Thursday, September 15, 2005 - Chipper Jones Chops Down Phillies, Houston Reclaims Wild Card Lead, Nationals Sweep Mets

The Phillies completed the end of their four-game series with the Braves on Thursday night. Unfortunately, it did not end with the happy result of a four-game Phillies sweep of Atlanta, which would have been the club's first since 1995. The Braves triumphed 6-4, with Chipper Jones homering twice and driving in five runs to key the victory, the 32nd multi-HR game of his career. (The first HR was his 1800th career hit.) Thus, Atlanta salvaged the final game of the series and snapped the Phillies' four-game winning streak at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies wasted a golden opportunity in the 1st, the inning in which Atlanta starter Jorge Sosa has struggled. Kenny Lofton reached on an error by RF Jeff Francoeur, followed by walks to Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu, thus loading the bases with one away. Unfortunately, Pat Burrell hit an infield fly and Ryan Howard, after getting ahead 3-1, fouled off one pitch and drove the next one into straightaway center at the warning track (a tremendous distance) but Andruw Jones was able to successfully retrieve it to retire the side with no runs scoring.

Brett Myers picked up the Phillies' first hit with two out in the 2nd, and Jimmy Rollins hit a ball up the middle which was fielded by Rafael Furcal, but he heaved it over 1B Adam LaRoche's head and it hit the railing of the Phillies' dugout, ricocheting back into play. Myers went to third and Rollins to second, and an umpires' huddle concluded that while Myers was entitled to third, Rollins had to go back to first.

I was puzzled by this ruling, because at least the way I saw it, there were only two possible rulings. One would be to rule the ball in play, which meant that the two runners could advance at their own risk, which they both had. The other would be to rule that it was out of play, thus giving each one base - Myers at 3rd, Rollins at 2nd. Particularly since the first base umpire had apparently given Rollins the out-of-play signal, so he just jogged to second. Anyway, the umps understand the rules better than I do, so I'm sure they made the right call. As it turned out, the point ended up being moot, because Rollins stole 2nd anyhow on the next pitch. Unfortunately, Lofton grounded out to end the threat.

Myers gave up a three-run HR to Chipper Jones in the top of the 3rd, putting the Braves up for good at 3-0. Bobby Abreu got the deficit reduced to 3-2 with a two-run shot in the 5th.

Myers was passable tonight: not great, not terrible. He dodged Braves threats in the 4th and 5th, while giving up a solo HR to LaRoche in the 6th, his final inning. He finished the game with 6 IP, 4 R, all earned, 7 K. Ryan Madson emerged in the 7th and gave up Chipper's 2nd HR of the game, a two-run blast, pushing the lead to 6-2.

The Phils counter-attacked in the bottom of the 7th, as Ryan Howard picked up an RBI single against the Braves' bullpen, reducing the deficit to 6-3. Howard homered with two outs and the bases empty in the 9th off Kyle Farnsworth, the new Atlanta closer, acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline to supplant Chris Reitsma, now relegated to a setup role. But that was it - 6-4, Atlanta, and Farnsworth picked up his 7th NL save. Ironically, in one season, Detroit has had one closer injured (Troy Percival) - one traded to the Phillies (Ugueth Urbina) - and a third (Farnsworth) traded to Atlanta.

The Phillies' offense might have been good enough to make a winner out of Myers (now 12-8) with some more timely hitting. The club outhit Atlanta, 12-8, stole five bases (a season high), and also benefitted from three Braves errors. But the Phils went just 2-13 with runners in scoring position. The club pushed runners to second base in each of the first four innings, but failed to score until Abreu's 5th inning HR. Farnsworth was able to retire Chase Utley to end the 8th, with runners at 2nd and 3rd. The beneficiary of the Phillies' futility was Jorge Sosa (12-3), a converted position player and former Tampa Bay Devil Ray, who is now an integral part of the Braves' rotation.

Nonetheless, the Phillies still suffer from the lack of a true ace at the top of their rotation. Myers lost all three of his starts on this homestand, and it is far from certain that he would get the ball in the first game of a Division Series, should that fortunate circumstance occur.

Charlie Manuel remarked after the game that "87 or 88 wins should win this thing". I'm not so sure...

Worth praising:

Rollins: 3/5, two stolen bases. He extended his hitting streak to 21 games, and his increasing ability to get on base has been crucial in the Phillies' hot streak.
Abreu: 3/4, 2 R, 2 RBI, double, 2-R HR, walk, stolen base. Incredible.
Howard: 2/5, R, 2 RBI, HR. The rookie continues to impress.

This loss effectively ends any chance the Phillies might have had of actually winning the division. With 15 games left, they now trail the Braves by six games, and only play them head-to-head in one more series. Granted, the chances wouldn't have been all that high even with a victory tonight, which would have required making up 4 games over a 15 game span, especially since 12 of them will be on the road. But now the division race is purely of academic interest. The Braves saw their magic number drop to 10 with the victory and also due to the fact that Florida fell in Houston, and they now lead both pursuers by six games with 15 left.

Other Games of NL Interest

As noted above, Florida lost to Houston, 4-1, at Minute Maid Park. Florida had won the first two in the series, while the host Astros took the back two. The red-hot Andy Pettitte (16-9) won his sixth straight start, allowing Florida's one run (a 7th inning HR by Miguel Cabrera) over eight innings, and Brad Lidge recording his 37th save, striking out the side in the 9th. Jose Vargas (5-4) lost it for Florida.

With the Phillies loss, this meant that Houston has now reclaimed the wild card lead by a half-game over both the Phillies and Marlins, and 2 1/2 over the sizzling Nationals. Florida went 6-5 on its road trip, and now comes back to Miami to take on the Phillies this weekend. Houston remains at Minute Maid Park to take on Milwaukee, who haven't abandoned their hopes for the playoffs. The Brewers trail the Astros by 5 games, and would be right back in it with a sweep this weekend.

Washington completed a stunning three-game sweep of the Mets at Shea in the afternoon, winning 6-5 in 11 innings, after the Mets had a 5-4 lead in the 9th, but committed two errors to let the tying run score. While it always does my heart good to see the Mets lose, it is often more irritating that on the rare occasions that it is our interest to see them win (such as the 2000 World Series) that they fail.

The Mets are now officially out of the race, which they weren't, at the end of the weekend. Had they swept the Nationals, they'd be the ones making the charge. Instead, the Mets have three wins in their last 18 games, going from 68-60 to 71-75, and have just lost three games of ground to both the Phillies and Nationals since Sunday.

Jose Reyes hit a solo HR, and Cliff Floyd hit a grand slam to give the Mets a 5-4 lead in the 5th, which they carried into the 9th, and handed the keys to closer Brandon Looper. Looper gave up a single to pinch-hitter Brian Zimmermann, who advanced to second on an error in the outfield. Kenny Kelly pinch-ran for Zimmermann, advanced to third on a ball hit in the infield, thus there being one out and the tying run on 3rd.

Looper hit Jose Guillen with a pitch, and 2B Kaz Matsui committed an error on Brad Wilkerson's ground ball, permitting the Nationals to tie it at 5. Looper managed to get out of the inning by inducing a double play from Jamey Carroll, with runners at the corners, and so the game was extended - Looper's 7th blown save in 35 tries.

Former Phillie Roberto Hernandez (6-6) gave up a two-out RBI single to Vinny Castilla in the 10th, while Washington's Jason Bergmann (2-0) pitched the 9th and Gary Majewski finished the 10th for his first save.

So the Nationals picked up a game on Florida/Houston and are still very much alive. Of course, the Phillies must travel to RFK on the season's last weekend, and so the Nationals are a substantial threat.

Dark Horses

As noted above, the Mets are done. Milwaukee exploded in the heat of the Arizona desert, opening up a 12-0 lead over the Diamondbacks in the 4th, and evening their record at 73-73, gaining one game on Florida and the Phillies and staying even with Houston and Washington.

The Cubs lost to archrival St. Louis, 6-1, at Wrigley - Jeff Suppan getting the victory over Mark Prior.

At the end of play on Thursday, September 15, 2005 (15 Phillies games remaining)

NL East

Atlanta...................................84-63....--- (Magic number 10)
Philadelphia.......................... 78-69.....6
Florida....................................78-69.....6

NL Wild Card

Houston..................................78-68.....---

Philadelphia...........................78-69.....0.5

Florida...................................78-69.....0.5

Washington............................76-71.....2.5

Back of the Pack

Milwaukee........................... 73-73..... 5
Chicago.................................72-75..... 6.5
New York............................. 71-75.....7 (it's over for them)