Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves – Play By Play – April 21, 2010 – ESPN.
So, a lot like last night — except for the end. I liked the end of last night. Anyway, the Braves couldn’t do anything much against the Phillies starter, except for one inning where they loaded the bases with one out only to hit into a double play. The Braves’ starter was fairly effective but threw a lot of pitches and gave up a couple of runs before leaving early. It’s just that tonight it was Roy Halladay and Tim Hudson.
Hudson actually lasted six innings, so more than Hanson, throwing 103 pitches. He gave up two doubles in the second to allow one run, and a double in the sixth that allowed the other. He pitched pretty well, considering the competition, but got nothing to show for it because Halladay pitched almost as well as Kendrick, and that’s a weird thing to write, isn’t it? But Halladay pitched the ninth, unlike Kendrick, and got the complete-game shutout.
The Braves had some opportunities. Glaus almost connected for a game-tying solo homer in the second, but it was caught at the wall by Victorino. Their big chance was in the seventh, when Chipper and McCann led off with singles. Glaus struck out, but Heyward worked a walk (the only one they got off of Halladay). Yunel hit a sharp grounder that, by all rights, should have tied the game, but it kicked up off the mound and turned into a double play that effectively ended the game.
Venters pitched two strong innings, including strikeouts of Utley and Howard, and Saito pitched around a one-out double in the ninth.
From the “Scariest Phillie” poll, all 4 of those guys did something big tonight.
*Kendrick, not Kendricks.
Turns out that the “leave for the clubhouse” plan last night was conceived last season and was the brainchild of — it seems — Ross, with help from Diaz, McCann, McLouth, and Norton. Brian and Matt ran the show.
Fixed it.
MVP: Philadelphia’s defense.
yep, Halladay was dominate and the Phils D was incredible tonight. Just got to move on and score some runs against Moyer tomorrow. I do believe that Victorino got that one over the wall, but it doesnt matter.
Neftali Feliz just threw a 102 MPH fastball–with motion. My word.
I weep every time I see Neftali Feliz pitches.
Sounds like I made the right decision to join my regular pickup game tonight.
Oh well, I got tickets for tomorrow night. We will get them tomororw.
Jury duty today. Some redneck guy (we’re talking mullet here) was watching his deadbeat family member testify in court today and his phone went off. Idiot couldn’t figure out how to turn it off and it disrupted everything. He was escorted out with it still on and holding it out in a way that we could all hear the song. The most hilarious part, this was the song playing. And yes, he let it play so long that we heard those words several times. I could barely contain myself. Shortly after this, the judge excused us for a break to take care of the matter. Probably related to Coach.
Phils starters 17IP 0Runs
9- That’s fantastic. It’s the little things that get you through days like that. I probably would have lost it.
I would have lost it too.
Yanks’ Phil Hughes working on a no-no into the 7th.
jinxed it. Well done
When Hughes has that curve working, he’s tough.
No shame in losing to Halladay. He’s the best pitcher in baseball, and he’s on the best team in the NL. If Hudson keeps pitching like that, we’ll win him some games.
Lots of good swings today, which is all I can ask for against Doc. Despite being shut out, I thought they played hard and got robbed numerous times throughout the night. Excellent defense by the Phils.
Let’s get ’em tomorrow.
Greg Norton is the hitting coach for the AAA Marlins team. First Jeffy to the Mets, and now this. Everything is going to plan, Mr. Wren.
#16–Interestingly, Tim Hudson has the top similarity score for Halladay….
No problems with the loss. Halladay was great, but was also very lucky; he could easily have given up at least three runs. On ESPN, Rick Sutcliffe kept saying that Hudson was out of rhythnm and maybe he was, but he pitched fine; got victimized by another excuse me double.
Has anyone noticed that Jeff Francouer’s batting average is down to .281? His OBP is still .358 but probably coming down. This is a shocking development.
All I know is, when the Braves go to NY on Friday, I want a restraining order on Francoeur to keep him away from Heyward.
By the way, I thought Heyward’s walk in the 7th (?) was a great at bat. I was more impressed with that, in a way, than with his home runs. His approach will probably result in him getting called out on strikes quite a bit, but that’s better than swinging at anything.
I hope D. Lowe is as “out of rythnm” as Hudson was last night.
The braves are gonna have to find some offense at some point. Even though the Braves are 5-4, a .209 BA and 34 runs over the last nine games (per DOB)is not gonna get it done for the whole 162.
The lineup truely pivots on Glaus. He has to start producing some runs. He is going to strikeout alot, always has, but the ball has got to start getting in the air off his bat or the bravos are in trouble.
Im not putting the offensive woes on just Glaus. Yunel, Diaz, Melky, Nate, and Glaus are all to blame. Not one of these guys is hitting above .200. Its incredible that we have a winning record and actually won 5 of our last 7. Our SP has been solid and the bullpen has been very good.
Actually Glaus has probably been hitting the ball as hard as anyone (outside of Heyward) for the last few games. Yunel has had some bad luck also
@24 – The guy has hit home runs on back to back nights (nevermind that one was robbed). Give him some time to settle into his role – he was off for a long time.
I’m not saying he is going to be the answer we were looking for, just that he needs a little more time to get there before we can make that decision.
Halladay was solid, Phillies defense was superb, and the Phillies caught all the breaks in that game. Just too big of a mountain to climb.
Let’s move on and hope for 7-8 runs against Moyer. I think we’ll need it.
Not only Francouer is down to 281,.. right now he’s the leader in GDP with 4. I dont’t know if this make me a bad person, but I’m enjoying it.
@28,
Nothing wrong with a little bit of schadenfreud (sp?) for a guy that was a big baby in Atlanta. But I will say that Frenchy seems to be more selective at the plate–he isn’t swinging at any pitch that doesn’t hit him.
I predict that he will be what I thought he would be in Atlanta–a guy that puts up pretty good counting stats (at least in HRs and RBI), has a good arm and, as a result, is always overrated.
Glaus sent a 95mph fastball from Madson into the stands the other day, I’m confident he’ll turn it around.
Glaus, Yunel and McLouth have all been hitting the ball HARD. Their babip are respectively .206, .220 and .182., these can only go up!
The one I’m more concerned about is Melky, who’s shown few (if any) flashes of being good.
Jeffy is 0 for his last 22. It’s looking like the clock struck 12 up there in Citi Field.
Oh, and Happy Birthday, Charles Mingus! Composer and bassist with few peers.
A genius, for sure, but a pretty tough guy to play with.
didnt think we’d see another pitcher have a 1995 Greg Maddux type season, Roy Halladay might just be the guy to do that or even better. He’s off to the right start
1995 Maddux – 19-2 209IP 147H 10CG 23BB 181K 1.63ERA 0.811WHIP
2010 Halladay – 4GS 4-0 33IP 2CG 3BB 28K 0.82ERA 0.88WHIP (long way to go though)
He’s got an offense behind him and gets to throw to pitchers. Barring injury, I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t get well over 20 wins. Given that he gets a fair number of games against the Mets and Nationals, he has a non-trivial chance at 30.
spike @ 32
i love Mingus…
no way Halladay wins 30 games. If he gets 33-34 starts, Id say he’d still be lucky to get 25 wins esp with that bullpen behind him
lineup needed for tonight and avg vs Moyer
Diaz .429
Prado .438
Chipper .389
McCann .364
Glaus .352 (5-2B’s & 5 HR’s)
Heyward .000
Yunel .235
McLouth .167
@37,
I also thought that was a ludicrous ESPN prediction. Definitely more than 20, but not more than 24 is my guess.
Which, hey, nothing to sneeze at.
@37, 39 – I am certainly not predicting it, just saying there is a statistical chance that is an order of magnitude greater than most will ever see.
I was thinking the same thing… that Halladay has a shot at a Maddux/Pedro during-their-prime season.
Why is Jamie Moyer still pitching? Furthermore, why is he pitching in the rotation of the best team in the league?
Because he can still pitch.
Hmm. Well, better question then perhaps is how is he still getting outs (with this season very much in the balance)–he’s not a knuckleballer and he has never thrown hard. Pitching slop has to catch up to you eventually.
I could easily think that Halladay will post a sub 2ERA and an under 1whip. He has the best control of any pitcher in the game. Its easy to think he could post something like this
230IP 23-2 1.70ERA .85WHIP 12CG 35BB 220K
I wouldnt be surprised, just dont see someone being able to win 30 of his 34 starts (88% of them)
Moyer has to get his diaper changed in-between innings.
We lost but I still liked watching the Braves in action. Just couldn’t string together the hits. The other obvious observation is that the Phillies are simply damn good. Their defensive work behind a dominant pitcher was just unfair. I think we can run with them but a lot of stuff has to go right for us to realistically compete for the NL East crown. Funny, I too was thinking about Maddux last night as I watched Halladay. Still early in the season and he is dominant. I hate to see what mid season form is going to look like.
I actually watched Moyer’s win this year. Very Lowe-like.
It was against the Astros. He was handed a 4-0 lead early, but immediately gave up long HRs to Michaels & Pence to go down 5-4 in the same inning.
I think he wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam to end that frame & Houston hit shots all over the field as long as he was in there.
He gave up 5 ER in 6 IP, but the Phils had a big inning when they pinch-hit for him, and he was handed the win. Sound familiar?
Moyer vs Lowe is strangely perfect.
Will be curious to see if Heyward can lay off the down-and-away breaking stuff he’s sure to see tonight.
Look, this time last year Zach Greinke was looking Maddux-like as well. He tailed off quite a bit (even though from where he was, the tail-off resulted in him having a dominant season) as the season wore on.
Halladay may not have as big an in-season drop, but I don’t expect him to keep up this pace all season long. He’ll still (almost certainly) be the best pitcher in the NL, win the NL Cy Young, and perhaps make a run at the pitching Triple Crown, but if he has just 1-2 bad starts in that bandbox the Phils play in, he won’t post ‘All Time’ type numbers.
The best thing about Moyer being back in the rotation this year is that he’s getting awfully close to becoming the second pitcher in history to give up 500 career home runs, and he has a great shot at breaking the all time record.
Moyer is currently at 494.
Robin Roberts is the all time leader with 505.
Well, Greinke didn’t have nearly as good a track record or team behind him, but your point is well taken.
#50
He’ll surpass that with room to spare, unless he gets “retired” once Blanton comes off the DL. Personally, I think it’d be pretty cool — anyone who remembers him with the Cubs would never have believed he’d stick around so long to set any kind of record.
Damn this girl’s got an ass.
Game thread.
Halliday is a BEAST. The Braves have young talent, veterans, and Jason Heywood….but they don’t have a dominant starter like Halliday (or Glavine/Smoltz/Maddux from the old days).