\/p>\n

On to the grades:<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase hasn't been himself.<\/p><\/div>\n

Position Players:<\/strong>\u00a0 What is wrong with this offense??\u00a0\u00a0That’s the question Phillie fans have been muttering (or shouting) to themselves for much of 2010.\u00a0 In the 8 games prior to Tuesday night’s 8-run outburst, the Phils averaged just over 2 runs a game.\u00a0 A team\u00a0built around its high-powered offense has had several long slumps this season.\u00a0 So, what’s gone wrong?<\/p>\n

The Phils, and their fans, were hopeful that Utley and Howard would come back from their injuries and propel the team past the Braves.\u00a0 You can argue that they may have both come back too early from their injuries, but that’s over and done with now.\u00a0 Utley and Howard combined to\u00a0hit .149 (10-67) over these 9 games, with three of those hits and the only homer (Howard) coming on Tuesday.\u00a0 What we’re seeing here is that injuries can have a more lasting impact than just the time players spend on the DL.\u00a0 You could argue that Jimmy Rollins’s season (.190 this week)\u00a0has also been derailed by his early-season injuries.\u00a0 Baseball is a game of timing and routine, and a lot of Phils’ have had those things thrown out of whack by injuries.<\/p>\n

Besides the above three, Polanco (.189) and Victorino (.176) were also below the Mendoza Line for the week.\u00a0 In fact, the highest batting average for a Phillie regular in these 9 games was Werth at .242 (and two homers).\u00a0 Two of the biggest hits came from the bench, with Mike Sweeney’s 2-run homer on Sunday providing nice insurance in a 3-0 win, and Brian Schneider’s 3-run blast on Tuesday putting the Phils ahead after surrendering a first-inning run.\u00a0 I’m wondering if Ruiz is completely healthy because Schneider has started 3 of the last 6 games, including against a good left-hander (Wandy Rodriguez) on Thursday.\u00a0 And speaking of not completely healthy, Howard looks like he’s having trouble with his lateral mobility at 1st, as two balls went past him to his right on Monday that he normally would have at least knocked down.<\/p>\n

Grade:\u00a0 <\/em>F<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting Pitchers:\u00a0 <\/strong>Over the past few years (or maybe my whole life?), if the Phils had a stretch like this offensively, they would’ve been lucky to win 1 out of 9.\u00a0 Thanks to the starters, though, they went 4-5.\u00a0 Here is an incredible stat:\u00a0 in 61 innings pitched by the starters, they had FOUR walks.\u00a0 It’s pretty great to watch pitchers that just refuse to beat themselves and pound the strike zone like these guys have been.<\/p>\n

The Start of the Week goes to Mr. Hard-luck Hamels, who went 8 shutout innings in his hometown on Sunday, and actually got some run support for his 1st win since the All-Star Break.\u00a0 Cole\u00a0gave up 2 runs in 7 innings\u00a0for a no-decision in that wild 16-inning game\u00a0last Tuesday.\u00a0 Probably the best development of the week was the continued excellence of Joe Blanton.\u00a0 He allowed 1 run in each of his starts, throwing 13 innings combined.\u00a0 Blanton\u00a0had a 2.82 ERA in the month of August.\u00a0 Roy Oswalt also turned in an excellent start, allowing 1 run in 8 innings to beat the Padres on Friday.<\/p>\n

Roy Halladay had a sub-par week,\u00a0but certainly wasn’t bad at all.\u00a0 He gave up 3 runs in 7 innings in each of\u00a0his starts, and was saddled with\u00a0a loss each time.\u00a0 Kyle Kendrick was mediocre, giving up 8 runs in 11 innings in his two starts.<\/p>\n

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

Bullpen<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Despite\u00a0a\u00a0couple hiccups, it has to be considered a successful overall week for the pen.\u00a0 The lowlight, of course, was Brad Lidge balking in the tying run to blow a save on Friday.\u00a0 He was good in his other three appearances, including a 1-2-3 save the day after that balk disaster.\u00a0 This is the Lidge we have to live with.\u00a0 It could be worse.<\/p>\n

Ryan Madson saw his lengthy scoreless streak ended last Monday, but if it wasn’t for a terrible call when Michael Bourn clearly ran out of the base path but was called safe, he very well may have not given up anything.\u00a0 Madson took the loss with 2 runs allowed in that game, but he was flawless in his four other appearances.<\/p>\n

Although David Herndon took the loss in that 16-inning game, it was a strong showing by the pen.\u00a0 They had combined for 8 shutout innings before Herndon was touched for 2 runs in his third inning of work.\u00a0 Jose Contreras and Chad Durbin continued their solid seasons, combining for 9 scoreless innings on the week.\u00a0 Antonio Bastardo was re-called (with Danys Baez put on the DL) to add another lefty, but he hasn’t been used yet.<\/p>\n

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

Up Next:\u00a0 <\/strong>The calendar flipping to September means the rosters expand.\u00a0 It sounds like the Phils will wait until they get back home on Friday to add some players.\u00a0 Greg Dobbs and another catcher (Hoover or Sardinha) will probably be the first players added.\u00a0 Others, including some bullpen depth, will be added as the coming weeks progress.\u00a0 The Phils\u00a0have the rubber match in LA today, one game in Colorado tomorrow, then come home for a 3-game set with Milwaukee.\u00a0 After that, it’s all NL East until the end of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record since Third Quarter Report Card:\u00a0 4-5 Overall Record:\u00a0 74-58 (3 behind Braves, 1.5 ahead of Giants\u00a0for Wild Card) Tuesday night’s win over the Dodgers closed out the month of August, with the Phils still hanging 3 games behind Atlanta.\u00a0 … 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":[23,796,377,30,222,14,308,367,1057,16,788,309,322,218,213,369],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","category-phils-weekly-report","tag-brad-lidge","tag-brian-schneider","tag-carlos-ruiz","tag-chase-utley","tag-cole-hamels","tag-jimmy-rollins","tag-joe-blanton","tag-kyle-kendrick","tag-mike-sweeney","tag-phillies","tag-placido-polanco","tag-roy-halladay","tag-roy-oswalt","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ryan-madson","tag-shane-victorino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","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=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}