This season for the Phillies has been a roller coaster of what is producing and what is not producing. If the offense is producing then the pitching and defense are struggling and vice versa. Let's take a look at the last 4 series' the Phillies baseball.
The Phillies started a 2 game away series with the Baltimore Orioles negatively with a 4-0 loss at Camden Yards. The next day however, made this 4-0 loss look like some good baseball. The Phillies lost 19-3.
The team then came home in hopes that they would play better. The game was close through the first 3 innings at 1-1. The top of the 4th didn't start well, however. The Orioles Travis Snider hit a ball to short stop to which Freddy Galvis made an error. Phillies pitcher Kevin Correia walked Chris Parmalee. Chris Davis then lined out to Domonic Brown in right. Matt Weiters then singled to center on a 1-2 pitch scoring Snider. JJ Hardy then singled on a line drive. The bases were loaded for Ryan Flaherty. Flaherty struck out. Bases loaded 2 outs, Correia has a good chance of making it out of this right? Wrong. David Lough steps up to the plate and doubles scoring Parmalee and Wieters. Then the opposing pitcher (Jimenez) steps up. This should be an easy out. Nope! He singles on a soft grounder to third which scores Hardy. After a mound visit, Correia gets the final out of the inning, a line out to center fielder Ben Revere. The damage had been done though. After getting 2 in scoring position (Howard on Second, Franco on Third) Jimenez struck out the side. To start the top of the 5th Snider hit a home run to right center field. Correia then got 3 straight outs. The score was now 6-1 after 5. Freddy Galvis stepped up with 2 on and 1 out in the bottom of the 7th. Galvis crushed one to right field. A 3 run homer! After a Cesar Hernandez strike out, Ben Revere tripled. Chase Utley stepped up with a chance to tie the game. Would he do it? Ground ball deep to the pitchers mound and THAT ONE IS IN CHRIS DAVIS'S GLOVE. Ground out Chase Utley. YOU ARE THE MAN. The score was now, and finished as, 6-4 Orioles.
The reason I went so in depth about the 4th inning was to show just how detrimental Galvis' error was. It started an Orioles rally. There would have been 2 outs with the bases loaded when Flaherty struck out. That would have kept the score to 2-1 after the 4th.
The next day the Phillies won 2-1 after an excellent pitching performance by Sean O'Sullivan and the Bullpen. O'Sullivan's line for the day was 5.0 IP 4 H 1 R 1 ER 2 BB 7 SO 1 HR.
The St. Louis Cardinals then traveled out for a 3 game weekend series. The first game got ugly quick with the Cardinals scoring 4 in the top of the 2nd. Phillippe Aumont's line for the day was 4.0 IP 5 H 6 R 6 ER 7 BB 3 SO 2 HR. 7 WALKS?!?!?! 7 walks in 4 innings is ridiculous. I can understand losing your control and maybe walking 2-3 batters in a 6 inning outing, but 7 in 4 innings? Really? After pulling Aumont the Phillies hoped for some solace in Justin De Fratus. He pitched 2 innings, gave up 8 hits, 6 runs all earned, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, and gave up 1 home run. The Phillies lost 12-4.
The next game the Phillies lost 10-1. That made them 1-9 in their last 10 games.
Sunday rolled around and the Phillies won 9-2. Some standout players in this game were Ben Revere who went 3-4 with 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, and Maikel Franco who went 3-5 with a double, 1 R and 1 RBI.
The Phillies then traveled to New York City to play 3 games against the Yankees. In game 1 the Phillies had some great offense with Galvis and Revere recording 3 hits, Franco with 4, and Hernandez, Rupp, and Asche each having a pair of hits. The Player of the Game, in my opinion, was Maikel Franco. Franco was 4-5 with 3 runs and 5 RBI's. However Kevin Correia was roughed up again and was only able to make it through 4 innings giving up 5 runs, all of them earned. The Phillies still won though with an 11-8 victory.
Game 2 of the 3 game set was a rough start for Sean O'Sullivan who gave up 6 earned runs through 4.1 innings. That could not stop the Phillies offense, which had been hot the last 2 games, with Revere and Hernandez each getting 3 hits, and Franco and Blanco recording 2 hits respectively. Franco again had 5 RBI's and led the Phillies to an 11-6 victory.
Game 3 came around with the Phillies already guaranteed to win their first series since playing the Cincinnati Reds on June 2-4. Cole Hamels was on the mound to face Ivan Nova, who was making his first start since having Tommy John surgery in April of 2014. Hamels was roughed up going 5 innings and giving up just as many runs. Justin De Fratus also had another rough outing pitching 2 innings and giving up 4 runs and walking 3. The Phillies lost 10-2.
In the games we looked at the Phillies were 4-6 winning only 1 series. In 2 of the wins the pitching gave up more runs than the team scores on average.The pitching struggled in the 3 American League series giving up an average of 7.7 runs per game. Throughout the whole season it has been a theme that if the offense is struggling the pitching, for the most part, is pretty good. However in games where the offense does good (Games where Sandberg plays the young players) the pitching does bad. The Phillies need to clear out the rotation, keeping Hamels and Harang, and getting rid of the rest of the starters. They also need to get rid of old talent, Utley, Howard, and Ruiz, and allow the new talent, Franco, Asche, Galvis, Hernandez, and Rupp, to play. The Phillies have a large rebuiling process, but it can be done sooner than Pat Gillick and Ruben Amaro are expecting.
Thanks for reading. Comment what you think the Phillies need to do to rebuild. Have a great rest of the day!
-Mike
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