Road To 10,000 Losses: Finally, Mediocrity!

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. Finishing up a 7-3 homestand, the Phillies stand at 9977 losses, only 23 away from 10,000.

Hey, how about that! When they returned home from a road trip for a 10 game homestand, the Phillies needed a 7-3 homestand to get to .500. And then, wildly, they actually went out and did it, losing only one game to Chicago, then-NL leading Milwaukee and Toronto.

Last weekend was when teams supposedly played their natural interleague rival. Since the Phillies lost Baltimore — who now plays Washington — the rivalry went to Toronto, as baseball looked to match up two teams in a rivalry almost as fierce as that yearly Colorado Rockies-Kansas City Royals dustup. (Okay, the 1993 World Series, but, is that it? And the Phillies were called the Blue Jays for two years in the 1940s. One of the all-time great rivalries!)

The Phillies are now a whopping 22-22, and have gone 18-11 since a 4-11 start. As Rich Hoffman writes today, though, the Phillies 7-3 homestand improved the team from 6 1/2 games back in the NL East to… 6 1/2 games back in the NL East. And since the Mets have both starting pitching, offense and a bullpen, the Wild Card is pretty much the best case scenario already. And it’s May.

The important thing about today’s Phillies game is, well, there isn’t one. And so, for the first time all season, the Phillies will spend a full day with at least a .500 winning percentage. Baby steps, people.

Road To 10,000 Losses: Coste With The Most

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 4-1 loss to the Cubs yesterday, the Phillies stand at 9975 losses, only 25 away from 10,000.

It was Mother’s Day. There was a packed house. The Phillies actually won three straight games heading in to the game. They could sweep the Cubs and move within a game of .500. Every woman 15 and older had a Chase Utley blanket to wrap themselves in.

The Phillies responded by scoring just one run, on a throwing error in the bottom of the 8th inning. With the Phillies down, 4-1, Utley singled with two outs in the ninth and was thrown out trying to take second. The Fightins failed to get their first sweep of the season, their first since a sweep of the Marlins put the Phils into the Wild Card lead with a week to play last season.

But all is not lost! The Phillies might not even lose 25 more games this season, as they’ve called up the savior. I’m referring to, of course, Chris Coste, who was called up when Ryan Howard went on the DL. Howard hit a pinch-hit grand slam on Wednesday to help the Phils beat the Diamondbacks but has been having quad problems. He hurt the quad because he ate too many Big Macs instead of Subway sandwiches.

Coste hit .328 in 65 games for the Phillies last season. The 33-year-old rookie also drove in 32 RBI, and although he’s hitting .233 for the Phillies’ AAA affiliate this year, he’s become the rallying cry for everything that’s wrong with the franchise by fans and bloggers alike. If my calculations are correct, Coste will hit .368 this year with 17 homers and 107 RBI, playing first and, when Howard returns, third.

World Series here we come.

A word on numbers: Unless I did something like add incorrectly — which is perfectly possible — the numbers I have are correct. See this post for more info.

Howard goes on the shelf; Phillies recall Coste [Beerleaguer]

Road To 10,000 Losses: Replay

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks last night, the Phillies stand at 9974 losses, only 26 away from 10,000.

PHOENIX — For the first time since 1947, two major league teams agreed to play “pretty much the same game” for the second night in a row, as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2.

“I don’t really know why the players wanted to do it,” said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. “I was reading on the SABR-L listserv about the ban on fraternization in the rulebook, and I really don’t get why our boys wanted to do this, but they figured they were gonna lose anyway and could use the day off.”

The Phillies lost the previous night, 4-3. While the runs were scored in a different manner and fewer relievers were used last night, the games took essentially the same form: Diamondbacks lead early, Phillies rally to tie it twice, but fade away in a late one-run loss. At no point did any Phillies fan watching believe the local nine would rally to win the game.

With the deal, Greg Dobbs got to hit his first home run of the season, while Chase Utley was allowed to hit his fifth. The Diamondbacks wouldn’t agree to a pinch-hit Ryan Howard homer, a stance than nearly blew the deal.

“Not even I would give up a home run to Ryan Howard at this point,” said rookie D-Backs pitcher Micah Owings.

Phillies pitcher Adam Eaton was also allowed to make a “quality start,” defined as three runs or fewer over six-plus innings. Eaton went 7 innings and gave up 3 runs, but did pick up another loss.

The Phillies return to action tonight at 6:40 p.m. No word if a deal has been made for tonight’s game, but it’s likely the team has actually already left on a chartered plane to Philadelphia and the last game of the roadtrip will be played by Phillies impersonators and Rod Barajas.

Update, 2:00 p.m.: Mike’s Baseball Rants notes if the Phillies lose by one run tonight, the Diamondbacks will pass the Phils in winning percentage in all-time one-run games.

Road To 10,000 Losses: Blah

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks last night, the Phillies stand at 9973 losses, only 27 away from 10,000.

Ahh, yes. Last night Freddy Garcia recovered from his pathetic cart injury Sunday and was able to pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The righthander actually pitched his best game of the season, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings, but the Phillies were unable to score any runs until late and lost, 4-3. The Phils are now 3-5 on their 10-game roadtrip.

The Phillies tied it up at 2 in the 7th and at 3 in the 8th, but the Diamondbacks came right back each time, as Antonio Alfonseca and Francisco Rosario (who the Phillies acquired for cash earlier this year) each gave up a run. What a bullpen, eh?

The Phillies did manage to lose in incredibly boring fashion last night, and in utterly predictable fashion, so there’s really not much else to say. Hey, at least the Phillies are making losing boring now, so there’s absolutely no reason to watch.

Arizona 4, Philadelphia 3 [AP/Yahoo! Sports]

Road To 10,000 Losses: Not-So-Fab Freddy

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 2-2 series split with the Giants — who, by the way, have 10,000 wins — the Phillies stand at 9972 losses, only 28 away from 10,000.

Freddy Garcia is 1-2 for the Phillies this year, but he might not factor in to a loss tonight. No, it’s not that the Phillies are going to — and this is a silly thought — win. Garcia might not play due to a collision with a cart in the outfield yesterday.

Garcia was warming up before last night’s win over the Giants when the righthander with a 6.05 ERA chased after a Ryan Howard fly ball. Unfortunately, a cart had stopped to avoid being hit by that flyball — and Garcia ran directly into it. He ended up having to be taken off by the cart he ran into and might miss tonight’s start.

Naturally, the Phillies’ brass was content to be confused and use sayings from the 1950s:

“I wouldn’t say I’m upset, but I’m kind of curious why it was out there while we had the field,” Gillick said of the maintenance cart.

“The guy stopped the cart right in front of him,” Manuel said. “Damn, use that head for something besides a hat rack.”

The Phillies play at Arizona tonight at 9:40 p.m. They’re 14-17 and 5.5 games out in the NL East.

Phillies Notes | Garcia hurt by running into a cart [Inquirer]

Road To 10,000 Losses: Jim Salisbury Will Not Tolerate The Phillies’ Lies

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With 4-3 loss to the Braves last night, the Phillies stand at 9970 losses, only 30 away from 10,000.

The Phillies didn’t just lose last night. They also learned after the game Tom Gordon will be heading to Philadelphia to be checked by a team physician. The Phillies’ closer hasn’t been all that good this season, with three blown saves. The new closer is Brett Myers.

But, hey, manager Charlie Manuel successfully performed a double switch last night! After his double switch the Braves’ bullpen retired the next eight batters, but, hey, he tried.

Inquirer writer Jim Salisbury wasn’t happy with anything, though. In the spring, he remembers, the Phillies’ said Tom Gordon’s random visit to Philadelphia was nothing. Nobody believed that, since they wouldn’t send him to Philadelphia unless he had a possible serious injury.

Whom can you believe in the Phillies organization these days? Anyone? [...]

Remember that not-so-secret trip home to Philadelphia that Gordon took in the spring? Remember how team officials insisted that Gordon’s shoulder, which landed him on the disabled list last season, was fine? Remember how the Phils repeatedly said he went home for a routine exam?

Turns out that was a whole load of compost.

Wow. Not only are the fans angry, the sportswriters are angry.

Update: Oh, and the Braves catcher yesterday? A rookie playing in his first game, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, of course. The previous day the Phillies manage to hit the other two Braves’ catches with their bats in the glove — this one was the catcher’s fault — and head, respectively. Go Phils!

Phillies lose the game and Gordon [Inquirer]

Road To 10,000 Losses: You Lose Some, You Lose Some

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 5-2 loss to the Braves last night, the Phillies stand at 9969 losses, only 31 away from 10,000.

“5-2 final, Atlanta. Goodnight everyone.”

After Harry Kalas ended the Phillies broadcast last night, Post Game Live began. The Phillies fell to 11-14 on the season, dropping to 0-4 against division rival Atlanta Braves. The Braves only need seven more wins to take the season series. I think the Phillies might as well concede it.

I don’t really know why I’m using this line now. When the Braves sweep the series, the more appropriate line will be, “The Braves only need five more wins to take the season series.” It seems odd that by May 2 I could be saying that.

Yes, right. This is the negative Philadelphia fan stereotype. Loving to boo. Having a negative attitude. Blah blah blah. Whatever. This has nothing to do with a stereotype. The Phillies are just a bad franchise. Just like K-Mart is never going to sell Waterford crystal, the Phillies are never going to win the World Series again anytime soon. Not with this ownership. Not with this team.

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Road To 10,000 Losses: Ups And Downs

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 2-1 series victory over the Marlins, the Phillies stand at 9968 losses, only 32 away from 10,000.

Today, I’m going to recap the Phillies weekend — a series win over the Marlins — by charting the ups and downs of it.

Up: The Phillies won the series against the Marlins. They’ve won 7 of 9, improving from 4-11 to 11-13.

Down: The Phillies 7-2 stretch came against the Astros (1-0), Reds (2-0; lost first game of series), Nationals (2-1) and Marlins (2-1), not exactly the powers of the National League. The Phillies are still 0-3 against the Braves and 1-3 against the Mets.

Up: The Phillies’ two best pitchers, stats-wise, are 3-1 with a 2.65 ERA and 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA.

Down: These two men are 44-year-old Jamie Moyer and 23-year-old Cole Hamels. One needs Geritol and the other needs a date for the prom.

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Road To 10,000 Losses: Losing In November

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 4-2 loss to the National yesterday, the Phillies stand at 9967 losses, only 33 away from 10,000.

Geeze, even when the Phillies won’t be playing — November 4, 2008 — they’re going to lose.

How, you say?

Yep. George Phillies, Libertarian candidate for president. According to his official website, he’s against “selling our grandchildren into de facto debt slavery,” for civil liberties and presumably for all the normal libertarian free market and such.

Oh, and he’s for ending the Internet poker ban. (”Real Americans know: Poker is as American as apple pie.”) This guy is looking better and better every second.

Plus, hello, his last name is Phillies. I didn’t even know there were people with that last name! God, what a tragedy it must be to go through life with that last name. Everywhere you go, people associate you with the worst baseball team of all time.

George Phillies for President [Thanks, Brad]
Phillies for President [Myspace]

Road To 10,000 Losses: Phillies Liveblog

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 5-4 loss to the Nationals yesterday, the Phillies stand at 9965 losses, only 35 away from 10,000. The Phils are playing the Washington Nationals in an afternoon game, and so it’s time for a short liveblog. I’ll try to do this for games when I can this year, since if I’m watching anyway, I might as well write about it.

1:08 - The Phillies score one in the first, but had Shane Victorino on third with one out and he didn’t score.

1:31 - Aaron Rowand, who’s playing so well we better trade him before he starts screwing up, hits a homer to make it 2-0 Phillies. It’s time for the contest to guess how the Phillies will blow this one. I’m thinking the Phils hit into two triple plays.

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