Who is this team?
The Good: Hopefully Rollins is coming out of his mini-slump. He’s such a crucial part of this lineup because of his ability to score, to make other people score, and steal bases. In his last two games, he’s had two hits each and he scored twice each game. At times, he can be more important to this lineup then Ryan Howard, unless Howard’s hitting walk-off homeruns). Adam Eaton didn’t complete sucks. I still hate him, not as much as Fredy Garcia, but more then Jamie Moyer.
The Bad: Usually even when this team wins, there is still something to complain about. But a win against the Mets is always huge. But a come from behind win so late in the game shows that this team still has some fight left in it. So for the third day, nothing to complain about here.
I want to cheer for this team so very very badly. It’s not that I enjoy watching my team lose. I just don’t want to get emotionally attached to someone as bi-polar as this team. We all know Eaton isn’t going to have games like this for the rest of the season. He pitched well because he had a two week break. Maybe that was long enough to have his arm back to full strength, but more likely it’s just a break from his consistent poor outings. 
And Geary has one good outing, so is he going to become this team’s next closer? No. More likely then not, he’s going to get shelled in his next appearance. This team just has too many holes to become anything spectacular. We’ve seen this all season long, especially in the three game sweep of the Braves early in the season. In which they were swept by the Diamondbacks in their next series. And this was before the Diamondbacks were any good. The Phillies can step up their game against tough teams. But they can’t beat the sucky teams. That’s what makes this team so hard to cheer for. All I’m trying to say, which I am repeating from yesterday and will continue to remind you, my faithful readers, is that it’s going to come down to the last week of the season. But the experienced Phillies fans that we are, we should be prepared for it.
Compiling an ERA of 7.27 in the month of August is not good. And going 5.0 innings OR LESS in three of his last five games might possibly be worst. What happend to this guy? I don’t think I have to remind you of Moyer’s last start, in which the Phillies lost 14-3 to the Padres. When he first started struggling, I laid the blame on the homeplate umpire’s small strike zone. But it’s hard to use that excuse for two straight months. The experienced veteran that he is, he knows more then anyone that every game is enormous from here on out. Maybe he should stop “teaching” the younger players and instead listen to Mr. Kendrick to find out how he is so successful.
Last start: L / 4.2 / 6 ER / 10 H / 2 BB / 2 SO / San Diego
12-8 with a 3.34 ERA are quite impressive numbers that Oliver Perez brings into his next start. A pitcher who usually will have at least one meltdown per start, avoided it his last time out and put together a stellar performance. Perez does tend to be a bit inconsistent from start to start and from pitch to pitch. He has good enough “stuff” to be a great pitcher, but does tend to have mental lapses that can lead to big innings. He comes at batters with great fearlessness, but that can lead to trouble when those batters are Howard, Utley, and Rollins. As shown in his last start, when Perez gets in a groove, he can be hard to beat. The Phillies need to hit him hard early and often.
Last start: W / 7.0 / 0 ER / 3 H / 5 BB / 6 SO / Los Angeles
Last words . . . I miss Iguchi.
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Posted on August 28, 2007 by Soss | Filed Under Baseball, Philadelphia, Phillies, Philly Sports, Professional Sports
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