73-66, third place in the NL Wild Card, 1.5 games behind Houston, one-half game behind Florida.
The last two losses have been particularly galling for the Phillies (not to mention Len Kasper’s ChipCaray-esque John Gall pun last night…woof). Not only did the losses sink them behind the Astros and Marlins in the Wild Card, but both should have been avoided. This is what you get when you hire a folksy corpse to be your manager.
On Tuesday night, the Phillies trailed the Astros by two runs going into the ninth, but rallied to pull within one run with a runner at first and two outs. Charlie Manuel correctly deduced that he needed a faster runner than Ryan Howard, so he pinch ran for him. Only, Charlie used the wrong guy to pinch run. He used Matt Kata, who is sort of fast, when he had Endy Chavez, who is very fast on the bench. The next batter, Jimmy Rollins doubled to right field and Kata stopped at third. That in itself was another mistake. Even the Astros announcers were shocked that Kata didn’t try to score, given that Craig Biggio and his weenie arm were in the middle of the relay from right field. Biggio literally cannot throw the ball more than 60 feet in the air, and Kata likely would have scored. But he was held at third and Manuel used another pinch hitter. He used Endy Chavez. Endy Chavez cannot hit. Matt Kata would have been a nice choice to use here, only Kata was standing on third base after being too slow to score! See, if you use Chavez to pinch run he scores, Rollins is at second as the winning run and Kata has a fighting chance of driving him in. Oh, well.
Then last night the Astros took a 2-1 lead in the ninth by stealing three bases off the combination of Billy Wagner and Todd Pratt. Why is Todd Pratt still in the big leagues in the first place? He was washed up TEN years ago when he was a Cub. He did have two hits in the game, including one off the leg of Brad Lidge in the ninth (Lidge had thrown him two sliders that Pratt had missed by a combined 14 feet, only to throw him a fastball on an 0-2 count…who knew Larry Rothschild was the Astros pitching coach?). Tomas Perez pinch hit (you know you’ve manuevered your bench wisely when Tomas Perez is your best bet in the ninth inning) and missed a homer by about four feet to right field. Jimmy Rollins whiffed to end the game and the Phillies are 1.5 out. Oops.
Tonight it’s our buddy Vincente Padilla against the always bug-eyed Brandon Backe. The homestand continues on Friday when the Marlins come in for three games and then Atlanta comes in for three to start next week. So in the next seven days the Phillies will know if they’re going to the playoffs or not.
76-62, 1.5 games behind the Angels in the AL West and 1.5 behind the Yankees in the AL Wild Card and one game behind the Indians in the Wild Card.
What has happened to the A’s? After dumping two of three (both in heartbreaking fashion) at the Big A, they came home to play the Yankees and won the opener 12-0. Sure, it helped that Al Leiter started the game, but still, it’s 12-0. In the four games since, they have scored five runs. Total. And two of those games were against Seattle. Yikes.
The A’s have one more with the Mariners tonight and Dan Haren will try to help them avoid the sweep in a matchup against always tough steroid-abuser Wayne Franklin (huh?), then they are off on what could be the end of them. Three games in Texas, three in Cleveland and four in Boston before coming home for their final homestand which includes the Twins, Rangers and Angels.
77-61, one-half game behind the Yankees in the Wild Card, 9.5 behind the White Sox in the AL Central
The Tribe have all but given up any hope of catching the White Sox in the Central (not that they had much hope, but we sure did) and could well be the favorite to win the Wild Card right now. They are playing the best of the Wild Card contenders, have the best bullpen in the American League and offense to burn. Plus, they even got a good start from Scott Elarton the other day, proving that indeed, anything is possible.
Last night they got five hits and five RBI from the first and second place hitters (Grady Sizemore and Coco Crisp) in a 6-1 pounding of Detroit to run their season road record to 44-29. Forty-four and 29? That’s absurd. They’re only 33-32 at the Jake. How is that possible?
Well, they’d better learn how to win at home pretty soon because of their last 24 games, 16 of them are at home. Normally, you’d love this. I mean I know Cleveland sucks, but it is your home. Embrace it!
Tonight it’s CC Sabathia against former Braves pitcher Roman Colon, then the Tribe come home for one game (a rain out makeup) with Detroit, then nine more home games with Minnesota, Oakland and (yipee!) Kansas City.
