MLB Chatter 2008

[Neroon]

I'm starting to get frustrated by the media. They rarely give the Phils any credit - if they win, it's because their park is small or the Mets collapsed and if they lose, haha told you so.

Then you might enjoy this article by Jon Heyman on SI.com. For what it's worth, way back at the beginning of the playoffs I offered that the Phillies were definitely a force to be reckoned with. My primary concern is that they have relied so far upon the "one big inning" approach, and that held true last night.

I wouldn't take Simers' column too seriously. The way I read it, the thing came across as more tongue-in-cheek, sports oneupmanship, type of posturing. Had the roles been reversed, I'd have been slightly surprised if nobody had written something similar in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

[mimic]

If it's meant as satire, it's poorly done if only because the media enjoys portraying Philadelphia as a city of losers and thugs. That joke is old. And no, the Inquirer did not print anything bashing LA.

 

[Neroon]

If it's meant as satire, it's poorly done if only because the media enjoys portraying Philadelphia as a city of losers and thugs. That's joke is old. And no, the Inquirer did not print anything bashing LA.

You're fighting against a long-held stereotype, unfair as it is.

As to the Inquirer, I know they didn't write anything like that, because I checked the online version. What I was saying was that I wouldn't have been surprised at the Inquirer printing a similar piece to Simers', had L.A. won game 1. That's all. It's common practice, albeit a pretty silly one.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Citizen's Bank Park is not even in the top 10 parks for Home Runs and the Phillies hit almost as many homeruns on the road as at home (to say it's just the park to blame is ridiculous). Besides, it was pretty clear that Lowe was getting more tired. For most of the game, he didn't even let pitches go into the outfield. When he did, the Phillies capitalized. The Dodgers never did. You have to play for the park you're in. It's not like they've never played there before or that they've never played in hitters parks, they did just play in Wrigley Field (Babe Ruth once said that he wished he could have played every game in Wrigley Field because his home run numbers would have been significantly higher).

To say that the only reason they lost is because it was Citizen's Bank Park is ridiculous.

 

[mimic]

Simers wrote that before the game was played, though.

The Stark one annoys me more, honestly. Remember that Game 1 against the Brewers, when Lidge got the save, but made things interesting before getting the third out? ESPN's article focused on Lidge almost blowing the game. They beat CC Sabathia (who ESPN assured us would win) and ESPN says it's only because of one big inning - which is true - but give the Phils credit for beating Sabathia! We almost never get a positive take after a win from them. Hell, when we were #3 or so on their power rankings the blurb usually said something about Howard going 0-for-8 or something.

Fine, I'll remove my tin foil hat now.

----
Don't want to double post, so notes from the game:

Well, really a 'note.' Brett Myers. First off, the Phanatic was hilarious with his mimed introductions. He gave Brett Myers the 'crazy person' motion - hilarious! Myers is 2-2 today with 3RBIs (3-4 this postseason) and pitching pretty well to boot.

 

[Neroon]

Double posting is no sin so long as you don't do it constantly.

Wow.... no sooner do the Phils go up 8-2, then a strikeout and a wild pitch and a Manny Ramirez homerun cut the deficit in half. Folks may not care for Manny, but he's having a heckuva post season. Again!

 

[mimic]

^The edit button was still there!

Myers is now 3 for 3. Ha! He also bopped himself in the head with the bat.

Did you know Myers showed up to a press conference carrying a bat and said he was there to talk about hitting?

Rollins strikes out. Grrr.

 

[Neroon]

Everyone's been talking about how good the Tampa Bay bullpen is, and they deserve the press. But this Philly bullpen hasn't exactly been giving it up themselves.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Phils bullpen deserves a lot of credit that it doesn't get. So far, the Phillies are 6-0 at home against the Dodgers. I hope the road record doesn't repeat itself as well, though

 

[TK421]

Absolute nightmare

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Kinda a bittersweet day for the Phillies. Before the game, Charlie Manuel received word that his mother had died at age 87. After the game, Shane Victorino (who quite possibly saved the game for the Phillies at one point) found out that his grandmother had just passed away.

 

[tomalak301]

Kinda a bittersweet day for the Phillies. Before the game, Charlie Manuel received word that his mother had died at age 87. After the game, Shane Victorino (who quite possibly saved the game for the Phillies at one point) found out that his grandmother had just passed away.

I knew about Manuel, but this is the first I've heard about Victorino. That sucks. My sympathies go to both families.

Good win from the Phillies. As for the Rays, where did their hitting go. The Boston Pitching was great in this game.

 

[Tim]

As for the Rays, where did their hitting go. The Boston Pitching was great in this game.

That was a tense, tense game. Dice-K had one of his best starts since joining the Sox, and that made all the difference. Winning Game 1 on the road was hugely important for the Sox if they want to fend off the Rays.

Now if the Rays' pitchers could stop throwing balls at batters' heads, that would be great.

 

[Tom Servo]

Dice-K Matsuzaka...holy shit on a stick...excellent fucking game. I was worried the first few innings, but after that he was on FIRE! Good win for the Sox!

 

[Tim]

I was worried the first few innings...

You mean like when he walked the bases loaded?

As for Saturday's game...would the real Josh Beckett please stand up?

 

[Ruaidhri]

Simers wrote that before the game was played, though.

The Stark one annoys me more, honestly. Remember that Game 1 against the Brewers, when Lidge got the save, but made things interesting before getting the third out? ESPN's article focused on Lidge almost blowing the game. They beat CC Sabathia (who ESPN assured us would win) and ESPN says it's only because of one big inning - which is true - but give the Phils credit for beating Sabathia! We almost never get a positive take after a win from them. Hell, when we were #3 or so on their power rankings the blurb usually said something about Howard going 0-for-8 or something.

Fine, I'll remove my tin foil hat now.

----
Don't want to double post, so notes from the game:

Well, really a 'note.' Brett Myers. First off, the Phanatic was hilarious with his mimed introductions. He gave Brett Myers the 'crazy person' motion - hilarious! Myers is 2-2 today with 3RBIs (3-4 this postseason) and pitching pretty well to boot.

Considering that Jayson Stark used to be a Phillies beat writer for the Inquirer, I think that sometimes he overcompensates in his desire to not look like a supporter of the team. I think that he sometimes seems to go out of his way to compliment Phillie players in some of his ESPN articles, but then does an about-face to make sure there's no pro-Phils criticism.

 

[Tom Servo]

I was worried the first few innings...

You mean like when he walked the bases loaded?

As for Saturday's game...would the real Josh Beckett please stand up?

Hell a friend I watched the game with and I were doing over/under for his walk total. My friend said three, and I was like sure. Sure enough the first inning comes around, and he walks three, and I was like well he walked three in the first damn inning...whats he gonna do next.

 

[bigdaddy]

If the Red Sox do lose the best part will be the asshole on NECN trying to go "Well this Becket was injured, so that screwed up my predictions the Sox would win 9 games straight", I really hate him, he's an idiot. He has no right to be on TV, what a waste.

 

[The Lady Eve]

This is an interesting game so far. What a slugfest back and forth.

 

[Tim]

Well, the Sox have Timlin pitching now, so they might as well just hand it to the Rays and let everyone go home and get some sleep.

I don't even know why Timlin's on the roster.

EDIT: And as predicted, Timlin chokes and loses the game. He has Gagne-like consistency. They should have gone with Byrd, a starter, who was available out of the 'pen. Well, the Rays can't really claim a "momentum shift" in the series given how close this game was, so we'll have a do-over in Fenway starting on Monday. Frankly, given how poorly the Sox have played at the Trop during the regular season, a 1-1 split is quite good.