The Fightin’ Phills are playing their best baseball of the season, having their first four-game winning streak in over a calendar year. They’ve also won eight of their last ten games, with the last four coming against division rival Atlanta and the reigning National League champs, St. Louis. I’ve scratched my head at a lot of Ryne Sandberg’s moves this season, but this week the club has been great.
Sandberg seemingly had the magic touch this week in that every move went correct. Starting with Monday’s marathon game against Atlanta, things looked bleak when Dom Brown had…well, I’m not sure how to describe what he did…but anyway, with a man on third and the heart of the Braves lineup due up, things weren’t looking good. Using a timely intentional walk and trusting Justin DeFratus, the Phills got out of the jam and eventually started a four-game winning streak. The move may have seemed obvious, or “by the book”, but I’ll give Sandberg praise for not panicking with an ineffective reliever. The gamble was rewarded.
In the following two games, Sandberg gave timely days off to Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins. Subbed in for each of them was Cesar Hernandez, who only went 5-for-10 at the plate, including getting on base three times out of the lead-off hole. He got the game and hit parade going atop the order Wednesday, including scoring the game’s first run.
All in all, Sandberg had a great series.
Thursday’s big four-game in St. Louis got off to a great start as well. In a few starts, I praised Sandberg for pulling David Buchanan early, as I thought he grabbed him before any potential damage could be incurred. On Thursday, he wrote him for quite some time and was also rewarded. The young right-hander turned in 7 2/3 innings of great ball, limiting one of the National League’s best lineups.
Ejection: Replay has limited the great manager-umpire argument. Ryne Sandberg had an ejection earlier this month, but I thought it was rather silly as he was yelling at the wrong guy, attacking the messenger. But his argument Friday night was great—going at it with a rookie umpire that clearly was incorrect in assuming Roberto Hernandez intentionally threw at his friend Starlin Castro. It was a great performance by Sandberg, but most importantly, it was nice to see he had a pulse.
