Posts tagged ‘shane victorino’

Every once in a while, something happens to remind us all that baseball is really a simple game.  If you do the little things and play the game the right way, good things will happen.

Take a look at last night’s win in St. Louis.  It was the 8th inning, and Jayson Werth was on first base with one out and Chase Utley at the plate.  Utley hits a smash to first, but Albert Pujols makes a nice play on the ball.  It could be a double play, leaving the Phillies with just three outs to make a comeback.

Instead of the Cardinals turning two, here’s what actually happened.

Werth makes a nice takeout slide at second, making it harder for the Cards to make the turn.  Utley hustles down the line and ends up beating the throw.  There’s two outs, but the inning is still alive.  It’s still alive because the Phillies did two things right on one play.  They hustled, and they played hard.

The end result is a hit by Ryan Howard, a game-tying hit by Pat Burrell, and a rally-capping homer by Shane Victorino.  The Phillies plate four in the 8th, all with two outs, and all because Werth and Utley decided to hustle to keep the inning alive.  It’s funny, but as crazy as this game can be, sometimes it’s incredibly simple.  If you do things the right way, good things happen.

One other thought about last night’s game.  I really liked seeing Burrell get the hit off Russ Springer, even when the Cards brought him in specifically just to get Pat.  It says a lot about a hitter when he can come through even when the other team dictates the match-up.  Pat deserves some praise for a nice at-bat that resulted in the game tying RBI.  Good teams do these kinds of things, and so it’s nice to see the Phils playing this way.

The first week of baseball season always comes with a great deal of anticipation.  Of course, if you’re the Phillies, it normally ends with more questions than answers.  It seems like this team gets off to a slow start every year, and so here’s a look back at the opening week that was:

The Good

Chase Utley is playing like it’s his turn to win the MVP award.  He’s absolutely crushing the ball, and he already has a mid-season intensity about him that we can all only hope is contagious.

Jimmy Rollins has been fine at the top of the order, even though his average is lower than he’d like it to be.  Even Pat Burrell looks good, and maybe that’s a sign he is going to carry over last year’s monster second half and come through in his contract year.

So much for the 5th starter spot being a weakness.  Adam Eaton looked like he got off on the right foot the other day when he pitched 7.2 innings against the Reds.  Of course, the Phillies lost that game, so I’m not sure what that tells us.  Consider it severance pay for the fact that Eaton won 10 games last year with an ERA over 6.

The Bad

I can’t put into words how annoyed I am with Shane Victorino.  He’s an astounding 3 for 23 so far this year with 4 strikeouts.  That’s a .130 clip, and what’s worse is that I haven’t seen him put together a good at-bat yet.  While his defense has been fine in Center, he sure looks like a guy who is walking around with the knowledge that for the first time in his Major League career, he’s not battling for playing time.  He’s a little too comfortable.

The Ugly

We can go on and on about the pitching staff, but the reality is that the two best outings haven’t meant a thing to this team.  Cole Hamels throws 8 innings of 1 run ball, and Adam Eaton throws 7.2 of 3 run ball, and the Phils lose both games.  Sure, Tom Gordon had a bad opener and Brett Myers hasn’t looked like himself, but the bigger problem is that this team isn’t playing much defense at all.

When a team this solid defensively makes 4 errors in one game like they did on Thursday, it’s a sign of a lack of focus.  And after the slow starts of the last few years and the hype around this team in spring training, it makes you wonder just what this team is thinking about.  They have to know how badly these losses can hurt them down the road.  But at the same time, the focus and the intensity (Chase Utley aside) just isn’t there.  It’s strange at best and worrisome at least, and either way it’s a sign that things need to turn around quickly.

The Mets and Braves haven’t gotten off to fast starts either, and so this first week has a chance to mean nothing.  But the time to turn it around isn’t May 1st, it’s right now.  Of course, they’ll get their chance.  They’ll help the Mets open the last season at Shea Stadium coming up this Tuesday.  Let’s hope they have their focus in time for that.