Rockies Pound Phillies for 2-0 Lead on Manuel’s Questionable Pitching Moves
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Phillies manager Charlie Manuel made two controversial pitching moves which cost his team 8 runs and put them in a do-or-die situation on Saturday.
The monumental blunder of yanking rookie starter Kyle Kendrick in a bases loaded, two out situation in the 4th inning when Kendrick still had plenty left resulted in 2nd baseman Kazuo Matsui pounding a Kyle Lohse 1-2 fastball out to rightfield for a grand slam, and a 6-3 Colorado lead.
Then, in the 6th inning, Manuel made his second pitching decision blunder by putting in horrific Jose Mesa to pitch with the result being 4 more runs as the Rockies took a 2-0 lead in games with a 10-5 drubbing of the Phillies in what turned into an awful ball game.
In Thursday’s other NL playoff games, the Arizona Diamondbacks, like the Rockies, jumped out to a 2-0 game lead over the Chicago Cubs as lefthander Ted Lilly (15-8) was pounded for 6 runs on 7 hits while walking 4, striking out 4 and giving up a homer in 3 1/3 innings as Arizona took an 8-2 lead and never looked back in defeating the Cubbies by an 8-4 score.
In the AL, The Cleveland Indians pulverized the Yankees by a 12-3 score behind C.C. Sabathia’s 3 run, 4 hit, 6 walk 5 inning performance and an air-tight bullpen. The Indians blugeoned Yanks’ starter Chien-Ming Wang and 3 Yankee relievers. Cleveland leads their series by 1-0.
The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels had Thursday off and resume play on Friday with the Red Sox holding a 1-0 lead in their series.
Tim Brown of Yahoo sports lit into Charlie Manuel’s decision-making;
Manuel… had the bases loaded, a 3-2 lead, two out and a pitcher already on the mound – Kendrick – who’d earned a reputation for getting out of these messes, from June (when he arrived so fortuitously from Double-A) to September.
Manuel made his move. Lohse replaced Kendrick.
And in the ballpark that had roared when its Phillies had answered back-to-back home runs by Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Holliday in the first inning with Jimmy Rollins’ homer in the first and two-run triple in the second, dread replaced hope.
When Matsui was done, the Rockies lead was 6-3. Two innings later, they led 10-3. Maybe this was simply Matsui’s day – he had two other extra-base hits and one other RBI – and it simply came on Manuel’s watch. It appeared that Manuel helped make it his day.
Kendrick, who’d looked somewhere between confused and very confused when Manuel appeared at the mound in the fourth inning, had since come to the realization there was nothing to gain by pressing the issue.
“You know, it’s his call,” he said. “I felt OK. But, you know, I’m just out there to pitch when I’m called on to pitch and that’s his call and that was that.”
He did say he had plenty left. He’d thrown 66 pitches. He’d learned about these moments at the knee of veteran Jamie Moyer, impressing the Phillies with grit and deftness, finding ways to pitch with OK stuff, not great stuff.
“You know, I was pretty confident,” he said. “You know, I just basically threw two outs, one pitch and I’m out of it. I felt pretty good.”
But Inquirer columnist Phil Sheridan disputes the rap on Manuel;
Seth Smith, the pinch-hitter, hit a weak grounder that third baseman Wes Helms could do nothing with. The bases were loaded. Manuel came out for Kendrick.
It is grossly inaccurate to say Kendrick was lifted for giving up a weak infield single. He was lifted because of the rockets hit by the first two hitters in the fourth inning, and the earlier rockets hit by the next three batters due up.
Lohse had warmed up twice. It was now or never for him. If he could get Matsui, he could pitch until Manuel turned the game over to the back end of his bullpen in the seventh. It was a sound strategy until Lohse threw a 1-2 fastball in the only place Matsui could drive it out of the park.
“I wanted to throw a fastball up and in,” Lohse said. “It didn’t go where I wanted it to go. That’s the way it worked out.”
One misplaced pitch is the difference between a 3-2 lead and a 6-3 hole. It’s the difference between Manuel looking smart and strapping that lightning rod back onto his head.
Kendrick said he felt he was “one pitch” from getting out of the jam. After allowing hard-hit balls to six of the 17 hitters he faced (and walking two others), he got a chance to make that “one pitch” to Smith. He loaded the bases.
Shortstop Jimmy Rollins said he was “surprised” Manuel made the switch. Well, maybe the manager wouldn’t have been so quick if his heralded lineup wasn’t hitting .203 through two games.
Manuel made a tough decision in a bad situation and it didn’t work. That’s not a team with a bad manager. That’s a manager with a team going bad.
AP sports writer Rob Maaddi recaps the game for Yahoo sports;
Tulowitzki, the Rookie of the Year candidate, gave the Rockies a 1-0 on a towering drive that landed in the flower bed just beyond the left-center field wall and bounced onto the field. Thinking the ball was in play, Tulowitzki slid into third base, got up and jogged home.
There was no doubt about Holliday’s shot. He ripped one deep onto the left-field seats for his second homer in two games and his sixth in six games in Philadelphia this season.
Rollins, who had a career-best 30 homers, connected on Morales’ first pitch in the bottom of the first to slice Colorado’s lead to 2-1.
[Franklin] Morales ran into trouble in the second. Ruiz doubled to right-center to put runners at second and third with one out. After Kendrick grounded out, Rollins came through.
With the crowd chanting “M-V-P!” he lined a two-run triple to left-center to give the Phillies their first lead of the series, 3-2.
Manuel inexplicably used Mesa, who had a 5.54 ERA in 40 games with the Phillies, instead of Clay Condrey to start the [6th] inning. Mesa walked the first two batters he faced and allowed a two-run double to Yorvit Torrealba that put the Rockies ahead 8-3. Mesa stayed in and retired pitcher Josh Fogg, before Manuel finally came out and got him.
Condrey gave up an RBI triple to Matsui and RBI single to Holliday to give the Rockies a 10-3 lead.
“You hope the pitcher can hold the score and you can catch up,” Manuel said.
With the score 10-3 in the 6th inning, 1st baseman Ryan Howard got his first career post-season homer and shortstop Jimmy Rollins recorded his 4th RBI of the game and the Phillies’ final run by grounding out to 1st base and driving in pinch hitter Shane Victorino who had singled, stole 2nd and took 3rd on catcher Yorvit Torrealba’s throwing error.
Rockies reliever Josh Fogg was credited with the win pitching 2 scoreless innings while giving up only 1 hit. Kendrick was charged with the loss.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and the other Thursday playoff games, click here.
The Phils and Rockies have the day off for travel time before Saturday when the Phillies play game 3 with their backs to the wall in a MUST WIN situation.
Saturday’s starters are veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer (14-12) for the Phillies vs rookie Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4) for the Rockies.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on all of Friday’s and Saturday’s playoff games, click here and here.
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