Philly Sports Today

The Phillies had plenty of chances to put runs on the board with runners in scoring position, but they could not get any of them home. James Shields and the rest of the Rays were practically begging the Phillies to score off of them, but like good guests, they refused to cause problems for their host. It’s really pathetic how bad they are with runners in scoring position. What makes it worse is that most of the time they had RISP, they had either zero or one outs. What a disgrace.

You knew it was going to be a long night right from the start. The Phillies went down quietly in the first, while the Rays jumped all over Brett “Can’t win on the road” Myers. Akinori Iwamura led off with a walk and B.J. Upton hit a single and the runners advanced on a Jayson Werth-”less” error. Tampa used two RBI ground outs to take a 2-0 lead. Manufacturing runs is a pretty novel idea. Maybe the Phillies should try it. The Rays used a combination of singles and walks in the second to score another run to make it 3-0. The umps are solely responsible for costing the Phillies this run because they extended the inning by allowing Rocco “No way in hell did I hold up” Baldelli to get awarded a walk despite the fact that the he did not check his swing and the home plate umpire initially called him out. Total B.S. Tampa scored another run on a safety squeeze in the fourth. So the Rays can score in a variety of ways, and the Phillies can’t do anything right to score a run. Totally ridiculous. The Phils also got screwed by the umps again in the ninth inning when Jimmy Rollins was blatantly hit by a pitch, yet the umpire said he wasn’t. How did such a bad ump make the World Series crew? Who knows? All I know is that it may have cost the Phillies the game.

The Phils put their lead-off runner on in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and seventh innings, but came up empty every single time. That is the sign of a team that is not going to win a series. How can you not get at least one of those runners home? It doesn’t help that Werthless ran the Phils out of a prime scoring opportunity. Another fun note about Werthless is that he has the franchise record for most strikeouts in a single postseason. 16 and counting. How much of a bum is he?

Another World Series All-Star is Jimmy Rollins. A lead-off hitter that can’t get a hit in the World Series is a pretty nice weapon to have. You certainly can’t complain about a .000 average. The Phillies will not win this series if J-Roll doesn’t play well. It is impossible. Greg “I look like I’m blindfolded at the plate” Dobbs is another player in the running for World Series MVP. You couldn’t pick the ball up from James Shields, who is a righty? Really? The only reason that you’re even in the game is because you can hit righties. Pat Burrell has put up amazing numbers this series by piling up zero hits. Real glad he’s been coming through in the clutch. I could probably go on and on about how terrible this team is. They’ve really been in an offensive funk the entire playoffs. They haven’t consistently been able to score in any series.

Brett Myers actually wasn’t really bad, but he got no help. He only threw 85 pitches in 7 innings and gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on seven hits with two strikeouts and three walks. Again, he wasn’t great, but I thought he’d do a lot worse. Playing in Tampa also didn’t do him any favors since he couldn’t bat. The Phillies probably would’ve scored another run solely due to Brett’s offensive prowess.

The lone bright spot for the Phightins was Eric Bruntlett who hit a pinch-hit solo home run off of stud rookie David Price. If only he could’ve been the DH instead of Greg “My at bats looked like I was playing in the dark” Dobbs. Yes, he was that brutal at the plate that he got two nicknames to describe it. Dobbs definitely resembled a typical Ryan Howard swing. I also want to give mad props to Carlos “Clutch” Ruiz. I’ve been one of the few people writing about how well he’s played in the playoffs. The only postseason series he didn’t play well in was the NLDS against the Brewers. Check the numbers.

In Game 3, “Old Man” Jamie Moyer will do battle with ALCS MVP Matt Garza. I think Moyer is going to get shelled in a similar fashion to his other two post season starts. It may actually be worse since I think the Rays have a more potent offense than both the Brewers and Dodgers. On the other hand, I think the Phils may have a chance to hit Garza. The Phightins have played well at home in the postseason, so I think playing at Citizens Bank Park can help a bit. However, if they lose Game 3, the Phillies may not have to worry about booking a return flight to Tampa.

Go Phillies.