First-half flashback: Phils' ups and downs
In a season with significantly more lows than highs, we’ll spare you a mid-season report card.
The grades would be rather depressing – how does a bullpen that has blown 12 saves, relinquished 16 ties and lost 16 games deserve anything but an F? How does an offense that has scored three runs or fewer 38 times (Phillies are 4-34) generate a positive grade?
Rather than offer a scathing assessment, we’ll break down the moments, good, bad and ugly, that defined the Phillies’ 37-50 first half.
April 5: Roy Halladay allows two first-inning hits then retires 23 of the next 25 batters en route to an eight-inning, two-hit, no-run performance. The Phillies begin the season by winning 1-0 on Carlos Ruiz’ seventh-inning sacrifice fly. Hopes are high.
April 15: Down 2-1 entering the seventh, the Phillies score seven runs in the final two innings to give Cole Hamels (7 IP, 2 ER, 10 K) his first win of the season.
April 18: You remember this game. Cliff Lee pitched 10 shutout innings and took a no decision, Matt Cain pitched nine shutout innings and the Phillies lost on a walkoff single in the 11th inning by Melky Cabrera. Lee suffered an injury in the loss and missed three starts.
April 22: After winning the first two games of a series in San Diego, the Phillies manage just two runs on Saturday and Sunday to allow the Padres to split. It is one of three disappointing four-game series the Phillies should have won but didn’t.
May 2: The Phillies take a 6-0 lead in Atlanta but Halladay gives it all back in one inning, as Brian McCann hits a grand slam for the first of five first-half homers against the Phillies.
May 3: The Phillies recover as Joe Blanton pitches the first shutout of the team’s season. The Phils managed just two shutouts in the first half – one by Blanton and one by Kyle Kendrick. Who woulda thunk it? Lee threw four shutouts by himself in the first half of 2011.
May 4: The Phillies meet with the Nationals for the first time, losing 4-3 in 11 innings despite leading 3-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth. They also get their first look at Bryce Harper, who walks three times in six plate appearances.
May 6: Hamels intentionally plunks Harper, admits it after the game and is suspended for five games by the commissioner’s office.
May 17: The Phils hang on in the ninth for an 8-7 win over the Cubs that finally puts them back over .500 for the first time since Opening Day. They win the next game, too, and for a brief moment the season appears to be taking shape.
May 24: The Phillies have perhaps their most impressive offensive night of the season, beating the Cardinals 10-9 at Busch Stadium. What makes this game stand out is that the Phils kept coming back after St. Louis pulled closer. The Phillies opened up a 6-0 lead, the Cards made it 6-4, the Phils made it 7-4, St. Louis pulled even at 7-7, the Phils scored to make it 9-7, the Cardinals answered to make it 9-8 before the Phillies tacked on another insurance run to eventually win. Placido Polanco, Ty Wigginton, Carlos Ruiz and Freddy Galvis each had three-hit games.
May 26: Kendrick pitches the first shutout of his career against the National League’s top offense in the Cardinals.
May 30: The legend of Ruiz grows with his pinch-hit, game-tying two-run homer in the seventh inning of a game the Phillies win, 10-6, over the Mets. They score six runs in the ninth, but the positivity is tempered by the announcement that Halladay will be placed on the 15-day DL with a lat strain.
June 1: The Phils beat the Marlins, 6-4, to improve to 28-25, their high watermark of the season. They then lose 25 of the next 34 games.
June 5: One of the three most frustrating games of the season. Lee is brilliant through seven shutout innings, striking out 12 Dodgers. But in the eighth, little known infielder Elian Herrera hits a two-out, two-run double and the Phillies lose, 2-1. The Phillies manage to get swept by the Dodgers in four games despite Matt Kemp not playing and Andre Ethier going 1 for 13.
June 7: The Phillies place Galvis on the disabled list with a pars fracture in his back, a serious injury that may re-shape the slick-fielding infielder’s career. Not the biggest headline of Galvis’ season, though.
June 8: Shane Victorino drives in five runs in Baltimore and Jim Thome has his first good game as a Phillie to break a six-game losing skid. Victorino has four RBI since this night.
June 9: Thome hits the first of five interleague home runs but the Phillies drop the first of two straight extra-inning decisions to the Orioles.
June 13: The Phillies score six first-inning runs and Thome hits a 454-foot bomb at Target Field.
June 16: Another candidate for “Most Frustrating Game of the Season.” Lee takes a 5-2 lead into the eighth inning against the Blue Jays but allows three runs in the blink of an eye and the Phillies ultimately lose, 6-5, in walkoff fashion.
June 19: In a shocking development, Galvis is suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance.
June 20: The Phils beat the lowly Rockies, 7-6. Nothing about this game was spectacular, unless that’s the word you’d use for the Phillies’ last series win.
June 23: After Jonathan Papelbon blows his first save opportunity in 18 chances, Thome hits a walkoff pinch-hit homerun to give the Phillies a 7-6 win over the Rays. The home run was the 609th of Thome's career, tying him for seventh all-time. It was also his 13th career walkoff homer. The win was Charlie Manuel’s 900th.
June 24: Manuel pulls Hamels after seven stellar shutout innings for Antonio Bastardo, who immediately gives Tampa Bay the lead by going walk-flyout-walk-three-run homer. The Phillies lose both games of a doubleheader pitched by Hamels and Lee. It had the feel of a day where whichever team won Game 1 would win Game 2.
June 27: Chase Utley returns in Game 77 and provides the Phillies with their top moment of the first half when he homers in his first at-bat. The Phils almost pull off a great comeback against the Pirates. It is the first of 10 losses in 11 games to end the first half.
June 30: The Phils trade Thome to the Orioles to give him an opportunity to play every day. They get an impressive haul for a half-season of a DH on a one-year contract, bringing back catcher Gabriel Lino and righthander Kyle Simon, Baltimore’s 11th and 20th-best prospects as rated by Baseball America.
July 3: The ugliest game of the Phillies’ first half – they lose 11-1 to the Mets, managing fewer hits as a team than Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy compiles himself.
July 5: At Citi Field. Bottom 9th, two outs, Phils up 5-4. Jonathan Papelbon stumble + David Wright bloop = 6-5 loss. Brutal.
July 6: Ryan Howard returns in Game 85 and doubles in his first trip back to the plate. The Phillies are shut out, though.
July 8: The Phils blow yet another multi-run lead to end the first half on an awful note. Victorino is scratched prior to the game and speculation as to why he was benched runs rampant. After the game, Jimmy Rollins tells reporters not to waste their time asking questions.
Maybe Rollins was being kind … we’re all sick of wondering why this team isn’t better.
E-mail Corey Seidman at cseidman@comcastsportsnet.com
