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| Photo by Rich Wilkins |
Well that was a garbage dump of a road trip. The Phillies were swept out of Cincinnati tonight and go home at 6-9. It was an awful trip, with two wins against the rat-awful Marlins being the saving grace. They did not score before the sixth inning of any of the six games, and did not score more than three in any games. They scored 10 runs on the trip.
It sucks, but it's not new. It's not the end of the season, or reason to go into a blind panic, or call for wild moves tomorrow. Personally, I'm most bothered by the calls to put Jimmy back at lead-off and drop Revere to the eight hole. Ricky Bottalico's line-up was really awful- he wants to put Jimmy back at one, put Young at two, and put God know's who behind Ryan Howard, since I mean, he's getting a lot of fastballs right now, right? I personally think that at some point Ben Revere will start seeing more balls get through the infield, and he'll get his average back towards last year's .294. With that said, he is .100 points below his numbers from Minnesota, and that is a concern. If you really want to shake things up, I'm ok with it, but at least be somewhat reasonable about what you propose. I could live with something like Chase, Ben, Young, Howard, Rollins, Brown (or Ruf if Brown's actually hurt), Mayberry/Nix, Kratz/Quintero for now. Get more plate appearances for Chase and Young, get someone who can hit for power behind Howard. Frankly their ten games from getting Chooch back, and at some point Delmon will return too. At that point I'd be fine with a Chase, Jimmy, Young, Howard, Ruiz, Brown, Delmon, Revere line-up. Honestly though, I'd change nothing right now, yet. I'd also resist the urge to talk about "trades and firings." Just sit tight.
If John Lannan goes to the DL with his knee issue, the only pitcher hot in AAA is Adam Morgan (who threw 8 shut out innings on Saturday), and also is not on the 40 man roster right now. For whatever reason, Cesar Jimenez threw 4.2 innings tonight as a starter (they did play two on Sunday). Pettibone struggled a bit again in yesterday's win. Cloyd would be a bit off turn (he threw Monday), and Martin and Rosenberg threw nice games on Sunday. That's the hard move, while the easy one is if Brown goes on the DL, Darin Ruf is waiting, and hit his first homer tonight.
That was a brutal trip. Things will get better.
