Phils Relevant Again

Can Howard and the Phils return to their winning ways?

The Phils are 46-47, poised to reach .500 for the first time since they were 31-31 on June 7th.   They are about to host a series against the last-place Chicago White Sox, the third worst team in baseball.  If the Phils sweep the 3-game weekend series, they will conclude the First-Half of the season with their first winning record since June 6th, when they were 31-30.  It was the 1 day they were over .500 this entire season.

Ryan Howard's surgery Wednesday went better than expected, according to team reports.  Specifically, they were able to clean up rather than repair the existing meniscus in a procedure called "debridement."  So, the Phillies can actually expect to get Ryan Howard back by the end of August.  It's impossible to say how effective he'll be.  However, Mr. September should be available for September, traditionally his best month.

That means he should be available for 13 games against teams the Phillies are hoping to catch for a playoff birth.  One of those teams is Atlanta, who the Phils trail by 7 1/2 games in the division and who they will face 7 times in September.  The Phils are now 5 1/2 games out in the Wild Card race after going 7-and-3 while winning 3-straight series vs. playoff caliber teams.

This time last season the Phils were 13 games under .500, 14 back in the division and 10 back in the Wild-Card race.  They also lost 10-of-11 heading into the All-Star Break.  This year's team has been heating up against winning competition as the Break approaches.  

All of this is making General Manager Ruben Amaro's job harder.  A week and a half ago, he was unsure whether to buy or sell at the upcoming trade deadline.  Amaro was waiting for his team to soar or collapse.  He was waiting for a sign.  Then, on Sunday, he got one.  Howard, one-time MVP and longtime cleanup man, went onto the DL and then into surgery.  Case closed?  Not quite.

"After [ team physician Michael] Ciccotti went in there and went in with the scope, it was a little better picture than we thought," Amaro said. "I think the player is feeling better about it, we're feeling better about it. As news goes, this is as good as we can get."

Amaro said it probably changes the season's outlook, "because we'll have him back.  There's a reasonable chance we'll have him back at some point. We still have a lot of question marks about where we're going to go in the next couple of weeks. Right now, the team is making decisions a little harder on me, which is fine and which is good. I'd rather be in this situation than thinking about 2014 right now."

Howard is "just not doing the job." --Amaro, 7/4/13

How much of a difference Howard will make depends on how successful his rehab is and how well 1B Darin Ruf plays in his absence.  Howard's plate appearances in 2013 have continued a troubling trend for the slugger.  Howard's BB rank is the 13th worst in all of baseball (a historically dramatic drop from '07). He's striking out less and has a higher batting average, but his approach at the plate is just completely different: he's taking fewer pitches and trying to make more contact.  Conventional wisdom says that this was an adjustment Howard made because of his performance in the '09 World Series vs. the Yankees, when he hit .174 and S.O. 13 times in 25 at-bats.

Last week on Sports radio, Amaro called out Ryan Howard: "If Ryan Howard is now relegated to being a platoon player, he's a very expensive platoon player and he needs to be better," Amaro said. "I think he knows it. I know he's struggling, I know he's not happy with his performance -- neither are we. I think he's going to be better, but right now, he's just not doing the job."

7/9/13 ESPN.com published an article entitled, "Howard contract a total loss:  Why Phillies slugger's deal is the worst of all time."

So, it's safe to say the Phils will have to show here and now, with Howard on the DL, that they can win games in order to convince Amaro & co. that they should buy rather than set up a more successful '14 or beyond, which would almost certainly involve trading Chase Utley, the team's most attractive commodity.

So far, so good.  With Domonic Brown at cleanup since Sunday, the Phils have gone 4-and-1.

Amaro met with Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, the Phillies coaching staff and others in the organization Tuesday to discuss the team's intentions approaching the July 31 Trade Deadline.

"There were no real revelations," Amaro said. "We are playing better baseball and putting ourselves in a position to be buyers. But there was nothing new out of it."

Are the Phils buyers?

"Yeah, I think we'll try to do that," he said.  "I would assume things would go down to the wire, unless we reel off 10 out of 11 or we lose 10 out of 11.  Then we'll have a clearer picture. Right now, we're just not sure. I would assume like most years, it would go down to the wire."

The Phils bulllpen has a 5.21 ERA since June 8th, 27th in MLB.

To set up Jonathan Papelbon, the only reliable link of late has been lefty Antonio Bastardo.

“When he’s going good and in a good streak,” Charlie Manuel said, “he’s proved he can set games up and save them.”

Manuel stated a right hand 8th inning man is the team's top need:

“I think for us to have a real good bullpen, we definitely have to have an 8h-inning game – a solid, right-handed pitching eighth-inning guy to go with Bastardo. Bastardo’s good when we can match him against lefties.”

2 veterans on the team contributed with grit in the 3-out-of-4 series win over Washington this week.  It was the type of baseball toughness that won the team titles and which has been lacking most of '13:

Tuesday,  with the game tied at 1--1 in the bottom of the 6th, Chase Utley hit a ground ball to First Baseman Adam LaRoche.  Ben Revere was on Second with Jimmy Rollins on First and nobody out.  It appeared to be a sure thing rally-killing double play. What transpired instead is what SS Ian Desmond and 1B LaRoche say was Rollins being a wise veteran by sliding to where he thought the throw was going, so that instead of the shortstop making the turn cleanly, the ball was shielded and ended up rolling into the outfield, allowing Revere to score the go ahead run to make it 2-1.

“That’s unbelievable base-running,” Desmond said. “That’s really good wherewithal [by Rollins]. There are probably things we could have done differently, but at the same time, he did a great job of base-running. That was something you don’t see from very many other players.  It was unbelievable instincts. He knew that LaRoche stayed back on the ball and he might have seen how I went after the ball and he broke toward me. But all you can do there is tip your cap.”

Hamels smiles at Manuel during their 8th inning chat on 7/9/13

The Phils led after 7 innings, 4-1.  Then, in the 8th with 1 out, Hamels appeared to be tiring.  He loaded the bases with Nationals.  However, he regained composure to strike out Ryan Zimmerman on 3 pitches, the knockout blow a 93 mile-per-hour fastball.  The next batter was former-Phillie outfielder Jayson Werth, having a terrific year, hitting .295 with 10 HR.

Werth had already homered off Hamels in the 2nd to put the Nationals up 1-0.  Hamels got 2 quick strikes, then Werth fouled one off.  A perennial league-leader in pitches per at-bat (something the Phils always benefited from), Werth managed to work the count full with 3 straight balls.

Manager Charlie Manuel paid a visit to the mound.

“I just said, ‘I’m not here to take you out, I just came out here to look at you,'” Manuel said after the game. “I said, ‘you got him,' and he smiled and said, ‘I got him.’…It was a big time battle."

Then, with the bases loaded, 2 out and the count full, Hamels got Werth to fly out to center field, ending the potential rally without a run scored.  The Phils went on to win 4-2.

"That’s what baseball is all about. Werth came close, but no cigar,” Manuel said.  “[Hamels] threw a heck of a game.  Absolutely outstanding. I liked everything about it.”

Since July began, the Hamels the Phils picked to pitch Opening Day appears to be back.  He is 2-0 in 2 games with a 1.20 ERA.  Hamels has been on-pace to post the most walks in a single season in his career in '13.  However, in July, he has walked 1 while striking out 12.  2 games do not a season make.  After all, poor run support coupled with awful outings put Hamels in a 2-11 hole to start the year.

Still, there's no denying he has found his stroke, and no mistaking what that can mean to the team as they approach the trade deadline and chase the Braves for First Place and the 3 teams ahead of them for the final Wild Card playoff spot in the NL. 

“I have to be accountable,” Hamels said Tuesday, speaking not only for himself but for so many of his veteran teammates. “I didn’t get the job done early. I need to take it up a notch from here on out. That’s what I’m trying to do, push myself to the highest level I can.”

If Hamels continues to display his mojo, it could be huge for the team.

“We have to give it all we can and we’ll rest at the all-star break,” he said. “We know the caliber of team we have. We’ve been underachieving.  I still think we’re one click away from rolling. We’ve got a couple of weeks to really get going.”

Time will tell whether the impressive 7-and-3 run the past 10 days against top-notch teams was the beginning of a run or a swan song before the fire-sale.  Either way, the Phils just got interesting and relevant for the first time this year.

Next up:

Chicago White Sox (36-53, 5th in AL Central) vs. Phillies (46-47, 3rd in NL East)

3-game interleague series vs. Chicago White Sox in Philadelphia, followed by the All-Star Break. 

On Friday, game 1 was postponed due to heavy rain in Philly.

Saturday, July 13th, the Phils will play a doubleheader with John Lannan and Jonathan Pettibone pitching a game apiece.

Sunday, July 14th, Cole Hamels will try to win his 3rd-straight as the Phils attempt to conclude the First-Half of the season with their first winning record since June 6th, when, for 1 day, they were a winning team.