The Phillies remain 5.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves, but there is cause for optimism even after a brutal outing by Kentucky Joe Blanton. Ryan Madson is back, Carlos Ruiz isn’t far behind – neither is Placido Polanco. Brad Lidge may have blown a save last night, but he’s also looked brilliant at times since returning from injury, something that pretty much never happened last year during his lost season.

With an impatient fireworks crowd booing everything that moved tonight, the Phils were able to find that magic that was part and parcel of their runs of the last 2 years. After the first few torrid weeks of winning this year, the Phils have not been the team you couldn’t give up on. They felt more like a team that had given up on themselves. Exhibit A? An uninspiring 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth in a 1 run game against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates on Roy Halladay bobblehead night. Impatient at-bats, unfocused pitch selection and disinterested swings seemed to be the hallmarks of the 2010 Phillies.

The fans have been noticing too, as the bloom began to fully disengage from the rose in the last couple of week, resulting in some of the more sensitive of Phillies like Shane Victorino to implore fans not to quit on the team. Since the Phillies hadn’t given up on 2010, neither should the fans, Shane told us.

And why should they give up on 2010? Why should we? The Phillies are 5.5 games out of the division lead. That lead is…

It started last Saturday night with the Phils being nearly no-hit by Red Sox righthander Daisuke Matsuzaka. Then a rubber match on Sunday looked very winnable on paper with Phillies ace Roy Halladay matching up against Tim Wakefield. The Phillies couldn’t connect with the flutterball all day, and only scored runs in the 9th inning when it hardly mattered.

An off day Monday preceded a 3 game set with the Mets in Flushing. By the time the Phillies headed south from New York to Florida on Thursday evening, they were mired in an epic hitting slump, having been shutout in all three games by an uninspiring Mets pitiching staff. In the final game of the series, the Phils had runners on base, but couldn’t help but hit into double play after double play, destroying any momentum that could have developed courtesy of baserunners.

Finally, on Friday night in South Florida, the Phils offense finally broke through, albeit in modest fashion. They scored 3 runs and held on for a 3-2 win to not only end a 5 game losing streak, but more importantly they got off the scoreless schneid.

Then on Saturday night, a pitching duel between Halladay and Floirida ace Josh Johnson lived up to the billing, with the only run being scored off an error by Marlins’ centerfielder Cameron Maybin. Johnson’s strong start will always be just a footnote in baseball history, as Halladay went the distance in recording just the 20 perfect qame in MLB history.

After a tumultuous week that tested even the most hardened of the Fightins’ players, Halladay’s…

After a strong offensive showing on Friday night supporting Roy Halladay’s 3rd win of the season, the Phils offense went cold. Ice cold. They scored just 1 run in Saturday night’s game at chilly Citizens Bank Park and were shut out in the series finale, spoiling a great 2008-esque start by much-maligned lefty Cole Hamels.

In the first 2 games of their current road trip, the Phils offense has mustered just 5 runs, but they were just one competent pitch from Ryan Madson away from taking both games from Atlanta by way of shutouts.

The last few games have stood in stark contrast to the first week or so of the season, when the Phillies simply out-slugged any issues that their pitching staff may have been going through. Despite losing 3 of their last 5 games, the Phils pitching has given more cause for optimism than any cold hitting could possibly negate.

Consider:

5 strong innings from Jamie Moyer after a disastrous first inning on Saturday night.
An 8 inning return to form for hard luck loser Cole Hamels on Sunday.
An 8 inning masterpiece by punching bag Kyle Kendrick.
A complete game shutout of the Braves by Roy Halladay.

In a 162 game season, hitting is going to come and go. Especially with this crop of Phillies who have a history of running into cold spells from time to time. They can’t score 7 or 8 runs every time out.

It’s pitching that will dictate what kind of stories are written about these 2010…

Perhaps most frustrating in today’s game was the squandered opportunity presented by a lead off double in the 9th inning by Chase Utley, who was eventually stranded at 3rd when the final out – a Shane Victorino pop up – landed in Christian Guzman’s glove.

So the Phillies and their Five Guys eating, beer chugging, economy stimulating fans head out of DC, a 2-1 record to show for it.

What did we learn about the local 9 during this series?

1. Phillies fans know the way to the District of Columbia. And Nationals fans know how to bitch about being outnumbered at their own ballpark.

2. Raul Ibanez’s hitting woes are mildly concerned about after a lackluster spring training and an .091 batting average against a Nationals pitching staff that most of the Phillies batters manhandled. Last year, Boston’s David Ortiz had an abysmal start to his season, but his results improved as the campaign wore on. One of Ortiz’s issue was his bat speed, something that appears to be ailing Raul as well. Lucky for our aging leftfielder, he has a nice reservoir of goodwill built up with Phillies fans, and he’ll have plenty of support while he gets his swing right. It’s still too early to start burying Raul.

3. Placido Polanco is already showing exactly why the Phillies gave him a contract that raised eyebrows in the offseason. While Polanco may not be quite the defensive third baseman that Pedro Feliz was for the Phils, his ability actually make contact with the baseball and take…

The Phils blew the doors off the Nats yesterday in the 2010 opener. Roy Halladay threw 7 strong innings and looked like the guy we’ve been told about all of these months. The Phils offense was on fire, hanging an 11 spot on the Nats pitching staff.

The box score is only a sliver of the story. It was quite a day in the Nation’s Capitol:

…

Instead, the Phillies ageless lefty expressed a desire to continue pitching, and he doubled down by searching for a two-year contract for his services.

On Dec. 11, just a month and change after the World Series triumph, David Murphy reported that Jamie Moyer was being courted by the Milwaukee Brewers. It was one of the few reports linking Moyer to a team other than the Phils.

On Dec. 15, Moyer agreed to a 2 year, $13 million deal with the Phils.

At the time, it seemed like a lot to pay for a back of the rotation starter who would be on the verge of 48 at the end of the contract.

By the end of last June, a 6.05 ERA and several really ugly starts (including a 2.1 inning 7 run drubbing at the hands of the Mets), that 2 years and $13 million seemed like a really bad idea. Moyer was maintaining his standing as the staff Yoda that the likes of Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ would gravitate to, but $13 million is a lot of money for Rich Dubee’s assistant.

Jamie’s second half performance improved, as he posted a 6-4 record and a 3.78 ERA before his season was ended by a nasty groin injury on September 29.

In between the wins and losses, Moyer was also at the center of rotation drama when he was moved to the bullpen to make way for future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. Moyer was less than…

In my real job, I manage people. Sometimes my folks come dragging themselves into work despite having no business being in the office due to some contagious malady.

The last thing I want to hear from one of my employees is something along the lines of, “I’m not feeling too good today. Damn, this stomach bug is kicking my ass.”

Umm…go home. Right now. Don’t even get your coat. We’ll burn it for you.

In 2009, Brad Lidge had the pitching equivalent of the loosey juiceys. Luckily, it wasn’t something that anyone else on the pitching staff contracted, but he had no business coming to work regardless.

What’s worse, his bosses let him do it. Over. And over. And over.

I offer as new evidence the article in today’s Inquirer about Lidge using the Johnny Damon 2 base swipe in Game 4 of the 2009 World Series (referred to on this site as “Ruiz to Feliz to no one”) as motivation for improving his ability to hold runners on first base.

Lidge had this to say about the hoops he had to jump through to get the ball to the plate:

In order to minimize pain last year, he took to twisting the knee at the beginning of his motion, which relieved some of the pressure but slowed the pitch’s arrival at home plate.

“I had to twist, but that gave the runner extra time, about 0.4 [seconds],” Lidge said. “All of a sudden it becomes almost impossible for [catcher] Carlos [Ruiz] to throw a guy out, because of what I had to do just so I could pitch.”

And then this….

“One thing that comes from the surgery is feeling more agile and not worrying that when you spin off the mound to make

…

More often times than not, these types of brackets are annoying and stupid.

But not when The Shibe Times gets a 10 seed in the Lauber Region of The Phield. Sweet!!!

I’m going to need some serious help from my miniscule legion of readers, my Mom, and whoever else has an internet connection. I am up against Phinally Philly, an all-Philly sports blog with a killer design and far more updated content than this thirty-something father of 3 with no co-bloggers can muster.

There were 65 blogs (naturally) chosen for the bracket, and that certainly doesn’t cover all of the Phillies blogs out there. So I was happy to be seeded PERIOD, let alone get greedy for a better seed. Based on my less than robust posting frequency during the offseason, I gotta love a 10 seed.

Anyway, I don’t know which day our matchup will be, but this is a David vs. Goliath matchup. Phinally Philly has 2400 followers on twitter. I’d love to get to 150 by opening day.

But, man, he laid an egg this weekend.

Olney is the subject of much criticism right now for a report he filed with ESPN that cites a source that said that the Phillies have kicked around the idea of trading Ryan Howard for all-world slugger and first baseman Albert Pujols.

So let me get this straight. The Phillies have spoken about trading one of their players for the best player in baseball? I’m sure the other 28 teams that don’t employ Pujols have never sat in the conference room and daydreamed about scoring Pujols and plugging him into the 3 hole of their lineup.

It’s just a stupid article, and Olney’s comments since his article has gone viral are no better. He is quick to let everyone know that this trade is nowhere near complete and that he was simply reporting that the Phillies have kicked around the idea. If that was “all it was” – just a harmless little note about the Phillies kicking around Pujols as a possible trade target – why even write it? At least at this point when there is nothing more than a source saying the Phillies discussed it and an adamant denial from Ruben?

Sometimes a story shouild be allowed to gestate a little to see if it has a chance to go anywhere or at least add some meat to a pretty bare skeleton. Instead, I get the sense that Buster was hitting the send button to ESPN to file the story before his “source” had even finished talking.

Is this what serious baseball journalists have been reduced to in the age of the 24 hour…

It was one of those surreal “How did we get here?” moments.

Halloween, 2009. Sect. 421. My Dad and I were still buried under our ponchos even though the rain was pretty much gone. Cole Hamels was walking off the mound in the top of the fifth inning after squandering an early 3-0 Phils’ lead in Game 3 of the World Series.

Before Charlie Manuel had taken the ball from Cole, you knew what was coming. Hamels ambled his way off the mound – dejected, and a healthy round of booing acted as the soundtrack for his long walk back to the dugout.

This was just one year after the parade. Is there any precedent for a Philly athlete going from the hero of a championship team to heel in one years’ time?

Hamels, for his part, laid pretty low after the Series was over. After his ill-advised postgame remarks from Game 3 about looking forward to the end of the season, Hamels essentially vanished. All that was left was plenty of ink to burn through on speculating about what 2009 would mean for Hamels’ 2010 and beyond. Talk of secondary pitches was popular, as 2009 clearly demonstrated that Cole could not dominate based on a plus fastball, killer change and subpar curveball.

By all accounts, Hamels has come to spring training with a renewed focus. He showed up early, has demonstrated a desire to master not just one, but 2 additional pitches and he’s saying all the right things to the scribes. I think that the appropriate stance for even the most cynical among us is to see how it goes – give Cole a chance in April to…