Image taken from Google Images

Not a bad start to the 2011 season for the Phillies. Amid “World Series or bust” talk after acquiring Cliff Lee, the 2011 Phillies lived up to their lofty expectations. The Phillies finished April with an MLB best 18-8 record, setting a club record for April wins in the process.

As one might expect with a Phillies staff that includes Halladay, Lee, Hamels, and Oswalt…pitching dominated. The Phillies pitching staff finished 3rd in the National League with a 3.18 ERA. Despite losing Chase Utley to injury, the Phillies still managed to score the fifth most runs in the NL (120).

Phillies April Storyline

If there is such a thing as a good omen, opening day may signal great things to come for the Phils. Down 4-2 in the ninth inning against the Houston Astros, the Phillies won thanks to RBIs from the most unlikely of heroes: Ben Francisco, Wilson Valdez and John Mayberry.

That win sparked a sweep of the Astros and propelled the Phillies to a 9-3 record to begin the month. The Phillies won each of their first five series and didn’t lose one until their sixth series against the Brewers. After losing two in a row to the Brewers, the Phillies finished the month on an 8-2 run.

Interesting Notes:

• The Phillies lost game one in five of their first six series, but they were undefeated (9-0) in games two and three of their first nine opportunities.

• The Phillies were a perfect 10-0 in day games.

Phillies April Highlights

• John Mayberry’s walk-off single on opening day.

• Carlos Ruiz’s pinch hit grand slam against the Atlanta Braves.

• Four game road sweep of San Diego Padres.

Phillies April NL Rankings

Batting Average: 6th (.261)

Runs: 5th (120)

ERA: 3rd (3.18)

Phillies April Win/Loss Chart

Phillies April Stats

Record: 18-8
Top win streak: 5
Top losing streak: 2
Home record: 9-4
Road record: 9-4
Series record: 7-1
Began month: 0-0 tied for 2nd place – 0.5 games behind Braves
Finished month: 18-8 – 1st place – 1.5 lead over Marlins

Image taken from Google Images c/o Zimbio

We all knew that losing Utley and Werth would hurt the Phillies offense, and losing Ruiz just exacerbated the issue. Their injuries have created a gaping hole in the bottom of the Phillies lineup.

But there is a silver lining to the ineptitude of the last four hitters: the 2011 Phillies team is perfectly suited for DVR watching! After Ryan Howard bats, you might as well fast-forward to Jimmy Rollins because you certainly won’t miss any runs crossing the plate.

Is it just in my head? Is it possible that these guys aren’t as bad as they seem? Let’s compare the top of the Phillies lineup to the bottom of the Phillies lineup to see just how far this disease might have spread.

Phillies 1-4 hitters: .294 average, .358 on-base percentage, 17 HR, 81 RBI, 86 Runs

Phillies 5-8 hitters: .225 average, .303 on-base percentage, 11 HR, 54 RBI, 57 Runs

It gets even uglier when you narrow it down to the 7th and 8th hitters.

Phillies 7-8 hitters: .206 average, .279 on-base percentage, 3 HR, 16 RBI, 29 runs

OK, so it is as bad as it appears. The guys at the top are doing what they are paid to do, but you can see the stark contrast with the bottom of the lineup.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that the main culprits are second base, catcher, right field, and left field. Let’s gaze a little further and see which position is the most to blame. Here are the numbers by position:

Right Field: .242 average, .344 on-base percentage, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 13 Runs

Left Field: .243 average, .303 on-base percentage, 4 HR, 17 RBI, 16 Runs

Second Base: .234 average, .286 on-base percentage, 0 HR, 8 RBI, 18 Runs

Catcher: .202 average, .281 on-base percentage, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 14 Runs

Those catcher statistics include Carlos Ruiz. They get MUCH, MUCH, uglier when we remove Ruiz from the equation:

Catchers without Ruiz: .177 average, .250 on-base percentage, 2 HR, 4 RBI, and 5 Runs.

That means that the Phillies backup catchers have accounted for a grand total of 9 runs. And four of those (2 RBI and 2 Runs Scored) came via two home run swings!

But I am not here to criticize Valdez, Orr, Schneider, and Sardinha. They are what we thought they would be and it is hard to criticize players who are doing the best they can. This simply explains why runs have been so scarce. And our pitching has performed so well that the Phillies have the best record in the NL. That ain’t too bad.

But boy do the Phillies need Utley and Chooch back, or what?

Major League Baseball’s “Year of the Pitcher” has a new defining moment following Roy Halladay’s no-hitter in the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds in the opening game of the 2010 National League playoffs.

In his first-ever post season appearance, Halladay enters some heady company as he joins Don Larsen as the only pitchers in major league history to toss a post season no-hitter. In addition, he became the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973, and the fourth ever, to toss two no-hitters in the same season.

After winning 148 games while toiling away for a decade on a perennial second division team in Toronto, this season Halladay showed that he could also have success on a winner. After being traded to the Phillies in the off-season, Halladay won 21 games in the regular season to help lift Philadelphia to their fourth straight Eastern Division title.

Even though Halladay was facing the best offensive team in the National League in his playoff debut, there was little surprise when he started the game by mowing down the Cincinnati hitters.

He was perfect until surrendering a two-out walk to Jay Bruce in the fifth inning. However, he quickly regrouped and continued to mow down hitter after hitter.

Many no-hitters have at least one signature defensive play to save the no-no, but Halladay was so dominant that the only close call was the last play of the game when Brandon Phillips tapped the ball in front of the plate and Carlos Ruiz briefly stumbled before firing the ball to Ryan Howard to end the game.

Halladay’s second no-hitter of the season is the sixth in Major League baseball in 2010. That is the highest single season total since 1991 when there were seven no-hitters. In fact, during the height of the steroid era from 2000 through 2003, there were only six no-hitters during a four-year stretch.

Though the playoffs are only hours old, it will be hard for another moment to eclipse Halladay’s no-no as the most memorable moment of the 2010 post season.

Of course, for Halladay, the post season won’t be complete unless he and the Phillies are bathing in champagne when the World Series ends in early November.

Photo of Phillies Mgr. Charlie Manuel by Icon SMI

Charlie Manuel teams play well in August, and 2010 was no different.  The Phillies were 18-10 for the month and went from 3.5 games back and in 2nd place to sharing the lead with the Atlanta Braves.  Not bad for a team that has been slammed with injuries and plagued with no offense for long portions of the season until this point.

August began as a terrific month for the Phillies.  In July, after stumbling mightily with a 1-6 record directly following the all-star break, the Phillies caught on fire and won 8 games in a row before losing two in a row to the Nationals.

The Phils continued their hot streak into August by winning five in a row and 12 of their next 15 games, including a sweep of the Marlins in Miami and a series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The highlight of that awesome stretch was certainly the win over the Dodgers on 8/12:
Down 9-2 in the eighth, the Phils rallied for four runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth against Jonathan Broxton.  Carlos Ruiz capped it off with an RBI single and now has four hits in four at-bats along with two game winning hits against Broxton in his career.  It was also the 4th blown save for Broxton against the Phillies in the last four years (two of them in the NLCS).

The Phils followed up that great stretch by splitting the next four games before falling flat on their faces against the Houston Astros.  They were swept in four games at Citizens Bank Park against Houston in a series that featured former Phils Brett Myers and JA Happ.

A sweep at the hands of a last place club looked even worse considering the Phils had a 7 game west coast trip looming against the Padres, Dodgers, and Rockies.  The Phillies would not hang their heads, though.  They landed in San Diego and were able to sweep the National League’s best team en route to a 6-1 road trip that extended into September.

Overall, it was another successful August for Charlie Manuel and the Phillies.  Since 2005, Charlie Manuel has an 100-68 record in August.  That is a .595 winning percentage, which works out to 96 wins over an entire season.  It seems like clockwork with Charlie when we reach the heat of the summer.

Here are the stats for the month of August:

18-10 record
Top win streak: 5
Top losing streak: 4
Home record: 8-8
Road record: 10-2
Series record: 7-1
Began month: 56-48 in 2nd place – 3.5 games behind Braves
Finished month: 74-58 Tied for first with Braves

In game 3, the Phillies 45 year old starter Jamie Moyer pitched better than anyone thought was possible against the Rays Matt Garza (MVP of the ALCS). He pitched 6.1 innings and allowed only 3 runs in a 5-4 9th inning win by the Phillies.

This one wasn’t pretty as each team had late inning errors and bad calls by the umpires once again. This time it was on a bang bang play at 1B where the nearly 46 year old pitcher dove and flipped the ball to Howard at 1B who caught it barehanded before the runner’s foot hit the bag. At least that”s what the replay clearly showed. By the way, kudos goes out to FOX for their new picture in picture instant replay that showed this call as an error in a freeze frame. This runner came around to score the game tying run at 4 all in the top of the 8th.

In the bottom of the 9th, you saw defensive replacement for LF Pat Burrell, Eric Bruntlett get hit by a pitch, then with the Flyin’ Hawaiian, CF Shane Victorino at bat looking to bunt the runner along only to see the new pitcher Grant Balfour throw a wild pitch inside that almost hits the Hawaiian. Bruntlett scampers to second and then to third on an errant throw by Navarro (Rays catcher) that landed in CF. Victorino is then walked as was pinch hitter Dobbs who hot for 3B Feliz. Then with the bases loaded and no on out, up stepped hot hitting Phillies catcher, Carlos Ruiz. Rays manager Joe Maddon then brings in RF Ben Zobrist (the Rays SS a year ago who became a super utility man in 2008) to play as a 5th infielder directly behind the 2B bag. When play resumes, Ruiz hits a slow chopper half way down 3B that Longoria barehanded, but has no chance to get Bruntlett who scored from 3B. What a finish and a bold and correct move by losing manager Joe Maddon none-the-less.

Game 4 is the only blowout of this series as the Phillies won 10-2. The Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine was just a little off his game, but the Phillies bats came alive with a thunderous series of blasts off the bats of Howard (2), Werth and Blanton (yes, the Phillies starting pitcher). This was Blanton’s first career HR and the first by a pitcher in the World Series since Ken Holtzman of the A’s hit one in 1974. He hit it off of Edwin Jackson who came in after Sonnanstine.

The Rays just haven’t played up to the hype they built for themselves this magical year. BJ Upton has cooled off and their pitching hasn’t been as effective as it was in the LDS or the LCS. Not to mention that the biggest part of the Rays offense, their number 3 and 4 hitters, 1B Carlos Pena and 3B Evan Longoria have yet to get their first hits of the series. At least one of these two has to get hot if they are going to have a chance in beating the determined Phillies. So far, the Rays just haven’t played well enough, all around, to win this series.

Game 5 is tonight in the city of brotherly love and if the Phillies win, it will be their first World Series victory since 1980 and I believe, only the third such victory in franchise history. The match up is a repeat of game 1 between the Rays Scott Kazmir who pitched well, going up against the Phillies Ace of their staff, Cole Hamels. Hamels is 4-0 in the playoffs this year and the Phillies have not lost at home this post season. This may be all she wrote as the fat lady get’s ready to possibly sing tonight in Philadelphia.