I don't want to go into too much detail about last night, we all saw what happened. That was by far the hardest loss that I have ever had to take as a Phillies fan. Just a couple of points here that maybe you can help me figure out. I am clearly not over this and I need some closure on this one so I don't drive myself completely insane:
1. All season long we saw once Brad Lidge allows a base runner he turns into a head case. Why not pull him and go for another matchup. The momentum was in their favor headed into the 9th. Get a good matchup with another pitcher and get Texiera out
2. Why are you not keeping Damon close?
3. Why were you not prepared for a steal in that situation? Chooch threw the ball from his knees. Damon is not a base stealer!
4. Why was everyone confused about who was covering where?
5. Why didn't Charlie go out and talk to Lidge to try and slow down the momentum after Damon got on?
6. When Charlie was asked in his press conference who was supposed to be covering third, it sounded like he wasn’t even sure. He said that Ruiz should have been covering. So Ruiz is supposed to throw the ball to second and then sprint up the third base line? NO WAY! If Brad Lidge wasn’t so flustered over one base runner, he would have known that his responsibility in that situation is to get his ass to third base! This all stems from Charlie not going to the mound!
7. Are you kidding me pitching to A-Rod? On top of that throwing him FASTBALLS? Let Posada beat you.
8. For those of you on the live blog last night we talked all game long about the pitching keeping us in the game, and the offense having to step up. Then the offense stepped up, and the pitching let us down. Have to put together a complete game to win in the World Series.
9. No one should be questioning the move to start Blanton. He pitched really good, and gave the Phils an excellent opportunity to win this game. So all of you out there that want to put some of the blame on Blanton, you can go F yourself.
I love Charlie, but I have to say that he had everything to do with what is the worst loss of my lifetime. Its a tough road at this point, but it can be done. Lee tonight and then again in game 7 if necessary. Yankees are pitching on short rest, so hopefully the Phils can put some offense together. We never counted this team out all year, so don't start now. This can be done. Hopefully DW will bring them some luck tonight as we will be there ready for game 5. Lets try to get over this and move forward. LET'S GO PHILS!
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It's amazing how good I felt after the Eagles win. I couldn't imagine feeling as bad as I did after the Phillies game. When Feliz hit the home run to tie it, I thought that was it. I thought that was the moment we've been waiting for in this series.
ReplyDeleteLidge looked solid and I thought he struck out Damon twice in that at-bat. Typical for him though. Hopefully it doesn't kill his confidence because there's a good chance we'll need him later in the series. That double-steal by Damon was a great heads-up play by him that could've turned disastrous for him if Feliz was just a little quicker or Lidge covered third base. That killed us because basically took away the best part of Lidge's arsenal. But...those things happen. Let's move on.
I'm down on this game, but I'm not near giving up. I think we're still going to make this series interesting. Burnett is due for a "Burnett game" and we need Lee to stay nasty. After that we just need to take two at Yankee. It's tough to do, yes, but not impossible. In fact, we already did it this year. If we can get another solid outing out of Lee and Pedro in games 5 & 6, anything can happen in Game 7.
No one said championships are supposed to be easy. The Yankees are a good squad and their pitching has been nights out. Everyone in the country has officially counted us out of this series now because their beloved Yankees are coming back to prominence. The way I look at it...if the Phillies can win Game 5, all of the pressure is back on the Yankees. People will start to drum up memories of the 2004 ALCS and the players will be thinking about it too. We can do this. We haven't seen "that game" yet in this series that this Phillies team is known for. I, for one, know that its coming.
Let's put together a 7-0 or 8-1 win tonight to say show the Yankees that we're not going to just roll over and die. It's just not our style.
No need to talk strategy on the game tonight. The ball is in the hand of our horse and the bats are going to wake up. It's now or never fellas!
Bottom line: We all knew we were playing with fire, using Lidge. Everybody's worst nightmare came true.
ReplyDeleteLidge can't keep anybody close. He's as bad as Wagner used to be. Texiera is a switch hitter who hits lefties as well as righties.
That Damon play is as likely to happen as a ball hitting a camera sitting on top of a fence. Reading the quotes shows that they weren't prepared for it..Rollins took the blame for not telling Lidge it was his job.
Sure Manuel deserves some blame and Lidge is the obvious fall guy. But lets not forget the 4 starters (Rollins, Victorino, Ibanez) who are hitting .200 or less, topped off by a non-existant Ryan Howard.
If you would have told me that before the series - I would have said the Yankess have already won the series- which they would have without Cliff Lee's masterpiece.
The Phils have winnable pitching matchups tonight and Tuesday. Anything could happen if the bats wake up. Crowd needs to do its part. We cannot allow a celebration on our field.
I'm smelling a blowout...but i am just hoping its in our favor.