Bookends: Phillies 10, Brewers 6

by dajafi on May 15, 2010 7:58 PM EDT

On a day when the Phillies’ 4-5-6 hitters went a combined 2 for 11, the team nonetheless racked up 10 runs on 17 hits to down the pitching-starved Brewers in Milwaukee. Shane Victorino went 3 for 6 with a single, double and homer, two runs scored and four RBI, while Placido Polanco had four hits and Chase Utley added two, both doubles. The bottom of the lineup did the rest of the work, with third-stringers Wilson Valdez and Paul Hoover combining for five hits and four runs. Even pitcher Joe Blanton went 1 for 3, scoring twice.

The Phils put Brewers starter Chris Narveson under siege almost immediately, loading the bases in the first before the Milwaukee lefty escaped. He wasn’t as lucky in the second, however, as Hoover led off with a single and Gregg Zaun airmailed a throw to second on Blanton’s attempted sacrifice. Victorino scored Hoover with a single, and after Polanco struck out, Utley stroked a liner off the right field wall that replays showed Brewers outfielder Corey Hart actually kicked over the wall—which should have meant a home run for Utley. But the umpires called it a ground-rule double, and the inning ended with two runs in and two left in scoring position.

Blanton cruised through the first four innings facing the minimum twelve hitters, but saw his lead cut in half when Prince Fielder crushed a long solo homer to start the bottom of the fifth. A two-run Victorino homer stretched the lead to 4-1 in the next inning, but pinch-hitter Alcides Escobar brought the Brewers within two runs with Milwaukee’s fifth solo shot in fifteen innings. The Phils seemed to blow it open by scoring five in the seventh, with a two-run Hoover double the big blow. Blanton stayed in for the bottom of the inning, to his detriment: after a leadoff double to Fielder and two strikeouts, he walked Zaun and surrendered a three-run blast to Hart. The Phils got one of the runs back in the top of the eighth, when Ibanez scored on a Hoover double play grounder.

Hart struck again when the Brewers made a charge against overmatched Rule 5 reliever David Herndon in the ninth. After recording the first out, Herndon surrendered a double to Jody Gerut, lost a long battle with Zaun when the catcher singled, then gave up a run-scoring double to Hart that made the score 10-6 and put men on second and third. Herndon gave way to Jose Contreras, who brought the tying run to the plate by walking pinch-hitter George Kotteras. But the aged Cuban rallied to strike out Rickie Weeks and Craig Counsell and earn his first career save. If you didn't watch, trust me when I say that the graph below doesn't really indicate how scary things looked for a minute there:

via www.fangraphs.com

The Phils go for the sweep Sunday night when Cole Hamels faces Doug Davis in the series finale.

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Actually, Blanton stayed in to my detriment — I lost a QS from him as a result. Grrrr.

Remember the Phitans

by RememberthePhitans on May 15, 2010 8:02 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

And another strange result of the Hart HR is that Narveson, with 4ER in 5.2 IP actually had a lower ERA for the game than Blanton did. I can see wanting to know how your pitcher’s going to do when he reaches 100[ pitches, but sending a guy back out with a seven-run lead after a long half inning involving baserunning by the pitcher seems like a needless attempt to pump up your starter’s IPs. You save the bullpen one inning at most – if not for a close defensive play you might have brought a reliever in during the 7th – and you risk letting Blanton’s third straight strong beginning slip away like the last two did.

by phillyinportland on May 15, 2010 9:17 PM EDT up reply actions

I guess the counterargument might be that this is precisely how you go about rebuilding Blanton’s stamina – by pushing him to pitch a little more, and a little more, each game. “Stretching him out” and what not.

Personally, I did think it was a very bad idea for Mackanin to push Blanton as hard as he did in his first game back. But I’m inclined to cut Charlie a bit more slack for yesterday’s game. Blanton hadn’t thrown a ton of pitches through six, and the fact that they had the seven-run lead meant that you didn’t have to worry about losing the lead just because you were trying to get Joe stretched Joe out (unlike in his first two starts, where leaving him in too long very well might have cost us both of those games).

I probably would have pulled him after the first baserunner got on in the seventh, but I think this is a decision on which reasonable people can disagree.

by taco pal on May 16, 2010 4:46 PM EDT up reply actions

True on the counterargument

And I guess we’ll see over the next few starts if the additional work results in better and longer outings. It definitely seems like Blanton cruises through his first four to six innings and then hits a wall or the batters figure him out. That’s kind of why I thought the confidence in completing six strong innings without giving up more than a run in an inning would be worth missing an extra inning of work.

by phillyinportland on May 16, 2010 5:20 PM EDT up reply actions

But I’m inclined to cut Charlie a bit more slack for yesterday’s game.

I’m inclined to give Charlie wide berth in all pitching decisions. Managers break into two camps just like the game. You either hit the ball or pitch the ball. Meaning the managers who were batters probably will rely more heavily on their pitching coaches to make alot of decisions about pitchers (other than managers who were catchers). The opposite probably holds for coaches with a pitching background. They may require more input about batters from the hitting coach.

by j reed on May 16, 2010 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions