The Phillies Performance Vs. The Mets Summed Up In One Word: Ouch.
I’ll just go ahead and blame this one on karma. Phillies fans acted like the cock of the walk on Saturday night and just a few days later, now we are the ones getting curb stomped.
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said after the game that this one was an embarrassment. I guess that’s one way you can put it. When the away team has the home field advantage, that’s the embarrassment, but that’s not really on you, Pete. When they come here and have 20 hits, 13 of which went for extra base variety and 7 of those being no doubt home runs, well that is an absolute travesty. I hope he grew a pair and put this ball club in their place with a Wally Blackman style tirade.
I don’t know whether to be mad or amazed by that. If there is one box score that could sum up the last six years of Phillies baseball it’s that. Coming off a hot weekend and a series win from the Nationals and throwing all of that momentum down the toilet in a matter of moments.
Let’s start with Clay. I tried to put his 4.74 first inning career ERA in the back of my mind when I was watching last night, but I couldn’t. He goes out to the mound in that first inning with zero energy. He doesn’t create any sort of flow for himself and takes FOREVER to pitch. Asdrubal was in a 3-2 count, I look up at the clock and like 12 minutes had already passed. He ran into two deep counts to the first two hitters of the game, walking Curtis Granderson and giving up a double to Asdrubal. That was before Yoenis opened up the flood gates on an 0-2 pitch that Clay missed his spot by a mile.
That marked the 5th time a Phillies pitcher had given up a 2-strike home run at that point. We would go on to give up 3 more of those in the game. Opponents are now hitting .245 with a .759 OPS vs. Phillies pitching this year with two strikes. According to Matt Gelb of Philly.com, the Major League Average last season was .176 with a .522 OPS. Get with your boys, Bob McClure and figure some shit out. That is pathetic.
We all saw Clay leave the game early last night. Turns out he has a forearm strain and will most likely be heading to the DL. Nobody and I mean nobody was happier for this injury than Clay. He probably would have chopped his arm off 127 hours style if he had to. He knows Phillies fans weren’t too fond of him to begin with. And he is definitely aware that Red Sox fans are checking in on his starts, hoping for the worst. Well he got his wish. A trip to the DL and an arm injury he can use as an excuse for his troubles. If for some reason there were any Clay Buchholz suitors out there, they won’t be answering Klentak’s calls now.
Phillies sent Adam Morgan to AAA. Addition tomorrow.
— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyCSN) April 12, 2017
The Adam Morgan experiment also came to an end last night as he was released about 2 mins after the game ended. I think the Met’s barreled about 90% of Morgans pitches last night. As for Joely Rodriguez, I really don’t know what to make of him. He has a hard sinking fastball, but that slider of his doesn’t move. Since Morgan was released, we need at least one lefty in the bullpen, so Joely isn’t going anywhere. Expect Zach Eflin who pitched 5-shutout innings last night for Lehigh Valley to replace Clay and word is still out on who will replace Morgan. If I had to guess I would say it’s between Michael Mariot and Hoby Milner.
TL;DR
Just watch the gif,
Wheeler v. Velasquez tonight. Let’s pull out 1 in the series. #YaGottaBelieve