6/14/13
What a dreadful series this has been for the Phillies. They
have lost the first two games of this series, both one run games, and it fell
in the fate of the bullpen. The Phillies thought Mike Adams would solve their
eighth inning woes in the bullpen, but that has not been the case in this
series, or this year as a matter of fact. The Phillies went from a five game
winning streak back to a five game losing streak. Their offense is back to what
it’s been this entire season; dormant. The Phillies made a few roster moves
before the game. They sent Cesar Hernandez and Tyler Cloyd to the minors and
they called Jake Diekman and Michael Martinez up to the big club. Eventually
Diekman will be sent down to the minors to make room for John Lannan. He will
come off the 15-Day disabled list on Monday. Charlie Manuel changed his lineup
at the top of the order. He switched Ben Revere from the two hole to leadoff
and Michael Young went from leadoff to the two hole. Cliff Lee got the start
last night. He has been the only good pitcher so far for the Phillies. Kevin
Correia took the mound for the Twins. Will the Phillies finally win one for
Cliff Lee or will they go back to giving him no run support?
The Phillies didn’t provide a lot of runs for Lee, but as
has been the case all season, Lee pitched brilliantly last night. Ryan Howard
started the scoring in the first inning as he shot a single into right field
that scored Ben Revere to make it a 1-0 game. There were a lot of zero’s in
this game until the seventh inning happened. The Twins got one big hit by
Justin Morneau as he hit a liner into left centerfield and a diving attempt by
Revere to catch the ball failed as the ball rolled away from him. Just like
that the Twins took a 2-1 lead. In the next inning, Michael Young hit an RBI
single into right field that scored pinch hitter Kevin Frandsen. Then Jimmy
Rollins hit into a fielder’s choice, but the Twins tried to throw Revere out at
home, but Revere slid safely into home before the ball got into Joe Mauer’s
glove. The Phillies won this game by a score of 3-2.
As I stated before, Lee was great. He did what he always
does. He mixed his fastball and cutter and threw the old loopy curveball to
fool the batters. He threw seven spectacular innings. He should have shutout
the Twins, but the first base umpire unraveled Lee as he called Ryan Doumit
safe on a play at first that should have been called out. Lee left the game
after the seventh because he had a blister in his left middle finger. It was
not because he had thrown 101 pitches. The bullpen finally didn’t blow a lead.
Mike Adams and Jonathan Papelbon shut down the Twins in the final two innings.
Papelbon recorded his 12th save of the season.
Correia didn’t have his best game. The Phillies were more
selective at the plate than they’ve been recently. He’s known as a groundball
pitcher, but the Phillies found some holes in the field and got nine hits off
of Correia. Not only did the Phillies knock a starter out of the game after
five innings, but they made a pitcher throw over 100 pitches through five
innings. The Twins bullpen, usually good, blew the game last night as Jared
Burton suffered the loss as he gave up the tying and winning run in the eighth
inning.
Overall, the Phillies should have blown this game wide open.
They had 16 hits in the game and only scored three runs. That’s unacceptable. I
understand that a win is a win, but this Twins team is a terrible team. They
left 16 men on base. That’s not good. This is what separates the good teams on
offense from the bad teams on offense. I really liked Ben Revere’s game at the
plate. He looked for pitches that he can hit and got himself a four hit game.
Ryan Howard had some good swings too. He had himself a three hit game, and beat
the shift twice on two of his three singles. Michael Young seems to have found
his groove at the plate. Maybe that time hitting leadoff made him get his
timing back on his swing.
How should the
Phillies fare in the final leg of their road trip as they travel to Colorado?
Sound off and stay tuned until next time…
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