Weekend Recap: Bryce Harper Single-Handely Takes 2 of 3 From The Phillies
While my loud, Italian family gathered around the dinner table, I could hear John Kruk sweating from my seat as Joaquin Benoit delivered that 3-2 pitch to Bryce Harper. In one of his many Phillies auditions to come over the next year and a half, Bryce Harper continued his quest of haunting my nightmares. I hate this man. More than I hated Joe Carter, Chipper, and Vladdy combined. Yet, when he signs his 400m contract, shakes the hands of John Middleton and Matt Klentak in December of 2018, and embraces fellow quarter-billionaires Manny Machado and Mike Trout in the 2019 World Series pile, I guess you can say he’s grown on me by that point.
Friday, Nationals 3 Phillies 2 (10)
In my opinion, this was one of the worst managed games I have seen in a long time. Let it be known, I am not a Pete Mackanin fan. While I do think he’s a great clubhouse guy, his decision making is piss poor. He just over thinks and over-manages way too much. First, he pulls Nola with 90 pitches and subs Neshek in to face Murphy, Zimmerman, and Werth. In theory, sure it’s a good plan to have your 6.5m reliever pitch to the heart of the order. But to do it in the 6th, in a 2-1 game, when your pitcher couldn’t have been more locked in and expecting your bullpen to go 4 shutout innings against this offense? Give me a break, Pete. I’m tired of this babying nonsense with your starting pitchers. At this point, a starting pitcher had seen the 7th inning twice, while only one time had they reached 100 pitches. This isn’t coaching to win, it’s playing safe, attempting to gain favor with management and coaching for a contract, which will never sit well with me.
So he is forced to throw Edrubay Ramos in the 7th inning, who already blew one of these type leads, a few games earlier against this Mets. I wouldn’t say this was all Edrubay’s part. Cameron Rupp had a huge passed ball, his second of the season at that point, which allowed Heisey to get into scoring position and eventually tie the game.
Fast forward to the 9th, the game is still tied and in comes first ballot, Jeanmar. The balls on Pete, to bring him in here. After two quick outs, he walks Adam Eaton before Maikel Franco saves a would-be game-winning double that was smoked off the bat of Rendon. As we enter the bottom of the 10th, I can’t believe my eyes when I see Jeanmar run out to the mound again to face Harper and Murphy. I had mistaken Pete for Randy Marsh bouncing his way out of a weed dispensary at this point. It took all of 5 pitches for Jeanmar to blow this one, while the gypsies on 9th street celebrated, as even they were able to predict the outcome of this one.
Saturday, Phillies 4 Nationals 2
I often speak highly of Jeremy Hellickson and I will continue that narrative here. While I did watch about 8 balls carry to the warning track off Nationals bats that afternoon, rarely were they barreling him. The 7th inning homer by Chris Heisey was one of two balls that were actually hit hard over his 7 innings of work. Hellickson will usually maintain a low K/9 ratio, but his ability to work out of jams and command all of his pitches will offset that. Hellickson is making a strong case for a contending team to overspend on him come July. However, I am still on the fence of whether or not I am ok with moving him. Helly is a rock-solid #2-3 starter. Locking him up for a few seasons as this team prepares to make a move up the NL East standings in the next few years, might not be the worst move if Klentak is again unhappy with the offers they will receive for him.
The Philly media and blogUverse is finally starting to see the sunny side of Cesar Hernandez. I for one have always been a huge fan. So what if he fucks up on the base paths every now and then (All The Time). It’s no reason to call for someone’s head. Especially when he has proven he can get on base 40% of the time, play a solid 2B and make some noise in clutch situations. If you think JP Crawford will come right out of the shoot and become this type of player, think again.
Sunday, Nationals 6 Phillies 4
I’m glad I was unable to watch the game live on Saturday because I would probably still be fuming about Mackanin. I might be overthinking things here, but it doesn’t get any more unnecessary than this.
After refusing to call for a replay review on a Cesar Hernandez CS (he was safe), Mackanin decides to review an Anthony Rendon infield single (he was very, clearly, obviously safe from every angle in the stadium). The umpires congregate for about 3 minutes, receive the review from NYC and to no surprise, flail their stubby arms away from their chest. The very next pitch Bryce Harper catches a hanger and sends it a half-dozen rows into the right field bleachers.
Mackanin just pulling a Mack here. Taking Eickhoff out of his rhythm and allowing one of the best hitters to lock himself in. At this point, the Nationals were up 3-1. Eickhoff would settle down and the Nationals would remain scoreless his final 3 innings of work. Just another example horrible in-game management.
On the subject of poor management, Dusty Baker dug deep into his old playbook. Doing his best to waste a lead, he left in Gio Gonzalez just long enough to allow his bullpen to blow another one. While Cesar Hernandez and Aaron Altherr were causing a ruckus in the top of the inning, Bryce caused one in the bottom of it. And just when Jesus arose from the dead, the Phillies walked among them.
Right now, the Phillies are 4-8, the bullpen is 1-4 with a 5.62 ERA and the guy we traded for a bag of sunflower seeds, Alec Asher, twirled a gem Saturday night. 2017 is off to a hot start. Go Phils