GAME RECAP: Rockies Stifle Phillies 5-2
Eddie Butler may not
have expected to start Saturday, but his performance proved he was ready. Thanks
in large part to the efficient work of Butler, who was a last-minute
substitution for scheduled starter Jorge De La Rosa,
the Rockies continued their winning ways Saturday, defeating the Phillies 5-2. Butler
settled down after allowing a run in the first inning and hurled five shutout
innings to finish what was statistically his most
effective start of the season. He needed just
78 pitches to dispatch the Phillies in a six-inning, four-hit, one-run
performance that brought the rookie to 3-5 and dropped his ERA from 4.60 to
4.22. "I attacked the zone, got early contact and let the guys make some
plays," said Butler, who accumulated 11 outs on grounders, including one
double play. The Rockies homered three times for the second straight game,
scoring their first three runs via home runs from Nolan Arenado, Michael McKenry and Ben Paulsen. The team has won six of its last seven
and seven of 10. Colorado also clinched its first regular-season series win at
Citizens Bank since Aug. 9-12, 2004. "When you hit the ball out of the
park and get good starting pitching, usually you're in good shape,"
Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. For the Phillies, the loss extended their
losing streak to six games for the second time this season. The team is now a season-high
13 games below .500. Starting pitcher Aaron Harang threw six quality innings, only allowing
two runs on four hits and striking out seven, but his offense was unable to
back him up after the first inning. "That was a quality start for
Harang," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "Threw 109 pitches and
gave up two runs. He pitched well with men on base. We struggled out of the
bullpen with command and leaving pitches up in the zone and gave some runs up.
On the offensive side of things we had men left on base and couldn't get the
big hit."
OTHER
NOTES FROM THE DAY:
- After scoring all of their runs on homers in a 4-1 victory
Friday night, the Rockies went deep twice in the second against the
usually homer-stingy Harang. Arenado parked his 11th homer of the year and
McKenry hit his third. McKenry is hitting .367 with three homers and eight
RBIs in 30 career at-bats at Citizens Bank Park. Harang had given up just
two homers in his 10 previous games. "When things aren't going right,
it's just tough," Harang said. "It's tough because I thought I
made two good pitches there. I went back and looked at them. They were
down. They were able to stay through it and get a pretty good bat on
it."
- The last time he faced Butler, Ryan Howard hit a
mislocated curve for a prodigious homer, and he doubled in a first-inning
run Saturday. But with two on and two out in the third, Butler challenged
Howard with three fastballs in the strike zone. The last was a hard
grounder to shortstop Troy Tulowitzki,
already shifted behind second base.
- Just one day after the Phillies
stranded runners on first and third down two runs in the eighth inning,
the team found itself in nearly the same scenario and came up with same
result. Saturday the Phillies trailed the Rockies by three runs with
runners on first and second and one out in the eighth but came out of the
situation empty thanks to a Howard strikeout and a Maikel Franco
groundout. "For a stretch there a couple of weeks ago, we were
getting the big hit and the timely hit and we had a winning streak, and we
blanked out in this cold streak with men on base," Sandberg said.
"It's keep knocking at the door, keep having runners out there and
somebody needs to come up with the big hit."
- In the top of the seventh inning,
Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis made
a no-look flip behind his back to Chase Utley on a
sliding stop to force Rafael Ynoa out at
second base. Utley collected the ball cleanly and threw to Howard, who was
unable to make the catch to execute the double play. Galvis' play was met
with cheers across the stadium and multiple replays on the Phillies video
board.
- With two out in the eighth, the Phillies' Jeff Francoeur launched a fly ball to deep left against Rockies reliever Scott Oberg. A fan reached over the wall with his glove but failed to make the catch. Francoeur was awarded a double, and an umpire crew chief check of the replay confirmed the call.
NEXT
GAME:
Rockies right-hander Jordan Lyles (2-5, 5.10 ERA) left his last start with
a sprained left big toe, but is in line to start Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET against
the Phillies and righty Jerome Williams (3-4,
5.33). Williams will make the start for the Phillies Sunday. Williams is tied
with Arizona pitcher Josh Collmenter for the
National League lead in hits allowed with 70 this season. This will be the
right-hander's last start of a rough May where he has allowed 22 runs in 30 1/3
innings for an ERA of 6.53.
PHILS PHACTS:
Rewarded With Losses – Control
in baseball has two meanings. When it comes to putting a pitch where he wants
to, Aaron Harang
has control. Of the 109 pitches he threw Saturday in the Phillies' 5-2 loss, 74
were for strikes and for the first time this season, Harang didn't issue a
walk. And he controlled his pitches in the zone, allowing just four hits and
two runs in six innings while striking out seven. But when it comes to the
defense behind him and run support, Harang has zero control. This is something
the veteran has come to accept over his 14 seasons in the Majors. "You
can't really go out and try to change too much," he said. "You've got
to go out and keep doing what you can do. You've got to do what you can do to
contribute to the team. Things will eventually change and the numbers will show
the overall outcome of your season." The numbers to which Harang were
referring are his season marks, which are far better than anyone would expect a
pitcher with a losing record to have at the end of May. Despite his 4-5 record,
Harang has an ERA of 2.02 and is striking out more than 6.5 batters per nine
innings. In six May starts, Harang never allowed more than two earned runs in a
game but the Phillies won just two of those outings. Though Harang admitted
that this can be frustrating, he is accustomed to this. When Harang was younger
and just coming into his own as a starter in Cincinnati, his team was
rebuilding just as the Phillies are now. One thing he learned over that period
was that having "ups and downs" is a natural part of baseball. Thus,
Harang said he doesn't think about his win-loss record or things that are out
of his control. Harang's attitude on getting through tough situations can be
summed up by how he reacted to his early adversity Saturday. Harang entered
play Saturday as the best in the National League in home run prevention among
starting pitchers, having allowed just two home runs all season. But he gave up
two home runs in the second inning alone against the Rockies. He thought he
made good pitches on both of the home runs, and when he went back and watched
the tape, it confirmed his suspicion. But even though the pitches were where he
wanted them, Harang said he understood why the balls were hit as well as they
were. "Once I let go of the ball, it's kind of out of my control,"
Harang said.
Where’s The Offense? – Twice
in 10 days, Eddie Butler has
started against the Phillies. But based on the disparity of results,
Philadelphia might as well have faced off against two pitchers. On May 20, the
Phillies feasted on Butler. The Rockies right-hander struggled to survive three
innings, requiring 77 pitches to find nine outs against 18 batters. The
Phillies jumped on the rookie, scoring four runs, two earned, on six hits, two
walks and a home run. Fast forward to Saturday, and Butler manged to avoid
Phillies' bats this time. He stifled the Phillies' offense in the Rockies'
5-2 win, allowing just four hits and
one run in six innings with an economical 78 pitches. If you were to watch
Butler's two starts back-to-back, you would think he was starting against two
different Phillies teams. And given the way manager Ryne Sandberg assessed his
team's play over its current six-game losing streak, he kind of did. "For
a stretch there a couple of weeks ago, we were getting the big hit and the
timely hit and we had a winning streak, and we blanked out in this cold streak
with men on base," Sandberg said. Saturday was no exception to this
"blanking out." The Phillies were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring
position and left eight men on base. In the eighth and ninth innings alone, the
Phillies stranded four runners, two of whom were in scoring position. This
continued a trend from Friday when they stranded runners in the last two
innings of a
4-1 loss. Power has been lacking for the
Phillies. Before Cesar Hernandez's
eighth-inning solo home run, the team hadn't put a ball in the stands over the
losing streak. To Sandberg, this is one area where the offense needs to turn
things around immediately. "It's pretty good hitting weather out
there," Sandberg said. "The flags are blowing. We have guys capable
of that. We like to see more contact first and then the ball going out of the
park will definitely give us a jumpstart with the offense." The Phillies
are now a season-worst 13 games below .500. Two weeks removed from a six-game
winning streak, the team is now on its longest losing streak of the year. With
the offense stagnating, the bullpen struggling and the starting pitching doing
everything it can to keep this team in games, Philadelphia looks to have lost
its way. To Saturday's starter Aaron Harang, this is a by-product of being on a
young baseball team and can easily be remedied. "It's just a matter of
kind of getting everybody synced together," he said. "You have some
games where your pitching isn't doing well and your offense has got to pick
that up, and other games where your offense isn't doing well and your pitching
has got to pick that up. It's just you've got to find the right lane on the
road and make sure you get on it and go from there."
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are starting the season as expected and are now near the bottom of the
NL east at 19-32. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and performance
this spring, don’t expect their competitive place in the standings to last. All
time, the Phillies are 40-61-0 on this day.
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