Philadelphia Phillies only have pitching as they lose 6-3 to Milwaukee Brewers – MLB Update
Milwaukee Brewers put in a good performance to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia on Monday, April 18.
The team with the most talked about pitching line-up in the history of Major League Baseball probably forgot that having excellent ace pitchers on the team will not cover up for offence issues as well as poor relief. The Philadelphia Phillies just couldn’t
make it on Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Their nine singles at the Citizens Ball Park weren’t enough as the Brewers won 6-3.
The game was a goner in the tenth inning as Kyle Kendrick came on to pitch after a good ten days. He managed to give up three runs in the twelfth inning due to personal miscues. His errors included a wild pitch, a throwing mistake, a four pitch leadoff walk
and he hit a batsman to finish it off.
Even though Kendrick contributed significantly to the Phillies’ loss, he wasn’t the only one to blame.
The team’s offence has literally disappeared into thin air over time. In five of their last ten games they have held on to one or zero extra base hits. Their five wins come solely because of their pitching and it can’t be argued that the Phillies have become
a pitching based team. This serves as a huge disadvantage because given a situation where one of their pitching stars like Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay gets injured the Phillies won’t be able to survive. Even though they have had a few injuries within their pitching
staff, they have not managed to affect anyone too seriously, till now.
Their offence situation is grim compared to their defense. There just seems to be no balance in the team. Philadelphia has averaged 3.3 runs in their last seven games. Their Number three hitter, Jimmy Rollins has only four extra bases and a single RBI after
a passage of 15 games. The hitter before him, Shane Victorino and Placido Polanco have managed to hit .311 and .375 respectively. Clearly Rollins is not driving the ball, which is what he’s supposed to do in his position so manager Charlie Manuel would have
to consider changing him if he desires to see any improvement.
Manuel has been very vocal of the fact that he’s not happy with the offence of his team. Given he was a hitting coach before he became a manager makes him all the more critical but for some unknown reason he can’t seem to bring about changes in his team
that could put their offence in the same league as their pitching line-up.
“The last few days, we haven’t hit well,” Ben Francisco said. “We’ve got to hit balls hard, make better outs, have better at-bats.’’
Roy Halladay is going to be pitching on Tuesday and if there is something he should from this defeat it’s that he should not rely on his team for any sort of run support. Knowing that you don’t have your team backing you can do no good for the pitcher or
for the Phillies as a whole.
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