JRoll is perfecting the art of the (very) ugly strikeout.


Not once, but twice.

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the number of no-hitters Roy Halladay threw in back-to-back playoff postseason appearances. Instead, I'm talking about the number of home runs Cody Ross had in back-to-back plate appearances against the aforementioned Halladay.

Ross has his name in the record books, and now the Phillies must regroup, look ahead to Roy II and his start on Sunday night and find a way to prevent themselves from falling to 0-2.

But in order to do so, they'll have to look back and figure out what went wrong in Game 1. The maddening part is it's not a long list and it's the same issues the Phils have had all year long.

If the pitching can't get the job done, the odds are against the bats picking up the slack.

For whatever reason, the offense has simply not been there. Overall the numbers aren't bad for the year, but even in baseball there's a lot to look at past the stats.

The clutch hits don't seem to be there as often anymore. The support for their pitcher when he has an off day hasn't been as prevalent. The big-name bats just simply are not pulling their weight and instead they're relying on Carlos Ruiz to produce for them out of the eight hole.

Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, and Jimmy Rollins were a combined 2-19 with 9 strikeouts and only one run scored. Jayson Werth -- who probably slumped harder than anyone on the team in the regular season -- was the only other guy to show up.

Werth, along with Ruiz, hit a home run. Both players accounted for all three RBIs on the team.

Someone needs to pull aside Victorino and Rollins and inform them that their game should be small-ball. They need to get on base and work from there. They are the fast guys who can score from first or steal a couple bases and walk home from second. Instead they're constantly trying to smack the ball out of the park and it results in nothing but strikeouts most of the time.

I recall closer to the beginning of the season when Rollins first hurt himself and the cameras caught him talking to Juan Castro before he went to the plate. Rollins pointed at the scoreboard and said something to the effect of "See that zero in the home run column? You have to change that. Just go for the fences."

I almost went through the roof.

Clearly Rollins' mentality all year has been to swing for the fences. He's not focused on hitting the ball in the gaps and running the bases. He wants to take the stroll with the fireworks in the background and doesn't seem to understand anymore that he's not that guy. Never has been.

It becomes quite evident his priorities are messed up when he's trying to convince Juan-freaking-Castro that he just needs to swing for the fences because not having a home run is a travesty.

Even the guys who are known for their ability to hit home runs quite often -- Ibanez, Utley, and Howard -- are trying for the long-ball too often. If they would just head to the plate thinking they're going to take whatever the pitcher gives them (especially against a guy like Tim Lincecum) they would be much better off as individuals and for the team.

But right now, the only guys doing that are Ruiz, Werth, and Wilson Valdez. No offense intended to any of those three players, but they're not the guys who are going to decide who wins and loses a World Series. Or, more to the point, who gets to play in the World Series.

If this team is going to make history they're going to need better decision-making from their superstars and get them back into the mentality that they're going to play as a team and for the team rather than seeing themselves on SportsCenter.

(Notice, by the way, I haven't said anything about Placido Polanco. He's really just a guy at this point and is playing as such. Not too much can be expected of him -- especially when the guys around him can't even make contact.)

This team going 0-4 with runners in scoring position and leaving seven on base is just not acceptable. There is far too much talent at every spot in the lineup for that.

They made it through the regular season and the NLDS with an underachieving offense, but the Giants' pitching staff is too good to allow them to just waltz their way into the World Series. They will have to earn it this year perhaps more than any other year, and can't rely on Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels to do it for them.

Yes, Halladay could have been better, but he's only human. These guys should be able to bail him out at least once since he's done it countless times already -- including the night of his no-no.

And I leave you with this thought: what if Oswalt is as shaky Sunday night as he was for Game 2 against the Cincinnati Reds?

Oh boy.
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At this point, Carlos Ruiz might be the Philies' MVP.


Everything is starting to click for the Phillies right now as they continue fighting with the Atlanta Braves for ownership of the NL East.

The offense went off Monday night against the Florida Marlins, Joe Blanton looked very good, and that all comes after a great outing by Roy Oswalt yesterday. We all knew the top of the pitching rotation would give teams fits, but now Blanton is on his game as well and lineup is finally awake.

Jayson Werth, Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, and even Greg Dobbs hit a home run, Wilson Valdez hit a double, and before it was all said and done the Phils had put up 11 on the Marlins.

Ruiz, as he's been all season, was especially impressive. Already near the top of every major offensive statistical category for catchers, Ruiz improved his numbers by going 3-4 with a home run, four RBIs, a run scored, and even drew a walk.

The performance bumped Ruiz's season batting average to .300.

And if 11 runs -- four of them home runs -- wasn't good enough, Werth was actually able to come through with a runner in scoring position when he hit a single that scored Utley from second.

If that doesn't signal that the Phillies are a team of destiny on a mission, I'm not sure what does.

The Braves are going to continue to fight hard, but they've got to be feeling a bit helpless at this point as they fight just to stay neck-and-neck with the Phils. If they drop even just a couple games here and there they're going to start falling behind fast and they know it.
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The Phils will need Ruiz in September and October.


Having a lot of superstars is great for obvious reasons. But the thing that makes a team great is having guys on the roster who can step in for those superstars when needed and make the plays that need to be made, or just play in a supporting role and do all the little things.

Fortunately for the Phillies, they have a lot of both types of guys. The superstars -- Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Jimmy Rollins -- aren't hard to pick out. But what makes this 2010 team so dangerous is just how stacked the roster is with great supporting players.

The superstars get a team in position to win, but it's the role players who ultimately do the things necessary for the game to be won.

So heading into one hell of a playoff push, let's take a look at the five guys who everyone should keep an eye on as potential difference-makers.



Wilson Valdez

Early in the season, Valdez was forced to split time with Juan Castro at shortstop while Rollins recovered from an injury. It became abundantly clear very quickly, however, that Valdez was the superior player in nearly every aspect.

He's never going to be a .300 hitter, but he's come through with some clutch hits and has been fantastic in the field. In fact, Valdez has only been charged with one error this season and has turned 19 double plays from third base, shortstop, and second base.

He likely won't see a whole lot of time in the playoffs, but he will be a huge part of the push to stay in first place and will be a great guy to have coming off the bench.



Ross Gload

If you would have told me Gload would be batting .281 with six home runs, 29 RBIs, 14 runs and only 10 strikeouts as the Phillies' primary left-handed pinch hitter, I would have laughed in your face. But, here we are.

Gload has made Greg Dobbs all but worthless and is a guy the Phillies really like. He's going to continue to be the go-to guy off the bench and will be highly counted upon all throughout the push and into the playoffs.

A big situation doesn't seem to rattle him, so he should be fine when the lights are on. I wouldn't have thought it to be the case when they signed him, but there's a bit of confidence in everyone watching that when Gload hits the plate he's going to come through.



Kyle Kendrick

Kendrick likely won't find himself in the rotation come playoff time. He'll be relegated to the bullpen in favor of Joe Blanton, who will keep the fourth spot. And while I believe Kendrick is the more talented pitcher, it's definitely the right move.

Blanton, even with his maddening tendency to give up first-inning runs and put the offense in a hole immediately, is the more consistent of the two. He's not going to come out and blank anyone for seven innings, but he's also not going to allow 11 runs in the first four innings.

Kendrick has the ability to do the first, but is just erratic enough to do the latter. And in the playoffs, that's just something the team cannot afford.

But out of the bullpen as a long reliever, I believe Kendrick can be a real difference-maker. His problems seem to come about when he really starts pressing. He feels like if he doesn't strike out the side to start the game he's not doing his job. He'll begin to calm down later in the game, but by then it's sometimes too late.

As a reliever, he might be able to relax knowing exactly what sort of situation he's going into and being given a specifically tailored assignment. And when Kendrick is relaxed and just going out and slinging it, he turns into a dangerous pitcher.



Carlos Ruiz

Alright, so maybe he's not exactly in the same mold as the other guys, but he's not exactly a superstar either and will definitely play a huge role for the Phills over the next two months or so.

Ruiz isn't getting a lot of the attention because of the way Howard has gone off as of late, but Ruiz has been nearly spotless for a long time now. He's coming up with the clutch knocks when they need them and has been a life-saver behind the plate.

Chooch is quietly hitting .296 at this point in the season, and if he can carry that over into the playoffs it's going to make the Phillies' lineup a real forced to be reckoned with from top to bottom.



Brad Lidge

Closers are like kickers in the NFL: no one really knows their name unless they do something great or really mess something up. In Philadelphia, Lidge's name is known for a little bit of both.

But for all the talk, Lidge has actually been pretty good this season. He has blown five saves, but three of those came in one bad stretch from late June to early July. And, if I'm not mistaken, it later came out that Lidge was already having elbow problems then.

Since then, Lidge has blown only two saves and has a respectable 3.38 ERA and a 1-1 record. He is not ever going to be the same guy we saw in 2008, but he is a guy the Philles can count on to come through when they really need him.
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Valdez has proven to be a great pickup for the Phils.


Over the past few weeks, the Phillies have been winning in a variety of ways. Whether it's a big win, a late comeback, a close pitchers' duel, or just a game won on smart baseball like the one they played Saturday night against the Brewers, they're getting the job done.

That's what we're used to seeing from the Phillies, but it had been a rarity for a lot of the 2010 season. This didn't look like a championship-quality team only a month or so ago, but now they look like a group that could definitely make a push.

As the Phillies usually do under Charlie Manuel, they've begun hitting their stride in the final month or so of the season and are now poised to undo all the mistakes they made early on in the season and overtake the Atlanta Braves for first place in the NL East.

All they need is for the Braves to trip up just once. But to the Braves' credit, they're holding strong when they need to and keep fending off what must seem like an incredibly pesky Phillies team.

But, the Phils know all they can do is keep winning and hope for the best, and that's exactly what they did Saturday night.

Jayson Werth and Ryan Howard each had a solo home run, and Jimmy Rollins scored a run, but the best play came on a Placido Polanco sac fly in the bottom of the seventh inning.

With the bases loaded, Polanco hit a fly ball about midway into left field. Carlos Ruiz was on third and, needless to say, he's not the fastest guy on the team. But he decided from the get-go he was going to test Ryan Braun's arm and took off.

The throw came in from Braun, it looked to be on line, but bounced behind Ruiz and right past Jonathan Lucroy to the backstop. Ruiz slid over home plate and scored. The Brewers' pitcher, Zach Braddock, was lined up on the first base side of the plate and had to hustle to the ball, which had hit the backstop on the third base side.

Wilson Valdez, who had tagged up from second and moved to third, immediately took for home plate as soon as he saw the ball hit the backstop. It was a close play, but Valdez was safe at home and put the Phils up for good.

They went on to win 5-4, keep a three-game advantage in the wild card standings, and stay only one game behind the Braves in the division.

Smart plays like the one made by Valdez can be the difference between a playoff team and a World Series champion. The Phils now seem to be making those plays more often than not, and could parlay some good late-season baseball into another late-October appearance.
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A Comcast screenshot of Ruiz's game-winning homer.


Roy Oswalt pitched a lot better in his second time around as a Phillie, going six innings and giving up two earned runs on his way to a no-decision. But, that's not the story of the game that cinched a series sweep for the Phillies over the Fish.

After the Phillies gave up a four-run seventh inning to the Marlins, all looked lost heading into the ninth down by two runs. But, after a few clinch knocks by the red-hot Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth, the game was tied heading into extras.

And once in extras, it didn't take long for the Phils to break the tie.

Carlos Ruiz lead off the inning by belting a home run over the left field wall on a 3-2 count and put the Phils up by one. They put runners in scoring position with no one out, but the Marlins did a good job of limiting the damage and the Phils' defense took the field with a one-run lead in the bottom of the tenth.

Brad Lidge came out, took care of business, earned the save, and the Phils completed their sweep of the Marlins.

However, to the delight of Phillies fans and horror of Marlins fans, the outcome should have been much different.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Marlins had Hanley Ramirez on second, one out, and Gaby Sanchez at the plate. Sanchez ripped a Ryan Madson pitch down the third-base line, but the ball was ruled foul and Sanchez would later strike out.

But upon further review, it's clear the wrong call was made.

On the replay, you can very clearly see the ball ride the line, hop over the bag, and actually land in fair territory before bouncing in the corner in left field. The ball even kicks up a little cloud of dirt where it lands, so there's no doubt it should have been a fair ball.

The third-base ump saw things differently, the Marlins were robbed of a walk-off hit, and the Phillies would go on to extend their record to 60-48 and stay two games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves.

It's definitely good to see things starting to bounce the Phillies' way at this point in the season, but it's got to be a bit alarming that another obvious call is blown.

The Jim Joyce call get extra attention because it robbed Armando Galarraga of a perfect game, but this call was just as bad or, if you're a Marlins fan, coach, or player, possibly worse.
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It's certainly nice to see Chooch back in the lineup.


It took a full eight innings for the Phillies to even get a man on base, but they needed only four hits and one run to take their third straight game from the Cincinnati Reds -- all of them coming in walk-off fashion.

Rookie pitcher Travis Wood took a perfect game into the ninth, but watched it evaporate as a fresh-off-the-DL Carlos Ruiz hit a leadoff double. And because Roy Halladay also had a shutout going with only five scattered hits allowed, Wood was pitching to avoid the loss.

He got out of the jam by stranding Ruiz at third, and a scoreless tie would send these two teams into extra innings for the third game in a row.

Brad Lidge, not surprisingly, had the bases loaded at one point in the tenth, but worked his way out of it. The Phillies weren't able to get anything going in their half of the tenth, but after Jose Contreras shut the Reds down in the top of the 11th, Jimmy Rollins and Ruiz went to work.

Ruiz, for the second time in the night, hit a double into the gap in left center to get things started for the Phils' offense. Wilson Valdez drew a two-out walk and it was all set up for Rollins to become the hero.

This is the situation in which superstars are supposed to come through, and Rollins didn't disappoint as he hit a base knock into right field allowing Ruiz to come around from second and end the game.

It marked the third consecutive walk-off win in extra innings -- the first time in franchise history that has been done.

The Phils have one more game in the series against the Reds on Sunday before the All-Star break, but hopefully the streak won't continue and the Phils can simply take care of business in the first nine innings.

Halladay continues to show why he truly is the best pitcher in baseball, but he's not going to be able to pitch like that every time. The Phils still need to start getting the bats moving a whole lot sooner than the ninth inning, or they're going to start dropping a lot of games.

With anyone other than Halladay on the mound, the Phils would have lost this game. So while the win is great to have and was exciting to watch, they still need to realize how inept their bats truly were during regulation and make a greater effort to resolve the problems once and for all.
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Rupp will be a guy to watch over the next few years.


The Phillies announced on Thursday that they have reached an agreement with their third-round pick in the First-Year Player Draft, catcher Cameron Rupp.

Rupp, who played his college ball at the University of Texas, could turn into a legitimate hitter in the majors if his numbers in college are any indication.

This past season, Rupp hit .304 with 10 home runs and 54 RBIs in 63 games. He also had a .390 on-base percentage and and .483 slugging percentage. If he can keep that going in the next step of his career, he could fly through the Phillies' organization.

The Phils have a couple good catchers in the majors right now in Carlos Ruiz and Brian Schneider, as well as Dane Sardinha (who hit his first career home run against the Cleveland Indians Thursday night). However, Ruiz is going to be 32 next year, Schneider is playing on borrowed time, and Sardinha isn't getting any younger.

Catcher is clearly a need for this organization, and Rupp could find himself shooting through the ranks as the starters age and the prospects before him continue their careers elsewhere.

Lou Marson and Travis D'Arnaud were being groomed to take over for Ruiz, but were traded away in deals for Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, respectively.

Rupp is now officially a Phillie and will immediately become a guy the organization pays close attention to as he makes his way through the minors. Hopefully they can simply hold onto him and groom him to take over in a few years, but it's also just as likely he's eventually trade bait.
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Losing Carlos Ruiz would be a huge blow for the Phils.


The injury bug continues to bite at the Phillies as another starter is down and could miss a few days after Carlos Ruiz sprained his right knee Wednesday against the Rockies.

Ruiz initially injured the knee making a tag at the plate, then aggravated it trying to run from first to third on a base hit by Wilson Valdez in the fourth inning. He made it to third safely, but immediately began grasping at his knee and had to be replaced by Paul Hoover.

Hoover then caught the rest of the game because Brian Schneider, originally the backup catcher, is on the 15-day DL with a strained left achilles.

Ruiz, however, doesn't seem worried about it saying "It is not serious, it's sore." The slight sprain isn't expected to land Ruiz on the DL and it's possible he won't even miss a start.

"We have an off-day tomorrow, so this is good news," Phillies assistant GM Scott Proefrock told MLB.com's Todd Zolecki. "We'll just have to play it by ear, but it's not a DL situation."

The Phillies also said there are no plans to bring in another catcher if Ruiz is unable to go. Were they to be faced with the worst-case scenario of Hoover also going down, Jayson Werth would step in as the emergency catcher.

Ben Francisco would likely take over at right field.

Ruiz joins Ryan Madson, Brad Lidge, J.A. Happ, Jimmy Rollins, Juan Castro, and Schneider as the guys bit by the injury bug. If it gets loose on anyone else in the Phillies' locker-room, it could mean trouble -- especially with the Nats and Mets playing well so far.

But, if it was going to bite at any time, May is certainly the time to do it rather than August or September.
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