| Bill Meltzer. 28th June, 2005 - 2:57 am
 In baseball, the most telling way to separate the contenders from the pretenders is how the team handles adversity. To the shock of few, the Philadelphia Phillies have proven themselves to be pretenders.
For the second time in the 2005 season, the club withered when faced with key injuries. Faced with the loss of Randy Wolf, arguably the team’s most consistent starter from May to mid-June and the recurring groin problems of Kenny Lofton, the team has careened back down to a game over .500 and 5 ½ games off the pace in National League East.
The Phillies 12-1 home stand of a few weeks ago is now but a fading memory as the team lost 2 of 3 in three successive series, then capped it off by getting humiliated in a three game sweep at home by the defending champion Red Sox.
Before the Boston series finale, manager Charlie Manuel called a team meeting to try to rally the troops. Instead, the team suffered a heartbreaking loss, with certain players resorting to convenient excuse-making.
The Phillies’ recent problems have begun with their suddenly shaky starting pitching. A team strength through most of the early season, the rotation has come unglued.
Righthander Brett Myers has had mediocre-to-poor outings in 3 of his last 4 starts and capped off his Sunday beating by the BoSox with one of his infamous immature outbursts; blaming home plate umpire Gary Darling’s strike zone and the Citizen’s Bank Ballpark contours for the 4 inning, 7 run, 2 gopher ball egg he laid.
Catcher Mike Lieberthal responded to Myers’ tirade by telling the Philadelphia media, “For me, it’s just an excuse….Brett was throwing pitches off the plate, not missing by much, but they were balls.”
Meanwhile, Jon Lieber and Vicente Padilla have been serving up batting practice to opposing hitters. Lieber, stung by Manuel’s suggestion that he wasn’t in good enough shape to get through the lineup twice, has pitched generally poor games even during the team’s winning stretch. In his last 3 starts, he’s only given the club 18 1/3rd innings, allowing 27 hits and 14 runs. Lieber has already given up 22 long balls on the season.
But Lieber (8-7, 4.93 ERA) has been a veritable Cy Young candidate compared with Padilla. The Nicaraguan’s 3-7 record and 6.79 earned run average are deceptive stats. He’s actually pitched worse. Padilla’s “great stuff” routinely puts the team several runs in the hole early and he’s averaging less than 5 innings per start, putting a huge strain on the bullpen. Padilla seems positively allergic to challenging hitters (as his miserable 31 walks to 35 strikeout ratio and 64 hits allowed in 50 1/3rd innings indicates). That includes opposing pitchers, against whom Padilla has a special knack for falling behind in the count.
Devoid of viable options to replace Padilla, Manuel has pledged to keep him in the rotation. Speaking in his typical homespun style to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Todd Zolecki, Manuel said, “I’m not looking to cut Padilla. I’m not looking to punish Padilla. I’m looking to get Padilla pitching like he’s shown in the past. …I want him to be consistent. I want him to pitch good.”
Unlike Padilla, the competitive fires burn in fifth starter Cory Lidle’s belly. But Lidle (6-6, 4.12 ERA) must have perfect location and change speeds to be effective, because he lacks overpowering stuff. He’s generally kept the ball in the yard and prevented the team from being blown out, but he’s a fifth starter for good reason.
With Wolfe lost for the season, the Phillies do not have a lefthander in the rotation. Flame throwing rookie Robinson Tejeda has been outstanding so far in three starts. But Tejeda now faces a huge challenge – trying to play stopper against a club (the Mets) who just faced him last week and now know what he throws.
Tejeda, who was plagued by wildness in the minor leagues, breezed through 6 innings with nary a walk in his last start against the Mets. But Manuel opted to pinch hit for him in the bottom of the 6th with the Phillies leading 2-1. The strategy backfired, as the Phillies failed to score and reliever Ryan Madson (the eventual winner) promptly gave up the tying run.
Over in the bullpen, closer Billy Wagner hasn’t had a save opportunity in over a week and has had to be used in several non-save situations. The early returns on the Placido Polanco for Ugueth Urbina trade have been disastrous, with Urbina (11.08 ERA) having been pounded in three of his appearances so far, including 5 home runs.
As a result, Madson, a converted starter, continues to be overused by Manuel. He’s thrown nearly as many innings of relief (43 2/3rd) as Padilla has in the rotation. All in all, Madson’s done the job, as he did as a rookie last year.
But left hander Rheal Cormier hasn’t. Yielding a 4 spot to Boston, ruining a comeback all the way back from a 7-0 (and 8-1 deficit), Cormier put the team out of the game. Afterwards, like Myers, Cormier complained the hitter-friendly home ballpark “penalized” the Phillies pitchers and turned “popups” into home runs.
To be fair, the park does turn what would be rim-of-the-warning track fly balls or line drive doubles in other parks into home runs. And Cormier has been much more effective on the road (3.09 ERA in 15 appearances) than at home (7.31 ERA, 5 home runs in 16 appearances). But for a pitcher against whom both left and right handed hitters alike are hitting over .300 this season, the “unfriendly confines” argument seems pretty weak. The big difference has been that Cormier hasn’t walked a batter on the road and has issued 7 free passes at home. And when the game has been on the line, Cormier has been awful.
In 10 games Cormier has entered with the score tied or the Phillies leading or trailing by one or two runs, he’s been brutalized to the tune of 11 hits and 9 runs (7 earned). Letting him start an inning or inherit runners with no outs been a kiss of death the entire season, as he’s given up 17 hits (including 5 homers) and in those situations, while only recording 22 outs. That has nothing to do with the ballpark. That’s just poor relief pitching.
The Phillies offense, which was on fire during the 12-1 homestand, has been inconsistent from game to game in the time since. It’s no coincidence that the offense came alive when Kenny Lofton (.373 in 142 ABs) came off the DL and has been spotty again since he’s been bothered by what’s being deemed a mild groin strain. Lofton saw mostly pinch-hitting duty against the Red Sox after leaving Friday night’s game early.
The heart of the lineup is slumping. While Pat Burrell came through with a pair of hits, including his 16th homer, in the series finale against Boston, the left fielder has been in one his Rob Deer-like strikeout binges.
Ditto Jim Thome, who is batting a miserable .219 with 7 home runs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Tim Wakefield knuckleball or Victor Zambrano fastball; Thome’s swinging through it.
Even the club’s best hitter, Bobby Abreu, went through a tough recent stretch, seeing his average tumble 20 points before a 3 hit game in the Boston series finale got him back up to .321. With the team trailing by 4 in the bottom of the 9th, Abreu led off the inning. He drew scattered boos from fans who apparently thought he didn’t run as hard as possible coming out of the box on a slow chopper in the infield. The Phillies went down in turn to end the game.
After a much-needed off day (the team’s ALS charity auction), the Phillies head to New York to take on the Mets. If Philly drops 2 of 3, they’ll be back to .500 and back in their accustomed home – last place. |
