GAME
RECAP: Cards Crush Phils 9-0
The homer-happy Cardinals belted four balls out of
Citizens Bank Park on Sunday and ended their road trip with an offensive
outburst in a 9-0 win over the Phillies. Brandon Moss, Stephen Piscotty, Jedd Gyorko and Jeremy Hazelbaker all went deep for St. Louis, and the
team has now homered in 11 straight games -- 10 of which have been multi-homer
contests. Moss and Piscotty hit leadoff homers in the fourth and fifth innings,
respectively, while Gyorko and Hazelbaker each hit two-run shots in a four-run
eighth. Mike Leake pitched
seven shutout innings for the Cardinals in the rubber match of the series.
"It's not the only way we can score runs, but it's our main way,"
Moss said of his team's homers. "We got a lot of guys in the lineup who
can do a lot of damage and put some stress on pitchers." The Cardinals
threatened all afternoon against Phillies starter Vince Velasquez.
The right-hander allowed the first three batters he faced to reach base, and
though the Cardinals only scored one run in the first, they tagged Velasquez
for five runs on seven hits. Velasquez made it through six innings but needed
106 pitches to do so. Leake had to work around seven hits and nine total
baserunners, but he got through seven frames unscathed on a rainy afternoon. It
was the first time Leake had gone more than six innings since his last start
before the All-Star break on July 10. The biggest threat the Phillies had against
the righty came in the sixth inning when Maikel Franco and Ryan Howard both
singled to put runners at the corners with no outs. However, Leake ended the
threat by retiring the next three hitters. "The good news is that we had a
winning homestand," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "We went 5-4
against three real good hitting teams. That's the bright spot."
PHILS PHACTS:
- The past few weeks have not been kind to Velasquez, who has a 10.47
ERA in his last three starts and a 7.29 ERA in his last six. Before his
struggles against the Cardinals, he allowed 14 runs in 10 1/3 innings in
his previous two starts against the Dodgers. The long ball has really hurt
Velasquez in that stretch. After he allowed 11 home runs in his first 103
2/3 innings this season, he allowed eight in his last 15 1/3 innings.
"You've got to stay positive," Velasquez said. "If you let
yourself [get] down, you're not going to get anywhere. The way I see it is
everyone has a turning point. I'm not figuring it out. I haven't found
that turning point yet. I have a couple days off [to] regather, and I'll
bounce back against New York. That's the way I see it, just try to be
optimistic and keep working."
- The Phillies
had runners on first and third with no outs in the sixth, but they were
unable to score a run. They finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring
position and 3-for-23 with runners in scoring position in the series.
"We had a couple opportunities early in the game to score some runs,
didn't capitalize and after that, it was kind of a moot point,"
Mackanin said.
- "I told him to enjoy learning about climbing the ladder, enjoy
the fight, the struggle to get to where you want to be. Because he's going
to be real good at one point. He's got to keep battling and working at
it." -- Mackanin, on Velasquez's recent struggles.
- The Phillies' streak of 14 consecutive games with a home run was
snapped. It was their longest such streak since May 27 to June 9, 2013
(also 14 games). After
homering in 14 consecutive games, the Phillies had their streak snapped on
Sunday.
- Thompson is
the No. 67 prospect in baseball, according to MLBPipeline.com. He has
struggled in his first three starts and has not thrown more than five
innings in any of them.
- Phillies
right-hander Jerad Eickhoff (8-12, 3.91 ERA) faces White Sox right-hander
James Shields (5-15, 5.98 ERA) on Wednesday night.
NEXT
GAME:
The last time the Phillies visited U.S. Cellular Field, the
White Sox were a year away from winning their last World Series, while the
Phillies were four years away from winning their last World Series. The teams open a
two-game series Tuesday night, their first on the south side of Chicago since
2004. White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon (3-8, 4.26 ERA) faces Phillies
right-hander Jake Thompson (1-2, 8.79 ERA) in the series opener. Rodon has been
on a roll this month, going 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts. He has walked
five and struck out 16 in 18 innings.
PHILS PHACTS:
Trying
To Find The Bright Side – Vince Velasquez could allow these past few weeks to
torment him, if he desired. But Velasquez sees no point in that, even though
his struggles continued in Sunday afternoon's 9-0 loss to the Cardinals at Citizens Bank
Park. He allowed seven hits, five runs, two walks, two home runs and struck out
seven in six innings. Velasquez has a 10.47 ERA in his last three starts and a
7.29 ERA in his last six. Velasquez also has allowed eight home runs in his
last 15 1/3 innings after he allowed just 11 in his first 103 2/3 innings.
"You've got to stay positive," Velasquez said. "If you let
yourself [get] down, you're not going to get anywhere. The way I see it is
everyone has a turning point. I'm not figuring it out. I haven't found that
turning point yet. I have a couple days off [to] regather, and I'll bounce back
against New York. That's the way I see it, just try to be optimistic and keep
working." Velasquez has thrown 119 innings, which is just 5 2/3 innings
short of his career high in the Minor Leagues. Phillies manager Pete Mackanin
does not believe Velasquez is running on fumes, although the Phillies are
closely monitoring Velasquez's workload. Instead, he sees a young pitcher
struggling as he learns on the job. "I told him to enjoy learning about
climbing the ladder, enjoy the fight, the struggle to get to where you want to
be," Mackanin said. "Because he's going to be real good at one point.
He's got to keep battling and working at it." Plenty of successful
starting pitchers struggled early in their careers. Roy Halladay is an
excellent example of that. He had a 10.64 ERA in 19 appearances (13 starts)
with the Blue Jays in 2000, prompting Toronto to send Halladay all the way to
Class A Dunedin. Tom Glavine went 7-17 with a 4.56 ERA in his first full season
with the Braves in 1988. This is not to compare Velasquez to Halladay or
Glavine, but it should provide a little perspective. Velasquez (8-6, 4.31 ERA)
is still very early in his career. He has time. Velasquez avoided major damage
in the first inning when he loaded the bases with none out. Brandon Moss hit
a ball to the wall in center field, but Odubel Herrera made a nice leaping catch for a
sacrifice fly. No other runs scored in the inning. Moss hit a solo homer
to left-center field in the fourth and Cardinals pitcher Mike Leake hit
a two-out single to score two runs in the same frame. Stephen Piscottyhit
a solo homer to left in the fifth to make it 5-0. Velasquez struck out the side
in the sixth to end his afternoon. "Why can't I just do what I did in that
last inning?" Velasquez said he told Phillies pitching coach Bob McClure.
Velasquez hinted in his last start last week against the Dodgers that he could
make three or four more starts. If that is the case, he might have two or three
more to right himself and go into the offseason with some positive vibes.
"You just have to put the pieces together, and you have to figure it
out," he said. "I've got to figure them out. Yeah, I agree with
[Mackanin]. I know I've got to enjoy this adversity here, and I've got to
manage to go with the flow and build on it."
Face
Time Protection? – Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis remains
upset and shaken that a foul ball he hit into the stands struck a young fan in
the face on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park. The girl had to be
transferred to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for further evaluation.
No update was available on her status as of late Sunday afternoon. "They
told me she was OK," Galvis said. Galvis is a passionate advocate for installing
more protective netting down the left- and right-field lines. The Phillies
extended netting behind home plate about 10 feet on both sides in the
offseason, but it stops once it reaches both dugouts. The Phillies said they
received conflicting opinions from fans about sitting behind netting, many of
whom feel it obstructs their view or takes away some of the enjoyment of being
close to the action. "The Phillies expanded our netting this season to the
sides of the dugout near home plate, as was suggested by Major League
Baseball," Phillies executive vice president and chief operating officer
Mike Stiles said in a statement. "We decided earlier this season to
consider the possibility of further expansion next season. In making that
determination at the conclusion of the 2016 season, we will take into account a
number of factors -- including the opinion of our uniformed personnel and, most
importantly, the wishes and safety of our fans." But Galvis cannot shake
the image of the girl getting hit in the face with the ball. He was late on a
98-mph fastball from Sam Tuivailala in
the eighth inning and watched the ball fly into the stands. "What if I
broke all her teeth? What if I broke her nose?" Galvis said. "If I
hit her in one eye and she loses that, what are they going to do? It's going to
be a big deal for two, three days. Everybody in TV, media, whatever. But after
three days, what's going to happen? They're going to forget. But that family
won't forget that." Galvis said he understands that families want to sit
as close to the field as possible, so children can see their heroes. He just
says further protection makes sense in light of what happened. As for those who
have mixed feelings about the extra netting taking away from the fan
experience, Galvis offered a compromise. "Why not put up a net that can go
up and down, if you want fans to get the balls and stuff between innings?"
he said. "Two days ago, I saw one fan with his baby, maybe like 1 year
old, 2 years old. They were in the third row. If you're a father and you know
we don't have a net right now, you should sit behind a net or sit really far
away, you know what I mean? I think they should worry about that."
Today
In Phils History – It was not a good day to be on the mound in 1952 when
both starters ended up in the hospital as Reds starter Frank Hiller suffered a
broken nose and spike wound in a 1B collision with Richie Ashburn and Phillies
starter Curt Simmons took a line drive off the back of the wrist. 2 years
later, the Phillies lost Jim
Konstanty to the Yankees. In 1961, Art Mahaffey ended his personal 10 game
losing streak by throwing a 1 hit shutout against the Cubs. Greg Luzinski appeared on the cover of Sports
Illustrated on this day in 1977. The Reds Alex Ochoa hit the record setting 142nd
grand slam during the 2000 MLB season when he connected off of the Phillies
Bruce Chen. Randy Wolf had a heck of birthday in 2002 when he threw 8
shutout innings and connected for his first career homerun. Happy 40th
Birthday Randy Wolf! 4 years later another lefty joined the Phillies when the
recently acquired Jamie Moyer made his Phillies debut.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 58-67 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. All time, the Phillies are 55-55-1 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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