| Bill Meltzer. 12th June, 2005 - 2:33 pm
 Philadelphia Phillies fans are a cynical lot. Years of heartbreak and underachievement, interspersed between decades of lousy baseball will do that.
Let?s put it this way. The Phillies have 5 National League championships, 6 division championships, 9 postseason appearances and one World Series victory to show for 122 years of existence. Coming into this season, if the Phillies (with an all-time record of 8,671 wins and 9,502 losses) went 162-0 for five straight years, they?d still have had to win 102 games the following year just to bring their franchise mark to .500.
In other words, Phillies fans are used to the bottom dropping out. While many of the Phillies players wonder aloud why Philadelphia fans remain reluctant to give their hearts over to the now-surging 2005 edition of the club, locals know the true reasons.
Phillies fans are worried that the team is closer to the last-place, floundering team they were for the first month-and-a-half than the powerhouse they?ve been for nearly the last month. They?re concerned the current 10-1 homestand, which includes an interleague sweep of a first-place Texas Rangers team, is a mirage.
They wonder if the team?s hot hitting and strong starting pitching will hold up. They fear the recent trade for reliever Ugueth Urbina will solidify the bullpen on paper but not on the field. They?re concerned that the health of Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome (who finally seems to returning to his accustomed form) won?t hold up. They?re even scared that the Phillies haven?t moved any closer than a 1 ? games of first place, despite the outstanding record on the homestand. After all, it?s impossible for any team to keep up this sort of torrid pace.
But for right now at least, Citizen Bank Ballpark is a fun place to be and the Phillies are a great team to watch. The fans have been treated to a great stretch of warm weather and exciting baseball. They?ve responded with increasingly loud ovations as the wins have piled up.
Of course, this being Philly, the fans have also paused briefly every game to boo the team?s relief pitchers after bad innings, catcher Mike Lieberthal any time he makes an out with a runner on base, and manager Charlie Manuel when he pops out of the dugout to change pitcher (or allows Rheal Cormier to bat with the bases loaded and the Rangers still within grand slam distance).
After seeing a six-game winning streak come to an end on Monday, the Phillies a opened three game set with Texas; the first time the two clubs have ever met. The Phillies prevailed 8-5.
Placido Polanco, who was traded to Detroit the next day for Urbina and utility infielder Ramon Martinez, collected three RBI . Starter Jon Lieber earned his third straight win despite struggling the second time around the lineup and allowing two of Texas' three homers. After the game, Manuel admitted that he?d recently had a talk with Lieber about losing weight to try and improve his stamina.
Meanwhile, in the 7th inning, after a one-out single by Lofton, Bobby Abreu, who?d barely missed a home run earlier the game (foul by inches down the right field line), went the opposite way for a two-run homer. Lofton collected three hits on the night. Closer Billy Wagner nailed down the win with a scoreless 9th inning for his 15th save.
The next night didn?t sound promising on paper. The Phillies sent rookie Robinson Tejeda for his first big league start to the mound to oppose hulking Chris Young, who came in sporting a 5-2 record and a solid 3-point ERA.
Young did silence the Phillies bats for 5 innings. But Tejeda matched him pitch for pitch, giving up just a pair of hits and two walks in five innings, to go along with 4 strikeouts.
Reliever Aaron Fultz worked a scoreless top of the 6th. In the bottom half of the inning, Lofton led off with a single and Tomas Perez followed with another single; Lofton stopping at second. Abreu hit the ball to the right side of the infield to advance both runners. That set the table for Pat Burrell, who singled to left to plate both Lofton and Perez.
Ryan Madson, who is now showing the form that made him a standout as a rookie last year, followed with two solid innings, striking out a pair of Rangers. Wagner pitched a scoreless 9th for another save; his 16th.
Looking for the sweep, the Phillies sent enigmatic righthander Vicente Padilla to the hill for the final game of the Texas series. Padilla promptly dug the team a hole. He surrendered a lead-off homer to David Dellucci. Then he walked the second hitter. The third hitter, the dangerous Mark Teixhera blasted a home run to left field.
Fans were now booing Padilla. The boos got deafening as Padilla proceeded to walk the next two hitters. Just as the crowd screamed at Manuel to get someone warming up in the bullpen, Padilla induced a doubleplay groundball and got a strike out to end the inning.
Held off the board in the first inning, the Phillies quickly stormed back in the second inning. It was home run derby time against changeup specialist Pedro Astacio, as Burrell homered to left and Thome followed with a blast to right. One out later, third baseman David Bell singled to left and catcher Todd Pratt turned on an Astacio offering, sending the ball over the wall in left. Just like that, it was 4-3 Phils.
Staked to a lead, Padilla gave it right back. He served up another gopher ball to Teixhera; this time a solo shot to tie the game at 4-4.
The Phillies re-claimed the lead with a 4th inning single by Pratt, scoring Chase Utley, who?d led off with a double. Philly then put up a 3-spot in the 5th, highlighted by another Burrell home run and another run-scoring single by Pratt. Continuing to pour on the offense, the Phillies put up two more in the 6th, capped by an RBI double to left by Burrell.
The Phils got strong bullpen work after Padilla?s scuffling 5 innings. That is, until the 9th inning. Coming out for his Phillies debut, Urbina struck out the leadoff man. So far so good. But then he walked the next batter, gave up a two-run homerun to Mike DeRosa, a single to pinch hitter Gary Matthews Jr. and walked Dellucci.
That did it for Urbina, who was showered with boos as he left the mound. The Phillies were forced to use Wagner for a third straight game. Wagner record the second out but then gave up a two-run double (both runs charged to Urbina) to narrow the gap to 10-8. The left hander then got Hank Blalock to ground out sharply, ending the game, completing the sweep and getting his 17th save.
The Phillies had no time to celebrate. The Milwaukee Brewers came to town the next night, beginning the final series of the home stand.
Touched for a first inning home run, Brett Myers settled in and pitched a gem. He went eight innings, allowing two runs and seven hits. Myers struck out six and didn?t walk a batter. Meanwhile, Thome erased a 2-0 deficit with a home run to the right-center field power alley.
That?s where the game remained going into the 9th. Madson worked a 1-2-3 top half of the inning, including a strikeout. In the bottom of the inning, Milwaukee reliever Matt Wise struck out Burrell to lead off the inning. But then he got wild, walking both Thome and Utley. Up stepped Bell, who guessed he?d get a fastball to hit. He guessed right, sending the ball through the muggy air into the left field stands for his 3rd home run of the season and a 5-2 victory.
On Saturday, surging left hander Randy Wolf pitched for the Phillies. Although he didn?t have his best stuff, he squeezed out 6 innings of 3-run ball. But Wolf twice gave back leads, wasting a 2-run Abreu shot to dead center and a Thome RBI single.
Even so, the Phillies put Wolf in position to be the winning pitcher, as Lieberthal scored Bell on an RBI double in the bottom of the 6th.
That didn?t last long. Geoff Geary came on in relief of Wolf in the 7th. Three hits and a walk later, the Phils were down by a run. Out came Geary (booed, of course, but relatively mildly) and in came Cormier to record the final out on a strikeout.
In the bottom half of the 7th inning, a familiar face to Phillies fans, Ricky Bottalico, took the mound for Milwaukee. He was greeted by consecutive singles off the bats of Jason Michaels and Abreu. Burrell then crushed his 13th longball of the season, putting the Phillies back on top 7-5.
Madson followed with a scoreless 8th inning, retiring the Brewers in order. Urbina came out to pitch the 9th. The two-time former All-Star slammed the door with a pair of strikeouts, earning his first save as a Phil.
The Phillies crowd was once again sent home happy? at least for a little while. |
