- Brutal game last night in San Diego. Philllies lost 2-0 to a lowly Padres team. The Phils had their chances, including bases loaded in the 1st, 1st and 2nd in the 7th, and 1st and 2nd with no outs in the 9th.
The club made the Padres rookie starter-in his first game- look like Bob Feller, despite having mediocre stuff. Same ol' story- strike-out too much, don't hit in the club, swing at too many bad pitches. Guys need to put the ball in play, especially when runners ar ein scoring position.
- I couldn't believe Kapler's post-game remarks. The team does'nt move runners with a bunt, hit-and-run or steals. Kapler had the chance to move runners last night and instead he went for the "big inning.' That's stupid. He has no sense of playing small ball. He is too much into analytics instead of merely using facts and numbers as a tool.
What Kapler is doing now obviously isn't working. The Phils have been shut-out in back-to-back games, but they have struggled to score runs all season. Amazing they are still tied for 1st place.
Don't you have to do something different when what you are doing isn't working?
Also, the line-up is flawed. Why does Kapler continue to bat Santana in the clean-up spot? He walks but does little else, while his average hovers around .217. Shouldn't Hoskins hit 4th? Analytics say, bat Hoskins for him to get more at-bats. But meanwhile you're killing the rest of the line-up.
Hernandez is not a lead-off hitter. He strikes-out too much ( who doesn't?). I'd rather see Herrera or Quinn bat lead-off ( Herrera has hit 1st before), and add speed to the top of the batting order. Hit Hernandez 2nd, where he can move runners ( he can bunt).
I'm tired of Kapler's excuses. He needs to shake things up if he isn't going to call-out players who are under-achieving.
I'm not a big Matt Klentak fan, but I give him credit for trying to improve the club with Ramos, Cabrera and now Justin Bour from Miami. Now it's up to Kapler to use them in the right way.
- Speaking of which, getting Bour was a good move. His average is only .227 but he does have 19 home runs and walks * which the Phillies love). They are calling him a Matt Stairs-type of addition to the bench, a guy with power. I think Bour will play a bigger role than expected.
But how do you sit down a guy like Santana who is making $20 million a year? If Kapler and Klentak have any guts they would at least platoon Santana and Bour at first base. Santana isn't doing the job and we are in mid-August of a tight pennant race.
With the loss and the Braves'win over Milwaukee, Philly falls into a virtual tie with Atlanta for 1st place in NL East. Washington remains 5 1/2 games behind. This was supposed to be a weekend where the Phillies padded their lead, playing San Diego while Atlanta faces the Brewers and the Nationals play the Cubs. Before the team comes home to take on powerful Boston, they need to ride Nola tonight and Arrieta on Sunday. Losing to the padres would be disastrous.
- When push comes to shove, the season is probably going to come down to the seven games between the Phila and Braves in the final two weeks of the season. Kapler is right- there are ebbs and flows in every season. The Phils need to hold serve and stay with Atlanta until late September when they can go mano-to-mano with Atlanta for the division.
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