Just What the Doctor Ordered...

We'll go out on a limb and say that this was probably a strike...

For 11 years, Roy Halladay suffered through losing seasons. Year after year after year, Halladay, one of the greatest pitchers in MLB, had to sit there and suffer on a perennial losing franchise. Although he would never officially come out and say it in the media, because he is too classy, he wanted to leave and go to a contender; everyone knew that the Doctor wanted a chance to go to the playoffs. For several years at the trade deadline, rumors would come and rumors would go, but one thing would remain constant: Roy Halladay wearing the #32 Toronto Blue Jays jersey. During those years of unrest, two more things remained constant, a clamoring from Philadelphia fans to have the best pitcher in baseball on the roster and the desire of Big Ruben Amaro to have the Blue Jays’ ace in red and white pinstripes (usually very slimming). Eventually, when push came to shove, and the offseason came around, Big Rube could no longer control himself.

In the offseason, following a 2009 loss in the World Series to the Yankees, Amaro decided to trade what turned out to be some pretty mediocre prospects, including Kyle Drabek, to the Blue Jays and brought Roy to his real home at Citizens Bank Park. This settled two things. The first thing it solved was that the best fans in professional sports got there man. It helped a fan base, who was grieving a big loss to the ugly troll of baseball, forget what happened and have hope for the future. Hope that in the upcoming years, they wouldn’t have to worry about the other teams, but that other teams would in turn have to start worrying about them. The hope that with the best arm in the majors, would come the best prize in MLB, a trophy and another championship, possibly even a dynasty. The savage fan base’s hunger was satisfied and the masses were quieted.

The second problem, which was more important, did not get fixed until the following October. In the following October, after years of losing, Roy Halladay got his biggest wish, he was going to pitch in the postseason. In his first game against the Cincinnati Reds, everyone knows what happened. Halladay threw only the second no-hitter in the history of October baseball. Halladay had given the fans what they wanted and had gotten what he wanted, to pitch in the postseason and become part of history again in a way that he had never imagined possible before. But, this story is far from over. Last year was just the appetizer; Game 5 on Friday night is the main course.

On Friday night, Halladay (and many other current Phillies) will get the ultimate postseason experience. Some men never get to experience what is about to happen on Friday night. A Game 5 is the absolute end all, be all of postseason baseball and this is what Doc wanted. If he wanted to experience the thrill, excitement and nerves of a meaningful fall game under the lights, this is what he wanted. Roy has waited his entire life for this moment. The moment when the ball, a season, and a city all rest in the care of his golden right arm. Knowing all of this, don’t expect him to fail. Don’t expect anything less than dominance, guts, and heart from the most dedicated man in professional sports. There is only one more thing to expect on Friday night: a win. Halladay has worked for this moment, October glory is his for the taking and expect him to take it.

Moments that only happen in October...

Any way we can...

Hometown of Ryan Howard and future site of the death of the '11 Cardinals

Starting this time of year… it doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there. Whether we win each game by 1 or 10, as long as you keep getting closer to the World Series trophy that is all that matters. And as this team keeps chugging along, we are finding any way that we can to win. We have the unlikely hero of Ben Francisco tonight, and with the unlikely come from behind win on Saturday, this postseason is proving to be anything but ordinary.

On Saturday, as we sat in the stands in complete disbelief of the three run bomb that Doc gave up to the Big Puma, there was a sense of worry in the air. The stadium had a sense of “Oh no, not again,” in every half inning that passed. The Phillies continued to have awful at bats versus the “dangerous” Kyle Lohse, somehow getting out in an average of about 3 pitches per inning, and even though Halladay had started on his magical streak of 21 straight outs, there was still uneasiness. Until that 6^th inning, when everything came into place. Again, the unlikeliest of heroes came through for the Fightin Phils. Ryan Howard, who has been much maligned and hated for his playoff performances thus far in his career, came through with a shot heard round the world, and one that will certainly always be remembered if this turns out to be the special season that we all hope it will be for the Phillies. It shows that he has put his past playoff performances behind him, and he is ready to contribute, but what made this game so weird was how it started. Roy Halladay gave up a three run homerun. Roy Halladay NEVER gives up a homerun, especially a three run bomb so early in the game. But for once, the offense backed him up. In fact, the offense dominated so much that Halladay came out of the game before he needed to so that the bullpen could have some work. For once, in a long time, Halladay was picked up by a man who gets too much heat, in a big way.

Then there was the game tonight. Tonight, a man who was supposed to be a solid right field starter for us, showed he could still be a hero through it all. Ben Francisco, who lost his starting right field position half way through the season, has continued to try and contribute any way that its possible. He did not get angry when Charlie sent him to the bench, instead he adapted back to his old role as a pinch hitter. Since he has been back in the role, he has done a great job of coming through when the club needed him. Cole pitched a great game yet again through 6 innings, but without the versatile Benji Ya Ya ( as we have affectionately called him) we would not have the availability to be sitting in this series up 2-1 going into game 4 tomorrow night in St. Louis. This is just another way you can see, that we have done nothing but win in weird ways so far this postseason.

The Phillies, with all of their all-stars and amazing individual talents, are showing that through it all, they are a team. Whether it is Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, or yes, even Ben Francisco, this team finds a way to win. In October, its not about dominating or convincingly winning or even winning a solid all around performance, the only thing that is important is winning. We may be winning out of character and we may be winning in ugly, dirty fashion, but we are winning. This time of year, that is all that matters.

A great example of just how winning ugly can look for the Phils...

Quick Hits

In case you missed it….

Quick Hit #1:

On Friday, the Phillies traded a living legend (Mike Zagurski) to Arizona for a player to be named later…

The real question here is: How much later? And: Is that player one of the Uptons? Because we deserve at least that for the services of Baby Face Bronco.

If we may, we’d like to say a few words –

Bronco,

Ever since you graced our mound on May 25^th 2007, we’ve enjoyed watching your pitches land up and down in the strike zone, which was oddly what you did between the Major Leagues and the Minors in your illustrious career. Ever since then, the jokes we’ve all made about your fun, bare little face and big belly have said it all – you were fun. Not to mention your career 6.82 ERA and average fantasy draft order of 260, which only screams pure class. Please know that wherever you go – we will always be looking for you…

Love,

The Twins (and all of Philadelphia)

Quick Hit #2:

In the midst of watching the Phillies’ play terrible baseball, good ole’ Roy Halladay decided to take a break. He picked up a new hobby and tried his hand at coaching college football for the Marshall Thundering Herd. Albeit, he wasn’t successful because he went up against a very strong Virginia Tech team…

We know what you’re thinking when you checked the score line and saw that they lost 30-10… ‘Why were the boys so bad, Doc?’ The answer: Does it really matter? At least he didn’t have to watch the Phillies’ lineup swing aimlessly at minor league pitching staffs.

Please also take note how deep Doc is with his quote.  He’s only been in the game for a short amount of time, and he gives pretty insightful football information. You, Doc, are a gem.

Quick Hit #3:

In case you aren’t watching the Phils’ game tonight, in the 4th inning Placido Polanco was up with the bases loaded. With a full count Sarge proclaimed, ‘it sure would be nice for a base hit up the middle’ (or something like that) and then, IT WAS. Polanco hit a ball right over the second base bag and got an RBI.

Don't know why this picture is here? Neither do we.  

Bottom line: Sarge is officially psychic. He’s added another tool to his already staggering repertoire. When will he stop? Can he stop?

Quick Hit #4:

Sidenote: This is a fantastic present for us for our birthday. Wow. 

Don’t go to sleep on Jarmoir Jagr (pronounce the ‘J’s as hard Js. Not soft. It’s way more fun.) The man had two goals and one assist tonight in the Flyer’s big preseason game. (One in which they won 5-2) While everyone else is playing it easy because it’s preseason, the Flyers and Jaromir are on the bench screaming, “WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? THE ICE TO FREEZE? LET’S PLAY!” (First Mighty Ducks reference of the blog… enjoy.) 

Philadelphia 1 - New York 1

On a showdown day when Philadelphia was pinned against its old buddy New York, the games were split 1-1. The Phillies ended their 8 game nauseating skid with a nice 9-4 win over Mike Pelfrey (the crybaby) and an Eagles’ full out collapse versus the New York Giants losing 29-16. We can take a quick look at each of these games.

Phillies 9   Mets 4

The Phanatic wins again. What a character.

This game was an overall great sign for the Phillies in what could be the exact lineup in Game 1 of the NLDS. The offense was put together and seemed to click on all cylinders with Hunter Pence in the 3 hole and Victorino giving Howard some protection in the number 5 spot. Obviously with the 9 runs everything seemed to be smooth. There was timely hitting, 2 out run production, and some power shown with Pence’s 2 run homerun in the first inning. It was a huge confidence boost for an offense that looked sluggish and out of sorts as of late with most regulars getting some rest. Defensively, there were no errors and Roy Halladay did what Roy Halladay does best. He was a strike-throwing machine with almost no flaws. He left after 6 innings with only four hits allowed and a shutout still in tact, but Charlie wanted to rest him up for next Saturday. The only thing that was troubling from this game was the bullpen. Worley came in and gave up a run in the 8^th, but Bastardo seemed to come unraveled again, giving up 3 runs in the 7^th. Other than that, it is a pheel good day for the Phillies who hopefully let the Braves sweep them so we can avoid the hoT hOt Hot Cardinals in the first round (We are not kidding).

Eagles 16 Giants 29

"I thought I remembered you guys making some kind of upgrade in the offseason? Must have been mistaken."

This game was awful in more ways than one. Not only did our defense look absolutely atrocious the entire second half and first quarter, but we have more injuries that can do nothing but hurt us moving forward. First, the injuries that are incredibly significant are (obviously) Michael Vick’s broken right hand and Jeremy Maclin’s hurt hamstring. Vick may be done for a couple weeks, which could lead us to a Vince Young/Mike Kafka competition for #1 this week. That could be interesting to see who starts and if we can win with all that talent, but a B lister at quarterback. The severity of Maclin’s injury is not known as of yet, and even though he is an important part of our offense, we can survive without our second number 1 receiver. Now, to the pathetic game by the defense and offense overall. First, the offense was actually pretty effective most of the game, and only looked hindered when Vick got hurt and had to leave the game. The only thing we have to rip on them for is the pitiful short yardage situations. It was something that appeared to have been corrected as of late, but after a performance on the goal line that would have made Reggie White roll over in his grave, fans were left scratching their heads. The inability of the line and the running game to take advantage of those situations will kill a team’s entire season in the long run. The defense, where can we even begin? The linebackers are such a joke that it is hard to put a finger on whether or not they were worse against the run or the pass. Chaney is a better MLB than Matthews, but Matthews still seemed to be a liability on the outside. One prime example is when he looked lost in coverage on the 40 yard passing TD to Brandon Jacobs in the first. Aside from this, the defense needs to learn how to tackle. Due to a lack of tackling, they made VICTOR CRUZ look like an All-Star and helped Bradshaw extended numerous drives in the game. With all the money spent on the defensive side of the ball, the LBs should have been addressed. The thought that strengthening every other position would help hide the weakness at linebacker obviously didn’t work out. This needs to be corrected or else this season is going to be just as bad as these last two weeks have gone.

Philadelphia is still winning.

In the grand scheme of things, we will still unfortunately give New York the win overall seeing as the Mets still took two of three from the Phillies this weekend and the Giants game was a huge surprise. In a 16 game season, a loss to a division rival is far more devastating than a late September win over a terrible opponent in a 162 game season. Even though New York won this battle, by our records, Philadelphia is still dominating in the war about 1,000,000 to 1 so they can go back to sucking their thumbs at night and dreaming of one day being as great as the city of Brotherly Love.

Excuse me, is the Doc(tor) in?

"I am THE most dominant pitcher in Major League Baseball, bitches."

Okay, so you had to know this was coming, because every person with a pulse in the tri-state area is talking about it, so lets dive right in. Should Charlie Manuel have left Doc Halladay in the game in the ninth last night? The answer is… Maybe. We want everyone in the tri-state area to shut up. Everyone’s opinion is good, bad, wrong, and right. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, and that’s exactly what every "experts'" analysis of last night was. So, lets take a close look at the two major options and what could have happened:

Option 1: El Bastard/Mad Dog come into the game

"Mira! Un beisbol!"

It doesn’t matter whether you argue that one of these guys should have come in for the whole 9^th, after one hit, or after two hits, because they could have all come out the exact same. If one of these guys comes in, we could have seen a rested bullpen player come in and possibly dominate the competition. It could have been a 1,2,3 inning or one of these guys could have come in and gotten out of the trouble Roy had gotten into and looked like geniuses. It would have been nice to see Bastardo get into a REAL pressure situation and see if he can get his way out. He has been great all year, but those pressure situations are what really earn a reliever the big money and it would have been nice to see just how much we have with this kid. Can we rely on him in the playoffs? Is he the closer of the future that can handle the pressure? These are things we need to know before Mad Dog becomes a free agent. The other possible outcome could have been the complete opposite, in which we see one of these guys fall apart and today we are still all chewing out Charlie Manuel for making a bad decision. If this happens, who knows how Bastardo or Madson react (broken toe?) and it could hurt our bullpen for the rest of the season.

Option 2: The Doctor is in.

"What the hell did you say? It goes like this, 'Look! A Baseball!'"

This is what happened, and this is how the game ended. Roy stayed in the game and we all know how it unfolded. He made some bad pitches and ended up giving up the lead in the 9^th inning. Lets break down that decision a little bit though. Even though we all got on Charlie for the decision, does anyone remember how well Halladay pitched prior to the 9^th? He had retired 12 batters in a row and 8 of those 12, he struck out. Which is pretty dominant, he was cruising at that point. Then, lets talk about the second point, his pitch count. After 8 innings, he had thrown 100 pitches exactly. Yeah, and your point? This is THE Doctor. He has thrown more than 100 pitches so many times in his career, what is one more time? No one is crazy about the possibility of Roy getting hurt, but he could just as easily get hurt throwing a curveball in the first inning than throwing a fastball in the 9^th. And what if Halladay had finished that masterpiece and walked away with another complete game win? Today every talk show or sports show would be laughing about how good ole’ Uncle Cholly stuck with his man and it paid off yet again. How Cholly’s loyalty to Roy is amazing and unmatched. This is something that could have happened and based on past performances, was very likely to happen again.

After all of this, it comes down to one truth: How many World Series have you won for the Phillies? Exactly, so shut up and lay off old Uncle Cholly. The man may not always make the best pitching decisions in the world, but it has done him right so far in his career as a manager, at least we think so. Hindsight is 20/20, but since you can’t tell the future, and neither can we, let the manager manage, the players play, and the chips fall where they may as we all take a ride through this amazing Phillies’ season.