A no-hit weekend: Phillies stumble in season-opening series

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, this is Ryan Howard and welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: Phillies drop their season opening series against the Rangers. They get no hit through four and two thirds innings on Saturday, they get no hit through five innings on Sunday. Not a good weekend for the Phillies. Not a good way to start the season. And we kind of joked about this guys the other day about season opening series, season open opening day, at a massive overreaction that usually takes place. We'll try to keep it tight today now to overreact too much. Ruben Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd's alucky. How's everybody doing, guys, what'd you think of Let's just just jump right in, of course, and talk about this weekend. Not a lot of offense, not a lot of offense, and.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: The seemed like the the paying customers were a little frustrated too at times.

00:00:59
Speaker 2: On Sunday, Yep, they hurt. I definitely some booze. Bryce Harper struck out swinging in the sixth inning, and and that was I mean, it wasn't like crazy booze. It wasn't. You know. I've heard worse, a lot worse over the years of course, but you can hear him Bryce, Bryce was getting booed on on Sunday.

00:01:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was not pretty.

00:01:21
Speaker 1: The first three guys in the lineup really basically did nothing. I mean, Bryce did get one big bass hit at some point during the uh I guess the the the the comeback innings on Saturday, got a broken bat base hit that was big. Adults Garcia gotta got to hit down the left field line that was big. But by and large, I mean, the big three really didn't do very much. Trade Turner had to you know, slow start hasn't done a whole lot after the first after the first game, and really not too much offensive punch at all. Alec Bohm had a big home run in the first game, but they just didn't you know, they're just not clicking on all cylinders. And I made the point during the course of the post game that the reality of it is that in this day and age, and I used to talk to Charlie Manuel about this all the time, they don't get enough at bats during spring training to really be ready. This is spring training and for the next maybe week or so or ten days, it's going to be spring training, and so you're not going to have many guys who are in a ton of rhythm other than the guys that got more at bats, and not too many.

00:02:40
Speaker 3: Guys got a lot of at bats.

00:02:42
Speaker 1: There was a time when I used to play, and when I was a GM and in the front office, when you hoped to get the guys between sixty and eighty played. It appearances that ain't happening.

00:02:54
Speaker 2: No.

00:02:55
Speaker 3: First of all, in the first.

00:02:56
Speaker 1: Week of the spring of games, guys are getting like tenant bats. It's I mean, that's that's you know, that's not enough. And they really played themselves into their rhythm. And that's the reality. It's not just the Phillies, it's pretty much every single team. And that's the way the er.

00:03:20
Speaker 3: Rangers must have The Rangers must have got enough at bats.

00:03:26
Speaker 1: I mean the Rangers swung the bats, Okay, they weren't like crushing it. Yeah, and they you know, they made they made good swings on some mistakes that the Phillies made, because there were some mistakes made by Nola and and Lozardo in the middle of the plate and they were they were smoked. But it wasn't like they they crushed the baseball over the place. Now Berger had a pretty good series. You know, Corey Seeger swung the bat, okay, Nimo did okay, But I mean nobody really dominated.

00:04:00
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny you say that, Rubins. So justin Crawford I think led the Phillies and plate appearances, he was in the top five for sure. He had fifty five plate appearances all spring. And then also to your point, talking to Trey Turner after the game today, he was basically saying like, hey, listen, everybody wants to get off to good start. We didn't get off to good start. We're gonna be fine. I do believe that they're gonna be fine. It's three games, so it is what it is. But he did add that, you know, hey, once you get going in the season, once you start getting those get into a rhythm every day, you start getting five at bats every day, you know you're gonna start getting into a b a little bit more of a groove offensively. So he kind of, you know, address that point indirectly, I guess, And you know, Trey actually had a terrible spring training. He batted one thirty three. And I don't know if you guys saw the postgame interview with what Mac Gelp goes he didn't have to really have a great spring. And Trey actually said, I'm happy about it because the best spring I've ever had is the worst year, the worst year I've ever had, I ever played, and he was referring to twenty twenty three. Of course, he batted four to seventy eight for the Phillies that spring, had this awesome performance for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, and then it had one of the worst years of his career. And then he added my best my three best years. I think I was looking it up in the spring. I probably hit two fifty And he was right. You know, he batted uh, he batted one seventy nine last spring, won the batting title. He betted one seventy In the spring of twenty twenty one, won a batting title, and he betted one eighty nine. And twenty twenty the shortened spring training, and he batted three thirty five that year. But it was funny, he says, I think I was looking it up in spring training. You know, when a player says I think I was looking out a spring training, that means he looked it up in spring training and he knew for a fact what those numbers were so so Turry looked it up to make sure, Hey, am I gonna be all right? I'm gonna be alright. So he seems to think he's gonna be alright. But yeah, so, I mean the offense. The offense definitely struggled. They as I mentioned, no hit through four and two thirty niggs on Saturday, no hit through five innings on Sunday. They had one hit going with two outs in the ninth inning on Saturday and somehow ended up tying that game, but a lot of Chase, well, go ahead, Jim.

00:06:17
Speaker 3: They ended up tying that game on a total freak show. I mean Adallas Garcia swings at the first pitch and pops it up and Jake Berger drops what should have been a game ending pop up. I mean it went and then it went from basically a horrible, horrible at bat to a acceptable at that because he hits a broken bat double to keep things going. But there were actually for as bad as that at bat by Garcia could have been, it turned out to be a good at bat, and there were some good at bats in that inning. Sosa drus the three to two walk, and they had three bomb had one the three two strike hits. But that was the only inning on Saturday they really put together anything. I mean, you can't get no hit for five innings and four and two thirds innings in back to back days. If you need to sustain some offense and get something going early that you just put yourself in a situation where you're chasing all day and have these you know, you try to have a mad dash comeback at the end. That the only reason it looked good is is because Jake Berger dropped that ball.

00:07:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree.

00:07:29
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, they didn't swing the bats well at all. They were fortunate to get back into that game at all. And then McCutcheon ended up getting a couple of big base hits, one on Saturday and a big home run against Lozardo, so he swung the back pretty well. It's nice to see him just because he's such a good guy. You like to see him have success.

00:07:52
Speaker 1: You don't want to see him necessarily have success against the Phillies. But I mean, listen, they again, this isn't much better team offensively than what we saw this weekend. But you don't want to get into those situations where you're trying to claw out of a you know, a deficit, and you just put a lot of pressure on the starting pitcher to have to make really good pitches all the time if you don't get an early lead. They get an early lead for Sanchez and they won the game. They couldn't muster up near nary a hit for in the next two days, and it puts the pressure on the starting pitcher to to toss nothing but goose eggs up there, and that's a tough thing to do.

00:08:41
Speaker 2: What did you guys think of Ottawa McCutcheon.

00:08:47
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, McCutcheon still knows how to use that bad head, doesn't he.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, he can still get the barrel to the ball. I mean, you know, he lit up a couple of mistakes some pitches did he get to One on a very good Juan Doran fastball sinker and one on a pretty good fastball from the zard of the missus spot. But he got the barrel of the ball when he needed to. And I think Todd, you were getting ready to allude to the outfield played by the fight in Phills.

00:09:16
Speaker 2: Yes, go ahead.

00:09:19
Speaker 1: It was not pretty now, but I don't know that either one of those fly balls to left field were catchable. The second one perhaps if you had somebody who was a little fleeter of foot or had been has a little bit more experience in the outfield. But part of the experience is the reason why they ended up getting extra runs, extra runners, extra men on extra bases, because Otto Kemp really hasn't played a ton of outfield, and he sort of has to know when to back off the wall when the ball is going to get off the wall, and the song is sort of chasing the ball around out there in the outfield. So these are things that they're going to have to fight through. And if he's not, you know, able to do it offensively, to pick up for some of maybe his shortcomings offensive defensively, Ah, then you know, he may not be in in Philadelphia too long because Brian Dela Crowsee is sitting down there in Lee High Valley and he's a little bit more accomplished in the outfield.

00:10:28
Speaker 2: No doubt about that. So, uh, you know, and then uh you Nola real quick?

00:10:33
Speaker 3: Did you?

00:10:34
Speaker 2: What do you guys think of Nola? On Saturday? That was you know, going into the season, of course, going through spring training, of course that was a big focal point for the Phillies. You know, if they could get him right, how much of a difference that would make in the rotation. I think it was what three runs five innings, gave up a couple of home runs as he's prone to do. What did you guys think of his start?

00:10:58
Speaker 3: I thought he was okay, not exceptional, Okay, he just cannot get away with any mistakes. You know, he doubles up on a breaking ball to Burger and the first one was good. The second one was up and over the plate, and Burger just hits it off the foul pole. Gave up another home run. Seeger high fastball. You know ninety two.

00:11:19
Speaker 2: You're not going to.

00:11:20
Speaker 3: Really get that buy a guy who's sitting dead red there, so he cannot make mistakes over the plate. He has to be very fine, and there were times in that game where he was. He got a bunch of swinging misses through some good breaking balls. But you know, he has to just carry that precision through the pretty much the whole start if he's going to have if he's going to get wins, and if the team is gonna win behind him, because when he makes a mistake and his runs on base it's two or three runs and those add up.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: He definitely did not have the sharpness that he had in a WBC and in the start that led up to the WBC while he's pitching with the Phillies still velocity was at ninety to ninety two. He was averaging right around a ninety one mile hour fastball in the games before that, and then in WBC got his fastball into the ninety three ninety four range. Makes a huge difference, and it also shows up in the sharpness of his breaking ball when he has better arm speed. So a little discouraging only because he went back to back games. Now, the last game that he pitched in spring training and this game he probably averaged between ninety and ninety one with his fastball, and that's going to make it such that, as Jim said, he's going to have to be perfect with his stuff and he cannot miss the spots. Couldn't get that sinker to come back over that front door sinker that was working pretty well during the course of most of the spring, that back door sinker on right hander's front door toor lefties didn't couldn't get that going and didn't really have the life on his fast fall and his other stuff that he typically has. But we'll see whether he is able to bounce back and create some of that velocity and arm speed in his next few starts.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: It wasn't a great night to pitch, at least we know that it was.

00:13:15
Speaker 1: It was, and he doesn't like to pitch in Nicole, and I know that's not an excuse, but he didn't have grip. He didn't have a real good grip on his breaking ball, didn't allow the consistent bite that's through some good ones.

00:13:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I looked like bytically does. I looked up all the pitchers that threw on Saturday. I was just curious as you because his velo was down, as you mentioned Rubin and every pitcher that pitched on Saturday except one, their velocity was down on Saturday. So I don't know, you know, people talk about the weather and getting loose, and Zach Wheeler's vilo wasn't you know where it was.

00:13:49
Speaker 3: It's a thing.

00:13:50
Speaker 2: It's a thing.

00:13:51
Speaker 1: It's a thing.

00:13:52
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that's why, but I just, you know, I wanted to. I was looking at it. I was thought that was kind of interesting. We'll be right back a j This.

00:13:58
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00:14:20
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00:14:43
Speaker 2: Now, all right, we're back, Philly Shows back. It's Monday, and that means it is time for Manco and Manco. That's week. There we go, Manco Manco Best. It's where we pick the best Phillias player play performance of the past week.

00:15:07
Speaker 1: Can only be one.

00:15:11
Speaker 2: Who you got it.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: Can only be one. It's gotta be Christopher Sanchez.

00:15:15
Speaker 2: Christopher Sanchez was fantastic.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: I mean, who else could it possibly be.

00:15:19
Speaker 2: Christopher Sanchez was fantastic. I mean, what a performance by him. We talked a lot about him on Friday Show. I mean that the the comments coming from the Rangers clubhouse were glowing about Christopher Sanchez, calling him a bona fide superstar. You know, we can see why you finished second friend, Alsai Young all that stuff, I mean, what a what a stud? What a stud?

00:15:49
Speaker 3: No walks, power stuff, racks up a bunch of strikeouts, just an amazing, amazing growth. And he's one of the best baseball It's fun to watch him pitch. So he's a hands down best of the week, hands down best.

00:16:07
Speaker 1: I mean, it was historic.

00:16:08
Speaker 4: No walks, ten strikeouts.

00:16:10
Speaker 1: When was the last time that happened, Like nineteen twenty or some crazy number.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bob Gibson was one of those guys that did that on opening day. Chris Short did that once on Opening Day. A couple I think it was like a couple other guys had done it that way back in the day. Somebody probably with a crazy nickname, got that done. You know, three Fit Mordecai, three fingers Brown or something like that. That done. Somebody named crazy Legs or you know the one armed man back in the hen zones. Yeah, put thatones. Somebody like that probably had a game like that at some point back way back.

00:16:44
Speaker 3: In the day.

00:16:45
Speaker 2: If I was going to give an honorable mention, maybe Justin Crawford had a nice little weekend for himself for his first weekend in the big league guys, first first big league hit. He had two hits on opening Day. He made that nice catch at the wall in the third in at Monty's Angle on Saturday. I actually talked pregame Sunday to Justin and Paco figure Row about that, just because it's a tough that's a tough play. How many times have we seen a new outfielder play in this ballpark or visiting outfield and just screw it up, screw it up big time, and that ball kicks to the right, and then that JT. Real Muto's run around the basses or Bryce Harper's run around the bases for an inside the park home run. I wrote a little bit about that my Phillies Beat newsletter coming out on Monday, so check that out. But they kind of talked about the prep, all the prep work that went into making that catch, all the prep work that they did last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, and kind of like what they talked about, how they prepared for it, and it kind of kind of paid off. So and then you know, and then Justin broke up the no hitter on Sunday with that swinging bun single third base.

00:17:56
Speaker 3: Well, you didn't.

00:17:57
Speaker 1: Understand what Josh Young was doing by picking up the baseball. I don't really understand whether people even understand how to play the game anymore. There's no way to get the guy. It was before the base still, and I don't think it would have gone foul. But the only way that they they could have got luck out of that is by just letting the ball go and see if it trickled fault.

00:18:20
Speaker 4: He picks it up on the move.

00:18:23
Speaker 1: It was like, why didn't know Doleys Garcia have his shades on. He had shades, but nobody uses flip downs. I talked about this, He had shades on, but you have flip downs. They don't wear.

00:18:38
Speaker 3: Flip down with their bare hand.

00:18:42
Speaker 1: That's the other thing, but or the glove. But my thing is this, the flip down glasses are the only You can call me old school idiot, you can call me whatever. You want, But the flip down glasses are the only ones that actually blocked the sun that you can look into the sun and still distinguish where.

00:19:00
Speaker 2: The ball is.

00:19:02
Speaker 1: Those work. The other glasses, as much as you want to think that they're working, I don't care what brand it is.

00:19:10
Speaker 4: They don't work.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: They don't do that.

00:19:12
Speaker 1: They're not built or designed to do it. And I don't understand why players don't use them. It's insane. I'd be pissed off if I was, if I was a pitcher balls. The Sun's been up there for ten billion years.

00:19:27
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of the last player to wear flip downs. I was actually talking to Phil shared in the Phillies clubhouse manager about this a few years ago, about flip downs, and there's a company that still makes them, and I think maybe Nolan Aernato wears the Gargoyle Gargoyle. There you go, that's it. Gargoyle Gargoyle is the company.

00:19:46
Speaker 1: Yes, I know, because I try to force some of my Boston Red Sox outfielders and Mets guys to use them, because it's the only Those are the only, and before that there was it was a different company. I can't remember the name of the company when I was playing in the outfield. But nobody uses them.

00:20:05
Speaker 4: It's insane.

00:20:08
Speaker 2: You're right, nobody does use them.

00:20:10
Speaker 3: I never see them. Yeah, I never see him. And I saw them all the time way back when everybody had him run out of your visor. You flipped them down. But there's also other ways. Is what you angle your body so you're looking away from the sun, or use your bare hand and you bring it down and bring it right down into your glove. Didn't even didn't even didn't even use it.

00:20:30
Speaker 1: Is a drill that I actually used in Boston and and with the Mets that I had a sun drill just to do that. We used to fly balls into the sun for the outfielder so that they can work their bodies around the angle so that they could either see the ball without getting the sun involved or use their glove to block it. I'm not sure if that's done. I'm not sure if that's done, those drills are done. I would assume Paco does do it. He's an outstanding outfield. Go but you know, those plays have to be made and they're never considered errors, and they should be. They gave errors to Burger because of the because of the balls that he dropped, and they were created by the wind. So what's the difference. What is the difference? They're both done by the elements, by the God's elements, so they should be errors.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: But the pictures get food out of the deal.

00:21:32
Speaker 2: The gods. The gods have smoked Scarcy.

00:21:39
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not I'm not trying to get he's an outstanding outfield. Its phenomenal. But but in my estimation, those plays have to be made. And if they're not made and it's because of the sun and it is an.

00:21:56
Speaker 2: Error, you're right about that. You're right about that. All right, So let's real quick before we move on. I want to mention if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, please show support the show. And of course go to the Phillieshowshop dot com to check out all the swag. Look at all that great stuff, Look at all that great stuff. Check it out. Go to the Philly Showshop dot com. All right, we're back, we're back, and let's wrap. Let's let's talk about the week ahead. It's a big week. It's a big week. You've got Andrew Painter making is mL debut on Tuesday. Very exciting Phillies opened a three game series on Monday night against the Nationals. Jim, I found some pitching probables for you. Left Hander Foster Griffin is pitching on Monday night against Taiwan Walker. We got TBD against Andrew Painter on Tuesday, and then Kay Cavali is going to pitch against Christopher Sanchez on Wednesday. How do you have a tv D in the fifth game of the season, Hey man, someone you have a tv D in the fifth game of the season. You know what I I will that is something that I've.

00:23:17
Speaker 1: Let there's an injury that's associated that.

00:23:21
Speaker 2: That's something that is now way more common now. I mean back in the back in the day, you'd have the pitching problems, you know, several days out, and now I feel like teams are just we're going to try to We're gonna try to trick some I don't know if they're trying to trick somebody or they're playing like it's a really bad game of poker or what. But so many teams hold back their starters now, does it.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: They just have a crappy rotation?

00:23:49
Speaker 2: Yes, I guess so. Yeah, I mean it's it's that as well. I mean that's that's probably more likely, Rubin. But I do notice that teams you're you're a day out from a series, and it's like that they haven't sent out their probables yet. This team hasn't sent out their probables yet. This is mid season, this is late in the season. This is early in the season. So, but Andrew Painter is making his MLBA debut on Tuesday. Awesome, It's going to be exciting. It's going to be exciting. His high school pitching coach was at the game today with his family. I talked to him for a little bit. I wrote a story for MLB dot Com kind of talk to a lot of his former coaches, managers, teammates from high school all the way up through the Triple A season last year. Talked a lot of scouts from the Phillies that watched them throughout high school, you know, people in the in player development with the Phillies, just kind of sharing their favorite stories. And I kind of started every interview by saying, Hey, if Andrew Painter in twenty years from now, Andrew Painter wins two, cy Young's wins the World Series. You know he's a ten time All Star. What's the story you're going to tell people about. I caught Andrew Painter in high school. I caught Andrew Painter in double A. I caught one start of his and rookie ball or whatever the case may be. What's the story you tell? And they told some cool, cool little stories about about Andrew Painters. So if you have checked that out at MLB dot com, that's that's a great story. Thanks Jim. Thanks but it was.

00:25:19
Speaker 3: It was a great story, like an oral stuff.

00:25:21
Speaker 2: So yeah, that was why you're the cod pod. I just do what I can, man, just do what I can. But so, yeah, Painter on Tuesday. Zach Zach Wheeler is going to make his second rehab start on Friday in Durham, North Carolina. So everything seemed to be okay in Lehigh Valley on Saturday for Zach Wheeler. So that's also And.

00:25:46
Speaker 1: Would you think about what you saw from him on Saturday, Jim, Zach Wheeler and Oryan.

00:25:53
Speaker 3: Kirkery, Well, I was in Philadelphia and they were Lehigh Valley. But everything heard was Wheeler was remains right on target for maybe two or three more and get back here and no red flags, looking healthy, popping it good, I mean he pitched on a ridiculously cold day as well. But I think he's going to be back here pretty soon. And be Zach Wheeler again.

00:26:22
Speaker 1: Kind of interesting that they both went out there with no sleeves, both Kirkering and Wheeler on that blustreet long and well Noah did too. But I mean, it's kind of crazy those guys. I guess they must feel. Talking to some pitchers, they must feel some restriction when they wear when they wear sleeves, So they went out there in dealt. Kirking was really efficient. Ten pitches, seven strikes, one two three inning. I think he got to punch out. We used to split a couple of times. He's going to go back to back I think, is it Tuesday Wednesday or Wednesday?

00:26:56
Speaker 2: Thursday Day? Wednesday, Tuesday Wednesday.

00:26:59
Speaker 1: And then he likely will be activated when when the team gets to Colorado.

00:27:04
Speaker 2: I would think, yeah, I think, well, I yeah, San Francisco, Yeah, maybe San Francisco. Yeah. I think that's when he's he's eligible to be activated. But it's it's right around the corner, right around the corner, especially because they want to get that back to back in on Tuesday and Wednesday and Rob Thompsons stead of course, He's like, listen, if he throws a ton of pitches on Tuesday, maybe he doesn't go back to back on Wednesday, and then we can maybe push the back to back to over the weekend or or whatever the case may be. So keep an eye on all of that Philly's bats. They they got to.

00:27:40
Speaker 1: Face the worst, maybe the worst staff in the history of the game last year Colorado and and Washington Nationals.

00:27:49
Speaker 2: Bad staffs.

00:27:52
Speaker 1: Back to back. They should do some damage against both.

00:27:56
Speaker 3: They look at the number.

00:28:00
Speaker 1: These numbers don't lie.

00:28:01
Speaker 2: No, these numbers do not lie. Mackenzie Gore is not on that National staff anymore.

00:28:08
Speaker 1: You ain't kidding.

00:28:11
Speaker 2: Gosh, all right, guys, we'll be back later this week. We'll talk about Andrew Painters MLB debut.

00:28:20
Speaker 3: Oh, that'll be fun, all right, Smelling of boys, smiling Jim.

00:28:24
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