GAME
RECAP: Phillies Top Rockies 5-3
Tommy Joseph emerged from a recent funk to deliver
a three-run, pinch-hit homer in the seventh inning and lift the Phillies over
the Rockies, 5-3, at Coors Field on Friday night. Joseph's 455-foot shot came
off lefty Jake McGee, who let
the two runners he inherited from effective starter Jon Gray and two others score in his fourth
appearance since his return from missing three weeks with a left knee injury.
Gray fanned eight in 6 1/3 innings. "No doubters, you don't feel
them," Joseph said of his homer. McGee, who entered because manager Walt
Weiss watched Gray's leadoff four-pitch walk and saw fatigue signs, had
increased the use of the slider since coming off the disabled list. But for
much of his career he has thrown the fastball around 95 percent of the time. "Most
of my career, I've got to stick with my fastball and not get beat with a
secondary pitch," McGee said. "My slider, in that situation, lost the
game and kind of spoiled Gray's good outing." The Joseph homer made a
winner of Phillies starting pitcher Vince Velasquez,
who gave up eight hits but held the Rockies to two runs in six innings. The
Phillies prevailed on a night when Rockies All-Star right fielder Carlos Gonzalez had three hits, including a double,
and Trevor Story drove in two runs.
PHILS PHACTS:
- Joseph might
be getting his mojo back after struggling since a hot start. His
pinch-hit, three-run homer in the seventh was the Phillies' first
pinch-hit homer of the season and Joseph's first pinch-hit of his career.
He had been 0-for-7 in pinch-hitting opportunities. He is 6-for-12 in his
last four games. "To feel
like you did something for the team, it feels pretty good," Joseph
said.
- Tyler Goeddel replaced Cody
Asche in
left field in the eighth inning and it paid off with a game-saving catch.
The Rockies had a runner on second with two outs when DJ
LeMahieu hit
a blooper into shallow left-center field. Goeddel sprinted in from his
position and made the diving catch. "I got a good read off the
bat," Goeddel said. "I knew if that ball dropped that run would
score. I knew I had to make an effort to make a play. When I hit the
ground the ball sort of squirted in my glove a little bit. It stayed in
there."
- "I'll take it. Everyone has their ups and downs. You're not
going to be perfect all the way through." -- Velasquez, speaking about his first half. He finished 8-2
with a 3.32 ERA.
- Joseph's homer traveled a projected 455 feet, according to Statcast™. It is the Phillies' longest homer of the season,
surpassing Maikel Franco's 449-foot homer, which he hit Monday. It is
the Phillies' longest homer since Cameron Rupp's 461-foot long ball on Aug. 24, 2015.
- The Phillies announced outfielder Aaron Altherr began a rehab assignment Friday with the rookie level Gulf Coast
League Phillies. He is recovering from a torn tendon in his left wrist.
The team also announced right-hander Andrew Bailey had been activated from the 15-day disabled list. Bailey had been
sidelined with a strained left hamstring.
NEXT
GAME:
Phillies right-hander Jerad Eickhoff (6-9, 3.30 ERA) makes his final start before the All-Star break on
Saturday night at 8:40 p.m. ET against the Rockies at Coors Field. Eickhoff is
4-2 with a 2.25 ERA in his last seven starts.
PHILS PHACTS:
Rule
5 Dive – Tyler Goeddel is trying to make his mark this
season, but the opportunities at times have been scarce. He made the most of
his chance Friday night in a 5-3 victory over the Rockies at Coors Field. He
pinch-hit in the top of the eighth inning for Phillies left fielder Cody Asche and remained in the game. He then made
a lead-saving catch with a runner on second and two outs in the bottom of the
inning when Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu hit a blooper into shallow left-center
field. Goeddel sprinted from his spot in left to make a spectacular diving
catch to end the threat. "I got a good read off the bat," Goeddel
said. "I knew if that ball dropped that run would score. I knew I had to
make an effort to make a play. When I hit the ground the ball sort of squirted
in my glove a little bit. It stayed in there." Not bad for a converted
third baseman, who started playing the outfield last year. "I love selling
out, making those plays," Goeddel said. "That's the best part of
playing the outfield." The Phillies selected Goeddel with the first
overall pick in the 2015 Rule 5 Draft. He is hitting .221 with three doubles,
three triples, three home runs and 13 RBIs in 59 games, although his playing
time has been reduced recently due to the torrid hitting of Peter Bourjos and Asche. "It's been fun, really
fun," Goeddel said of his first half. "A learning experience, for
sure. At the start of the year I was getting my feet wet. It took a little bit
of time, but the more I played, the more I felt comfortable. Any way you can
contribute up here is awesome. Whatever my role is I want to help the team win.
I think this first half I feel like I've helped out quite a bit. Hopefully I'll
continue to improve as the season goes on and continue to make some
plays."
Regaining
Form – Tommy Joseph never felt it. He crushed a pinch-hit,
three-run home run to left field in the seventh inning Friday night in a 5-3 victory over the Rockies at Coors Field. It
was the Phillies' first pinch-hit home run of the season, and the first
pinch-hit of Joseph's career. "No doubters, you don't feel them,"
Joseph said. It came at a huge moment of the game. The Phillies' offense had
been quiet since arriving in Colorado, but had just scored its first run in the
seventh to cut the Rockies' lead to 2-1. Joseph stepped into the batter's box
and three pitches later mashed a 1-1 breaking ball against Rockies left-hander Jake McGee a projected 455 feet, according to Statcast™.
It is the Phillies' longest homer of the season, surpassing the 448-foot blast Maikel Franco hit
Monday at Citizens Bank Park. "Thanks to him," said Phillies
right-hander Vince Velasquez,
who picked up his eighth win of the season. Joseph might be finding his mojo
again. He hit .323 (21-for-65) with two doubles, seven home runs, 12 RBIs and a
1.010 OPS in the first 21 games of his big league career. He played so well
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin officially put Ryan Howard into a bench role. But since homering
twice against the Nationals on June 10, Joseph hit just .114 (8-for-70) with
three doubles, one home run, three RBIs and a .325 OPS in 19 games. "It
was quite a funk," Joseph said. But following the towering homer Friday,
Joseph is hitting .500 (6-for-12) with one double, two home runs, five RBIs and
a 1.622 OPS in his last four games. Joseph said adjustments he has made
recently have helped. Some helpful words from teammates have been beneficial,
too. "Creating movement with the legs," Joseph said. "I got away
from that." He is back at it and Friday it might have helped him crush a
ball a country mile.
Huge
Potential – The Phillies will have one heck of a story if Simon Muzziotti
makes the big leagues. They signed the 17-year-old outfielder from Venezuela to
a $750,000 bonus Friday. Muzziotti comes to the Phillies in a very unusual way.
He was a free agent, despite the fact the Red Sox paid him a $300,000 bonus
last summer and despite the fact he hit .317 in 17 games this summer for the
Red Sox in the Dominican Summer League. Muzziotti became a free agent again
recently only because Major League Baseball penalized the Red Sox for trying to
circumvent the rules during the previous international signing period. The Red
Sox were not permitted to sign players for more than $300,000 during the
2015-16 signing period because they exceeded their bonus pool in the 2014-15
signing period. But the Red Sox instead made package deals, essentially paying
a group of players $300,000 each only to have a few of those players funnel
much of their bonus to the most valuable player in the group. Major League
Baseball penalized the Red Sox for their actions, which included making the
players they signed free agents. Only $450,000 of Muzziotti's bonus counted
against the Phillies' signing pool of $5,610,800. They had purposely not spent
their entire signing pool just in the event something unexpected came their
way. Muzziotti did. One scout told MLB.com last summer that Muzziotti compared
to a young Jacoby Ellsbury.
Muzziotti had been clocked at 6.5 seconds in the 60-yard dash. The Phillies
previously agreed to terms with five other international players: right-hander
Francisco Morales ($720,000 signing bonus), shortstop Brayan Gonzalez
($900,000), shortstop Nicolas Torres ($665,000), catcher Juan Aparicio
($475,000) and shortstop Jose Tortolero ($450,000).
Lessons
Learned – The moment remains
embedded in Phillies manager Pete Mackanin's memory. It was May 4, 1980.
Mackanin was a bench player with the Twins. He was hitting .231, and at the age
of 28, he was battling to stay in the big leagues, where he had appeared in 73
games the three previous seasons -- combined. "I am in the outfield,
shagging fly balls, and [manager] Gene [Mauch] walks up and says, 'Pete, when
you are trying to move the runner from second to third, a deep fly ball to
right-center or center will get it done. Don't sacrifice an at-bat with a
ground ball to the right side. "I told him, 'I have to stop hitting .230,'
and he says, 'You're going to hit .270, .275 when it's all over. He walks away
and I'm thinking, 'Dang, he thinks I can hit. It's little things like that that
makes a difference. A guy with his stature in the game believes in me and I
start thinking, 'Maybe I am a better hitter.'" Mackanin hit .271 his final
79 games that season, finishing at .266. Another year with the Twins and his
big league playing career was over. More than 35 years later, however,
Mackanin, 24 days shy of his 65th birthday, is enjoying his first season as a
non-interim big league manager, and those moments with Mauch are with him every
day. It has helped Mackanin handle the challenges of managing a big league
team, especially a young team like the Phillies, where the ups can be way up
and the downs way down. This is a team that opened the season 25-19, lost 19 of
its next 24 and went into Friday having won 10 of the past 14. Mackanin has a
driving desire to win. He can be as frustrated as the next guy when a
hit-and-run is missed or an outfielder throws to the wrong base. But he
maintains a calm exterior. It's what he learned from Mauch. "Gene would have
a meeting when things weren't going well and you were thinking he's going to
yell and scream, but it was just the opposite," Mackanin said. "I
played for Billy Martin [as a rookie] in Texas, and you hear a lot of stories
about Billy. Some of them are true. But with Billy, the only time he would yell
and scream at [players] was when we were winning. When we were losing, he was
looking for a way to pick everybody up." Over the years, Mackanin had
plenty of opportunities to test that method, just not in the big leagues. He
coached in the Majors and Minors and had a short stint as a pro scout with the
Yankees, and he managed 14 seasons in the Minors with a composite 985-914
record. Mackanin even went 27-26 with the Pirates' affiliate in the Rookie
level Gulf Coast League in 2006 after finishing the previous season as the
interim manager of the big league club. He wanted to remain in the game, so at
the age of 54, the former ballplayer welcomed the chance to take on the Minor
League team. That, as much as anything, underscores that Mackanin is a baseball
lifer. Even when he felt jilted, he never felt bitter. Like so many people in
the game, Mackanin had a strong desire to be a big league manager, but he
finally gave up that dream nine years ago. He had that interim opportunity with
the Pirates when they fired Lloyd McClendon with a 55-81 record and 26 games
remaining in 2005. Pittsburgh won 12 of the final 26 games with Mackanin in
charge, but when it came time to hire a manager for '06, the Pirates went with
Jim Tracy, who had managed the Dodgers the previous five seasons. A coach with
the Reds when Jerry Narron was fired after a 31-51 start to 2007, Mackanin took
over as the interim manager, saw the team go 41-39, but then Cincinnati hired
Dusty Baker, a veteran of 14 years managing the Giants and Cubs. Mackanin did
get interviews for managerial jobs with the Cubs, the Red Sox, the Astros and
D-backs, but he wasn't hired. "I remember one question in Boston: 'You're
60 years old, why do you think you would get an opportunity to manage?'"
Mackanin said with a smile. "I said, 'I don't want to introduce age into
this decision. I don't think it is fair to take advantage of the youth and
inexperience of the other candidates." Bobby Valentine got the job. Mackanin
got the message. "I was at ease with everything," he said. "I
still loved the game and wanted to be part of it, but I knew my time had passed
[to be a manager]." Well, he thought his time had passed. Mackanin did
take a coaching job with the Phillies, and when he was dismissed after the 2012
season, he became a scout with the Yankees. When Ryne Sandberg became the
Phillies' manager, he hired Mackanin to be the third-base coach, and it was
Mackanin who assumed the interim managerial job when Sandberg stepped down. He
never thought he would be managing the team on a full-time basis in 2016. But
he is. "I'm happy," Mackanin said. "I'm not out to prove
anything. If I was 50, I would probably be a lot more anxious about things, but
I turn 65 the first of August, and I'm managing in the big leagues. I am just
doing what I have always done." Mackanin is doing the things he learned
from those days, playing for the likes of Mauch and Martin.
Today
In Phils History – On Wally Post’s 20th birthday, Phillies
phans harassed Boston manager Billy Southworth in 1949 for not including Robin
Roberts and Ken Heintzelman on the All Star roster. 4 years later, Robin
Roberts was pulled in the 8th inning ending a streak of 28 straight complete
games dating back to August of the previous season. In 1967, Dick Allen hit a
monster homerun over the 40 foot high center field wall at Connie Mack Stadium.
20 years later, with his 513th career homerun, Mike Schmidt passed Eddie
Matthews and Ernie Banks for 11th all time. Ricky Bottalico
represented the Phillies well as their lone representative in the 1996 All Star
Game at the Vet by pitching a scoreless inning of relief. Lastly, this is the
day when newly acquired Joe Blanton made his Phillies debut in 2008.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 41-47 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. All time, the Phillies are 44-51-0 on this day. I expect
the Phillies to finish in the bottom half of the division but not last in the
NL East by finishing the season with a 77-85 record.
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