More Frustration

Another frustrating end to a Philly sports season, with only the Flyers now to look forward to at all for the next 6 months. But something about this sweep stung worse than I thought it would; it was as frustrating a loss as I've seen since the 2004 NFC championship game against the Panthers.

What does it for me, though, what makes this series hurt especially bad is the Phillies' obstinance in doing things their way, regardless of opponent or situation. This is essentially the same core of guys that couldn't stand Bowa because he actually wanted them to fix their shortcomings, rather than the beloved Charlie, who just tells them to do what they feel comfortable with. In this series, we went against 3 filthy pitchers (including 2 lefties), and made not one adjustment.

Beale, me and you have discussed this before. A few times this year (always after a game in which our bats go silent), I've pointed out how much I wish some of our guys would change their approach at the plate, and occasionally shorten up or try to go oppo. Your point is that we have the highest scoring offense and there's no need to change anything, to which my reply is usually something along the lines of "it works in a long regular season against average pitchers, but might not in a short series against good pitching." Same argument I make for why Burrell is useless, even when he's in a hot streak. Well, in this series we faced good pitching, continued to try to pull everything 500 feet, and we hit .173.

Tonight we struck out 8 times. Not out of the ordinary for us. What bothered me most during the game, and looking it up now it still does, is that our lefty hitters grounded out to 2nd base 7 times. Just the lefty hitters; just to 2nd base. Having hit my fair share of weak grounders to shortstop as a righty, I know that this happens when you try to pull an outside pitch. Usually as simple as that. (Just for kicks, we had 3 hits to the opposite field in the whole series -- including 1 by Hamels). These numbers themselves aren't inherently killers, but what did kill us is that we refused to ever shorten up and put the ball in play, a strategy which would be especially useful against 2 rookies like Morales and Jimenez, who would be easy to frustrate if you can slap a couple of hits even when they make their pitch. You may tell me I'm crazy for suggesting Utley, Jimmy, or Howard shorten up and drive the ball to left, but you are also the same person who would make the argument that a 3pt shooter (or a 3pt shooting team) that has gone cold would be wise to try to get some layups or transition buckets to get going. Or like how Andy Reid -- who rarely ever max protects -- watching his new left tackle getting dominated by a decent D-end would decide to put a tight end out there to help. Of course he never did do that and instead stuck to his guns. The result: our team gave up 12 sacks. Changing one's approach is not an admission of failure, it's a way of getting something ignited when the other team is taking away your normal game.

For example, I remember watching the Tribe completely frustrate Hamels in a game earlier this year by simply taking his changeup and hitting his fastball the other way. Hell, last night they won a playoff game on a walk-off hit in which their cleanup hitter took about a half swing on the deciding hit. The ball Hafner hit went as far in the air as it could have (about 180 feet), given his swing. And it dropped. And his team is up 2-0. Meanwhile, fresh in my mind is the Rockies pitchers throwing us hard stuff in and slow stuff down and away, and our hitters trying to pull all of it. That can work against mediocre pitching, but will get you swept in the playoffs. Until our players realize that they aren't God's gift to hitting and decide to devote themselves to doing whatever possible to get on base, we will continue to struggle against good pitching in a short series.