Hernandez redeems himself; Stutes, offense don't: fall to Rays 6-1

By SAMUEL BOTWINICK | Staff Writer
March 3, 2014, 4:15 p.m.
@avdbkr20samuel

After surrendering two earned runs in his debut as a Phillie, it was crucial that Roberto Hernandez bounce back on Monday, and prove why he was worth the $4.5 million that he was owed.  He did just that, tossing three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, and striking out three, against his former team, the Rays.

It wasn't enough to win, though, as he and the Phillies fell to the Rays 6-1 at Charlotte Sports Park.

Matt Moore, who opposed Hernandez, received a no-decision, tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings on two hits, while fanning a pair, and walking one.   

The Phillies only mustered one run on offense, and it eventually came back to haunt them. 

After the famed, and, at one point, underrated, Heath Bell, came in to relieve C.J. Riefenhauser in the top of the fourth, Bell allowed a double to the Phillies' right fielder, Leandro Castro.  Castro scored on consecutive singles by Freddy Galvis and Wil Nieves, to give the Phillies a 1-0 advantage.

The offensive struggles for the Phillies continued on Monday.  Even though they were 3-7 with runners in scoring position, the Phillies left nine men on base, and scored only one run on seven hits.

The Phillies offense was saved only by the good grace of the bullpen, who through the three innings after Hernandez left, did a masterful job.  Relievers Jeff Manship and Phillippe Aumont each pitched superbly, not allowing a single run in three combined innings of work. 

Manship tossed two innings, yielding just one hit, while punching out two batters.  Aumont tossed one perfect inning.

In typical Phillies' fashion, it was only a matter of time before one pitcher in the bullpen destroyed the wonderful masterpiece.  That goat on Monday happened to be Michael Stutes, although he had the offense to partially blame for that.  

In the bottom of the seventh, after Stutes replaced Aumont, Stutes walked the Ray's left fielder, Justin Christian.  This was the start of a series of unfortunate events for Stutes and the Phillies.

Christian advanced to third on Ray's right fielder, Jeremy Moore's, double, and scored on Vince Belnome's ground-out to first, to tie the game at 1.  

The scoring would not stop there, though.  After loading the bases, Stutes became the pitcher who kept on giving.  First, he yielded a single to Ray Olmedo, which enabled Belnome and Eddy Rodriguez to score.  Both runners reached first on fielder's choices.

That would have been enough to ensure a win considering the Phillies' lack of any sort of offensive production, but the Rays were merciless.  With Stutes still in the game, Rays' second baseman, Cole Figueroa, doubled to score Sands and Olmedo, and give the Rays an even larger lead, 5-1.  Sands was walked earlier in the inning to load the bases for Olmedo.

Stutes suffered the loss, as he labored through one intense inning, surrendering five earned runs on three hits, while walking two.

Rays' reliever, Merrill Kelly, who won the game, tossed two scoreless innings on one hit, striking out one and walking one.

News and Notes:  The Phillies will look to avoid another loss when they travel back to Bright House Field to play the Blue Jays on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. 

- The Philadelphia Baseball Review is the top baseball news blog in Philadelphia, providing news coverage and analysis of the 2014 Phillies and baseball in the Philadelphia-region.

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Phillies optimistic Asche's hand is fine; tests say so

By SAMUEL BOTWINICK | Staff Writer
March 2, 2014, 8:15 p.m.
@avdbkr20samuel

The Phillies, whose whole goal this off-season was to stay healthy, already incurred a minor scare on Sunday against the Pirates.  Cody Asche, their hopeful future third baseman got injured, but it was reportedly nothing major.

In the fifth inning, Asche got drilled by Pirates' left-handed pitcher, Yao-Hsun Yang, and remained on the ground for several minutes in which the Phillies' fans, management, and trainers alike were anxious and praying that nothing major had occurred to their player whom they believe has a bright future.

The Phillies' fears did not come true.  According to the preliminary ultrasound that was administered, Asche has a bruise and nothing more serious, like a broken hand.  Asche will be evaluated further to ensure that it was indeed not a serious injury.

Asche has had decent production out of the No. 8 hole, considering that he is only 23, and that he has not yet played a full Major League season.  In 2013, Asche hit .235, with five home runs, and 22 RBI in only 50 games.

This would project out to about a .250-.270 average, with 10-20 bombs and between 60-80 RBI over a full MLB season (160 plus games).  The Phillies will gladly use and take that kind of production out of a No. 8 hitter.

- The Philadelphia Baseball Review is the top baseball news blog in Philadelphia, providing news coverage and analysis of the 2014 Phillies and baseball in the Philadelphia-region.

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Burnett solid in first game; Phillies' bats asleep: fall 4-1 to Bucs

By SAMUEL BOTWINICK | Staff Writer
March 2, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
@avdbkr20samuel

Sunday was a big game for A.J. Burnett and the Phillies.  Burnett was making his debut against the team that he pitched for last season.  Pirates' fans were wondering whether it had been a mistake to let Burnett go.  

The Phillies', after spending $16 million on him for just one year, were going to see if they had made a worthy investment.  They did, as Burnett went two innings, allowing one earned run on one hit, and struck out one.  It wasn't enough, though, as he and the Phillies fell to the Pirates 4-1at Bright House Field.

Burnett was a bit shaky early, though.  After striking out the Pirates' left fielder, Jaff Decker, he yielded a double to Pirates' center fielder, Gregory Polanco.  Polanco then advanced to third on Travis Snider's ground-out, and scored on Chris Dickerson's fielder's choice to give the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.

Stolmy Pimentel, who opposed Burnett, fared a better result as he won the game, tossing two innings of one-hit ball, while striking out one.

The Phillies had a theme on Sunday of looking like they were getting out of innings just fine, but seemed to run into problems with two outs.

In the top of the third, Jesse Biddle, who came in to relieve Burnett, punched out the first two batters, but allowed a two-out single to the left-handed hitting slugger, Pedro Alvarez, to keep the inning alive.  The Pirates made him pay, as with an 0-2 count, and with the runner going on the pitch, Dickerson drilled a double perfectly between the left and center fielder, which allowed Alvarez to score all the way from first, and increase the Pirates' lead to 2-0.    

The Pirates scored fast and early due in large part to the Phillies' ineptitude on defense.  

In the top of the fourth, Biddle walked the Pirates' catcher, Chris Stewart, to start the inning.  Stewart advanced to second on Josh Harrison's sacrifice bunt, and went to third on Jordy Mercer's ground-out to second.

Then the trouble for the Phillies started.  With two outs, it seemed like the inning was over when Decker popped a routine pop-up into center field, but Tony Gwynn couldn't handle it in the sunlight, which allowed Stewart to trot home, and make the score 3-0, Pirates.

Being down early is one thing, but being held scoreless for the entire game is demoralizing for a team's morale and psyche.  The Phillies were able to score in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to some wild pitching from Yao-Hsun Yang, who replaced Adam Wilk.  

With one out, Freddy Galvis singled to left, moved to third after consecutive batters were hit by a pitch, and scored on Carlos Ruiz's walk, to get the Phillies to within two, 3-1.

The theme of allowing runs with two outs continued in the top of the sixth, this time with a full count.  Following a pitching change between Jonathan Papelbon and Antonio Bastardo, Bastardo seemed to have navigated his way out of the inning with no damage done, but once again he didn't.  

With two outs and a full count pitch to the Pirates' second baseman, Josh Harrison, Bastardo surrendered a solo shot to left to help the Pirates gain a 4-1 advantage.

There were plenty of missed opportunities  for the Phillies' offense on Sunday.  While they outhit the Pirates, 7-6, their efforts didn't translate to runs on the scoreboard.  The Phillies were an abysmal 1-9 with runners in scoring position, and left 10 men on base.

The ninth inning got interesting for the Phillies.  With two outs and runners on first and second, the potential tying run, Sebastian Valle, stepped to the plate.  Instead of changing the lead, he grounded out into a 6-4-3 inning and game-ending double play.

Pirates' reliever, Cody Eppley, notched the save in relief, tossing a scoreless ninth, while allowing one hit. 

News and Notes:  The Phillies will look to bounce back when they play the Rays on Monday.  Papelbon, Jake Diekman, and Brad Lincoln each tossed a scoreless inning in relief.      

- The Philadelphia Baseball Review is the top baseball news blog in Philadelphia, providing news coverage and analysis of the 2014 Phillies and baseball in the Philadelphia-region. 

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Rollins, Phillies jump all over Tigers in 10-6 victory

By SAMUEL BOTWINICK | Staff Writer
February 28, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
@avdbkr20samuel

The Phillies have been faced with a unique problem thus far this Spring.  They have scored enough runs to win games, but their pitching has been lax at best, allowing at least three runs early in games to opposing teams.  

In the last two games this was too much of a deficit for them to overcome.  Friday, though, the Phillies were able to come back and win 10-6 against the Tigers thanks in large part to contributions from Jimmy Rollins.

The game didn't start easy for the Phillies, though.  Kyle Kendrick, as well as the two previous Phillies' starters, didn't have full command of their pitches at the outset of the game.  Friday was more of the same. 

After yielding a single to Tigers' left fielder, Andy Dirks, Kendrick walked the next two batters to load the bases for third baseman, Nick Castellanos, who emptied them with a double to center, giving the Tigers an early 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, the Phillies were able to put one of those runs back on the board when Darin Ruf singled to center to score Marlon Byrd from second.  Byrd led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on Carlos Ruiz's walk.

The Phillies took advantage of a pitching change in the third and opened up the game considerably.  Jhan Marinez came on in relief of Jose Alvarez, who gave up just the one run to Ruf in two innings of work.  

After Rollins walked to start the third, Chase Utley singled to center, putting runners on first and second.  Following another Ryan Howard strikeout, Byrd singled to left to load the bases.  

This is when things got out of control.  Domonic Brown reached on a force attempt, missed catch error by Tigers' shortstop, Hernan Perez, which allowed Rollins to score from third, and allowed the other runners to each advance one base.  

The trouble was just getting started for the Tigers' pitching staff, though.  After Ruiz was hit by a pitch to force Utley home from third, Maikel Franco walked, to allow Byrd to score as well.  

Then things got wild.  With Ruf batting, Marinez threw an errant pitch, which enabled Brown to score.  Following a Ruf ground-out, which scored Ruiz, Jose Valdez came in to clean up Marinez's mess.

The switching of pitchers move backfired for the Tigers, though.  Tony Gwynn walked, and following that, Rollins crushed a 2-2- pitch from Valdez into the right field seats for a three-run bomb, to give the Phillies a 9-3 lead, which they would not relinquish.

Pitchers on both teams were able to settle down a bit until the sixth inning.  After Luis Garcia replaced Phillippe Aumont, who pitched a scoreless fifth, Garcia allowed a single to Austin Jackson.  Following an error by Reid Brignac, which allowed Tyler Collins to reach, and sent Jackson to third, Castellanos doubled to the right field corner to score Jackson.  Trevor Crowe, then grounded out to third, which enabled Collins to score.  The next batter, Luis Exposito, hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Castellanos, and make the score 9-6, Phillies.

The only Phillies' pitchers to surrender any runs were Kendrick and Garcia.  Kendrick allowed three earned runs on two hits in two innings, while striking out three and walking three.  Garcia yielded three runs, one earned, on three hits, in one frame.

Sean O'Sullivan notched the win in relief, tossing two innings of no-hit ball, while punching out three batters.

Marinez got the loss, allowing six runs, three earned, on two hits, while striking out one and walking two, in 2/3 of an inning.

News and Notes:  The Phillies will look to win consecutively when they play the Yankees tomorrow at 1:05 p.m.

- The Philadelphia Baseball Review is the top baseball news blog in Philadelphia, providing news coverage and analysis of the 2014 Phillies and baseball in the Philadelphia-region. 

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