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Three’s A CharmOh yeah, Cliff Lee did it again. Three times in a row the lefty has thrown complete game shut outs. This time, it was over the American League power house, Boston Red Sox. Boy, Oh boy, did he shut them down. 9 innings, 2 hits allowed, 0 earned runs, 2 walks, 5 strike outs vs the (used to be) red hot Sox bats. This guy is amazing! Plus, he even hits for his own cause. In the 5th inning, Domonic “It’s Yo Boy” Brown led off with a double, his second hit of the night. His first came in the form of a 2 run home run in the 2nd. After Domo’s double, an advancing fly out allowed Brown to get to third. He was then scored by Cliff Lee on a sac fly to left, a shot that was caught just a few feet short of the warning track.
That’s all he needed for the night, but a couple runs more is okay. Thanks for the 2 run dinger, Shane. Cliff had the Sox by the sack from the start. It was pretty apparent that he was heading towards a win, holding out till the top of the 6th before giving up his first hit. Only one other bat would beat Lee, in the 8th. It’s also pretty apparent that Cliff Lee still owns the American League, good to know… I wish he could have been more dominant in the beginning of the season, he won his 9th tonight, but he could easily have the best record in baseball with the way he’s pitching now. It’s all good, though, because right now, he’s doing great.
Three complete shut outs, (I won’t mention the amount of consecutive scoreless innings thrown due to superstition), do the math. He has become one of the most dominant pitchers in the month of June. It’s pretty exciting. Doc is throwing great, and Cole throwing towards that Cy Young, and Lee is keeping up with the rest of the great trio. It’s a shame Oswalt has to be hurt, I want him to be a part of this. But nonetheless, the Phillies’ pitching is keeping them above the rest of the NL East and the whole Major Leagues. The Fightins are the first team to 50 wins, now at a steady 20 games over .500. It is looking good for us. 50-30. Sweet, let’s keep it up.
Tomorrow we get a chance to do just that with Vance Worley (2-1, 2.83 ERA) taking on John Lackey (5-6, 7.36 ERA). The offense helped out tonight, let’s get it tomorrow, and Thursday, I’m going.
Let’s Go Phillies
SW- Erik Seybold Tags: 3-Peat, Cliff Lee Rocks, Phillies, Red Sox 1 day ago 0 Comments Short URL Share this post! Share on Facebook Tweet This! Leave a Reply Cancel replyYour email address will not be published.Name Email WebsiteCommentYou may use these HTML tags and attributes:
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Anonymous says:June 30, 2011 at 2:51 am
The Wolf says:June 30, 2011 at 2:52 am
Now the Phillies have to be looking at pitching. Ruben is in a tight spot here because he knows the skipper wants a rightie at the plate. With this past weeks changes in the weather the Phillies are down two key pitchers. Everyone knows that Jose Contreras was put back on the DL this week and the early reports are saying that he could be out 4 to 6 weeks. That’s not good. Not one bit.
One guy that jumps off the page immediately is Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. The Orioles staff say that he is very much a part of their plans, but as the deadline looms closer the Orioles will probably be sellers. Guthrie is a right handed arm as well. His 3.93 ERA isn’t too shabby either and he would benefit from having a better team around him. Guthrie? Maybe. His price is a little steep as he sits at $3 million currently.
The biggest sellers at the deadline will have to be the New York Mets. Once a rivalry and now just a joke, the Phillies-Mets relationship is not a good one. They do have a pitcher that would be easy to get and easy to fit in the rotation. Chris Capuano has been putting together a decent campaign while playing for the lowly Mets. The reason he is on this list is that his 3.99 ERA is pretty good despite his situation and he is only making $1.5 million. Thats a number that the Phillies will most certainly like. That is if they can pry him away from New York.
It was a quarter past noon when the 5′, 8″, 170 lbs shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies stepped into the batting cage, metal bat in hand, and began to take pitches. His landing strip of asphalt which was the abandoned Parkway was only, roughly, forty feet wide. That distance and another ten feet to the left side where I stood was the only room for error. He began hitting. The metal bat’s yelp of “ping” echoed through the streets. He was off and running, as were the fans. While many balls landed on the vacant corridor of the Ben Franklin Parkway, many did not. Those that were yanked to the left or pushed to the right were sent on a collision course with human flesh and private property. The medics were on hand, but seemed to linger closer to the star attraction then to the private citizens that came to enjoy the warm weather and baseball novelty. No one seemed to care.
The balls continued to fly like shrapnel, and men continued to tear each other limb from limb. Had I ever seen the horrors of war, I was sure I would suffer a flashback. A white orb came off the bat, disappeared in the trees that lined the Parkway and then reappeared in a trajectory that I was sure was destined for my skull. It rifled just a few feet above my head and the wild pack of humanity was off again. It was shortly after this that a young kid, drunk on beer and bedlam, screamed into his phone, “A ball was just coming right at me! I think I could have caught it if I jumped. This is crazy, you have to come down here.”
Here’s a picture of Jimmy swinging for the world record. Whoops, you missed, Jimmy!
Here’s one where Jimmy made good contact. I think it went 300 feet. Hey that’s almost out at the Bank!
Here’s one where you can see that Jimmy was really happy the people came out to see him shill for Red Bull. Not sure why he went with a cubs shirt, but hey, it’s his show. Nice choice on the helmet, though. Safety first. Tags: Jimmy Rollins, Non-News, The Brushback 1 day ago 4 Comments Short URL Share this post! Share on Facebook Tweet This! 4 Comments
JP says:June 28, 2011 at 1:01 am
Weezer says:June 28, 2011 at 1:29 am
Brian says:June 28, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Yet another Phillie has found himself on the sidelines dealing with an injury. This time, its closer number three, Ryan Madson, who was placed on the disabled list today, June 28. Fortunately, Madson’s placement on the DL will be retroactive to June 19, the last time he pitched, so he could make it back to the active roster as soon as early next week.
Now back to tonight, this series has been anticipated since the schedules came out. Cliff Lee, who is totally in control right now, will go against another high powered, offensive juggernaut American League team. A-Gonz, Pedroia, and Adrian Beltre are red hot right now. One hard hitter Lee won’t be taking on tonight is Big Papi. That is unless Beckett, who is coming off of 9 days rest makes an early exit, resulting in the need of a pinch hitter. He will also avoid Carl Crawford who is out with a sore hamstring. Is this a lucky break, or would it not make a difference? Lee is a 2-4 with a 4.06 ERA career vs the Red Sox.
His words not mine. If you asked me I would have told you that the spectacled one was better than mango even, but apparently he feels differently. When asked by the press how he could keep his pitch count down, the 23 year old pitcher responded, “I need to stop sucking,” which brought about a regular guffaw among the reporters. (Guffaw is a great word and you rarely get to use it) At any rate, it’s certainly not something you would expect to hear from a guy who just came off an outing where he pitched 5 innings of no hit ball, but that’s what great about the statement. He doesn’t focus on what he did right, but rather what he needs to approve upon. He went on to say, “But I need to get my first pitch over for strikes every time and then repeat that. I was throwing too many second-pitch balls today and falling behind there and that leads to throwing a lot of pitches.” This, ladies and gentleman, is what you call maturity. It’s something that you want to hear from a young pitcher who has the stuff to be an ace. It’s what you need to be an ace. Vance Worley will be an ace.
No, this isn’t about that crap movie, or that great book by Nick Hornby, but rather about Cole Hamels. Cole was sporting a rather large bandage on his face for Saturday’s game against the A’s, and while I had my money on a bad case of the herpes, it turned out to be the result of a very bad case of poison oak. Hamels was pitching with a fever of 103. While he wasn’t so hot as a pitcher, (get it?) missing his spots and whatnot, he was able to go 8 innings. He gave up 8 hits, 2 earned runs, and 2 walks while striking out 5. That’s pretty damn good when you’re sick as a dog. Any talk in the past that Cole Hamels lacked mental toughness should be dismissed with fervor. The Phillies ended up losing Saturday’s game 4-1, but really the L should be next to everyone’s name in the line-up, not Cole’s. The Phillies only mustered four hits the entire game. Not going to win many games like that (though it seems we have).
It should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but Roy Halladay was filthy again today. He went the full nine, giving up 8 hits, no walks, and only 1 run while K-ing 4. Of those 8 hits, only one of them was well hit, the rest were bleeding quails and infield singles. When Halladay did get into minor jams, he was able to minimize damage and work his was around danger with devastating pitches. He earned his 10th win of the season, the fourth pitcher to do so in the majors, and recorded his league-leading fifth complete game of the season. The dude is crazy good. I know we all know that, but sometimes it just has to be said. Oh, and he also got a hit. What can’t he do? Well notarize stuff I guess, but that doesn’t come up too often.
In front of 45,863 people, the second largest regular season crowd ever in Citizen’s Bank Park, Jimmy Rollins put on a hitting clinic. Rollins was 4-4 (3 singles and a double) with 2 runs scored to aid in Halladay’s 10th W. The last time Jimmy had a four hit game was way back in aught-nine. True to form, it only took till the first pitch of the bottom of the first for Jimmy to see something he wanted to swing at. He took that pitch and deposited it in left field. He would later poke one back up the middle, hit one off the left field wall, just short of a two run homer, and serve one through the hole on the right side. Jimmy was feeling it, and it was nice to see. When James is hitting, it seems that so do the Phillies. My only concern is that Jimmy was just doing it to get ready for his “date with destiny” tomorrow. Trying to hit the world’s furthest baseball? Yeah, that shouldn’t screw up your swing. Oh well, I’ll be there. I’ll show you pictures tomorrow.
So here’s the deal, Contreras has been placed on the 15 day DL…again. This time it is his right forearm which ails the Big Truck, something that is being described as a strain. While Jose may have been killer in the closer position early in the season, converting his first five save opportunities, there has been nothing but injuries plaguing the majority of his 2011 season. It raises the very valid question as to whether or not the 39 year old pitcher has stayed in the league a little longer than he should have. Don’t get me wrong, I hope the big man can turn it around, but I’m just not sure if his body can hold up to the demands of professional sports any longer.
With that being said, let’s look to the future. Apparently the Phillies had another JC Romero sitting in the wings waiting for the call up to the bigs. Juan Perez has been activated to fill the spot vacated by Jose Contreras. Perez, 32, is a left handed pitcher who has had mediocre success in the Lehigh Valley this year. In 28 appearances, he has posted a record of 0-3 with an ERA of 3.52. While this is not the most spectacular of statistics, he has held opposing left handed batters to a batting average of .184. It is in this facet that I believe the Phillies will try to use Perez, as their new left handed specialist. To me, he reeks too stronly of JC Romero.
In the past, you may have seen Jimmy Rollins wearing a Red Bull hat, or seen a Red Bull shirt with JRoll on it wearing a Red Bull hat. Or maybe you’ve seen a can of Red Bull featuring a picture of Rollins on it wearing a Red Bull shirt which holds his likeness wearing a Red Bull hat. Either way I think you get the point; Jimmy Rollins has a a sponsorship deal with the energy drink that gives you wiiings (and in most cases, heart palpitations and diarrhea). I’m not knocking James on this, every athlete nowadays has a sponsorship deal of some sort. (See: Ryan Howard talking about meat in Subway commercials, or Cole Hamels talking about milk-chocolatey Peanut Chews on radio spots.) Here’s what I am knocking, however. The fact that next Monday, June 27 from 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM, Jimmy and Red Bull are holding a special event where our little shortstop who could is going to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest hit baseball. The current record, for anyone out there who cares, is 576 ft.
Now to the bats. There will be no Albert Pujols in this series, nor in the All-Star Game. Pujols was batting .279, 17 HR, & 45 RBIs before breaking his left forearm on Sunday in a freaky looking play. Nonetheless, there will be no worries of a right handed first baseman taking it deep tonight. But I never said there wasn’t a chance of a lefty, firstbagger taking it deep tonight. Ryan Howard returns home and Mama Howard will be rooting for the big man all night long. Howard is hitting .365 (31-for-85) with 8 home runs and 31 RBIs in his career at Busch Stadium. As for the rest of the Phillies’ line up, I bring you it with dubious honor.
In fact, that Moose is so stupid that as I watched the game on Saturday night, and they kept showing the homemade Phanatic I thought to myself that the Fake Phanatic (Phranatic) looked ten times better than the Moose, and that’s saying something.
If you don’t remember the hat here is a picture of it. The picture is brought to you by the power of the internet. Ugh. Ugly. What an awful design. Whoever thought that a star in the center of the “P” looked good should have been fired immediately. I’m going to organize a hat burning in Center City for anyone that still owns one of those God awful things.
The Phillies should give out refunds or at least let you trade your interleague hat in for the much better day game hats. (From now on Italics, except when we sign our names at the bottom of the article, are to be used for sarcasm)