Full Box Score

The Phillies were shut out for the fourth time this year losing Tuesday night to the Pirates 2-0.  In perspective, the Phillies were only shut seven times all of 2012.  Cole Hamels pitched 8 strong innings allowing 2 runs while striking out 6 and walking only 1 batter.  Hamels’ counterpart, left-hander Jeff Locke pitched 6 shutout innings of 2 hit baseball making the Phillies offense look feeble which is not hard to do these days.

That’s not saying the Phillies did not have their chances to score.  They wasted a leadoff triple by John Mayberry Jr. in the fourth by running on contact with no outs on a Ben Revere ground ball.  It was said in the post-game press conference that it was Charlie’s decision to run on contact in that situation which I wholeheartedly disagree with.  Then with 1 out and Domonic Brown on second and Ben Revere on first, Erik Kratz hits into an inning-ending double play to thwart the Phillies threat.

On a chilly Monday evening in South Philly, a 22 year old made his major league debut on the bump for the 8-11 Phillies, fresh off the heels of a late inning win on Sunday over the Cardinals.  Jonathan Pettibone pitched 5 1/3 innings, striking out 6 walking none and allowing 2 runs, both of them solo home runs off the bats of Pedro Alvarez in the third and Russell Martin in the fifth.  Pettibone faced off against A.J. Burnett who was wild at times but left the game with his team still having a chance for victory.  That just wasn’t in the cards for the Pirates on this night.

The Phillies played one of their most sound defensive games of the year with players making smart decisions all over the field.  Domonic Brown threw out Russell Martin in the second trying to stretch a single into a double.  John Mayberry Jr made a diving catch (Video Here) in the first to escape trouble.  The Phillies turned two double plays to erase any kind of Pirate threat.  The offense got a clutch two out hit Jimmy Rollins to score Erik Kratz in the sixth for the go-ahead and eventual winning run.  The bullpen pitched well for the final 3 2/3 innings allowing only 2 hits while striking out 5.  Raul Valdes picked up his first win of the season while Jonathan Papelbon earned his 4^th save in as many chances. 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies going from worst to first and winning the National League pennant. All season long we will take a look back at each game of the 1993 season.

Last Game: Phillies 2, Dodgers 0

Dodgers 3
Phillies 7

WP: Danny Jackson (1-0)
LP: Kevin Gross (2-2)
SV: Mitch Williams (6)

Danny Jackson picked up his first win of the 1993 season as Pete Incaviglia, Todd Pratt and Jim Eisenreich all had extra base hits to help pave the way from the plate. Mitch Williams closed things out for his sixth save of the season in the ninth after Larry Andersen struggled for the first two outs.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies going from worst to first and winning the National League pennant. All season long we will take a look back at each game of the 1993 season.

Last Game: Padres 2, Phillies 1

Dodgers 0
Phillies 2

WP: Curt Schilling (3-1)
LP: Ramon Martinez (2-2) 

Curt Schilling pitched a complete game shutout and struck out nine batters in the process as the Phillies opened up a home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 2-0 victory.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies going from worst to first and winning the National League pennant. All season long we will take a look back at each game of the 1993 season.

Last Game: Phillies 4, Padres 3

Padres 2
Phillies 1

WP: Andy Benes (3-1)
LP: Terry Mulholland (2-2)
SV: Rich Rodriguez (2)

Before a Veterans Stadium crowd of 15,826, the Phillies continued a home series against the visiting San Diego Padres but the bats were unable to come alive for most of the game. The Padres took game one of the series by a score of 2-1, with Andy Benes shutting down the Phillies offense in to the ninth inning, allowing just five hits and one run before Rich Rodriguez was called on for the save.

Phillies starter Terry Mulholland had a solid outing, scattering seven hits and two runs over six innings pitched before being replaced on the mound by Mark Davis in the seventh inning. Mulholland and Benes took a scoreless game in to the fifth inning, when Padres catcher Bob Geren smacked a lead off home run to left field to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. San Diego left fielder Phil Plantier would double home first baseman Fred McGriff in the sixth inning to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.

Ryan Howard is an easy target of criticism by Phillies fans. For those who pay attention to the deeper numbers and statistics of the game, Ryan Howard has his flaws. This cannot be denied when taking his contract value in to consideration. But as the month of April starts to wind down I was curious how Howard's first month of the season has compared to some of his previous Aprils, for the sake of comparison. Is Howard still on a decline, or is there a perceived bias against the Phillies first baseman?

Basic Stats

April Batting Average

Howard's overall batting average has certainly declined a little bit, but .277 is actually six points higher than his career batting average to date. As we will see later though, the disparity between batting averages against right handed pitchers vs. lefties is drastic, especially in the early going this season. Ideally you would like to see Howard bring that batting average a little bit, but if he ends up hitting .277 this season that may not be a terrible thing. In fact, if he maintains that batting average, hen Howard would finish the year with his highest batting average since hitting .279 in 2009. It would also be his fourth highest season batting average, not including his September call-up for 19 games in 2004.

When John Lannan went down with a knee injury last week, there was a lot of speculation of who was going to take his next scheduled start.  While many fans including myself would have liked to see Adam Morgan take Lannan’s start it just wasn’t possible giving the way the Ironpigs rotation goes.  Another potential roadblock for Morgan is that he is not on the 40 man roster.  The pitcher that the Phillies chose would have to be on the 40 man roster in order to keep from out righting a player off the roster.  That only left a handful of pitchers available to make the start.

The choices for the Phillies who were included on the 40 man roster were Tyler Cloyd, Ethan Martin, B.J. Rosenberg, and Jonathan Pettibone.  Cloyd, who spent part of last September starting for the Phillies.  He posted a 2-2 record with a 4.91 ERA with 8 home runs allowed in 6 starts.  Cloyd also has not gotten off to a great start this year in AAA either, posting a 7.07 ERA in 3 starts.  Ethan Martin still might be a little raw in his development to be able to make a start for the big club at this point.  We all got to see B.J. Rosenberg work out of the bullpen and while he has a good fastball, he has yet to prove himself to be a viable starting option for the Phillies.  That leaves only one person to make that start and his name is Jonathan Pettibone.

For the seventh straight game, the Phillies offense has failed to score in the first five innings of a game.  In addition, they also have not scored 3 or more runs in any of those games either.  Another stat that I find disturbing is that they have not drawn a walk in 4 straight games.  The last team to accomplish that feat was the Chicago White Sox in August of 2011.  Now, let’s get to the game which was more exciting than any Phillies game I have watched in the last week so there’s that.  Take that for what it’s worth.

The first three innings were ho hum as both Cole Hamels and Adam Wainwright were settling in for another pitcher’s duel which is all too familiar for the 2013 Phillies as they have scored 2 or less runs 8 times in their first 16 games including tonight.

Help is on the way!

The Phillies have been struggling to stay afloat during the first few weeks of the season missing a guy who up until last year was completely underrated by MLB but not by Phillies fans. Carlos “Chooch” Ruiz has been a key cog in this team’s success since his debut in 2006. Not only does Chooch’s presence behind the plate help the pitching staff as he boasts a career catchers ERA of 3.82. In 2012, he also had a career year hitting as well by putting up a very impressive .325/.394/.540 slash line while belting 16 home runs and driving in 68 runs. All of which are career highs for him.

Take in mind that he missed more than a month during the dog days of summer also. After an offseason where he tested positive the second time for Adderall earning himself a 25 game suspension to start the 2013 season we have seen his backups struggle immensely. The current Phillies catchers have combined for 9 hits through the first 17 games of the season. With an estimated April 28^th return of the soft-spoken Panamanian I wanted to project what I want Charlie to pencil on a lineup card on that date. 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies going from worst to first and winning the National League pennant. All season long we will take a look back at each game of the 1993 season.

Last Game: Phillies 1, Cubs 3

Phillies 3
Cubs 6

WP: Jose Guzman (2-1)
LP: Curt Schilling (2-1)
SV: Randy Myers (3)

The Phillies suffered back-to-back losses for the first time of the 1993 season when the Chicago Cubs handed them their first series loss of the young season at Wrigley Field. The Cubs got to Curt Schilling early and chased him in the sixth inning as they built a 6-1 lead that would be too big a hole to climb out of.