Game 8: Trying to contain Ryan Braun, Take 2

Just keep Ryan Braun in the yard.

If the Phillies do that, they’ll obviously have a much better chance at beating the Brewers on Wednesday than they did in Tuesday’s home opener.

Roberto Hernandez will get the first crack at trying to cool off Braun after Milwaukee's slugger went deep three times in the Brewers' 10-4 win over the Phils on Tuesday.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to continually bust Braun inside. The 30-year-old is playing through a serious thumb injury.

Here’s how serious:

"The analogy is if you touch a hot stove, no matter how badly you want to keep your hand there, the natural reaction will be to take your hand off it," Braun said, per the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, about the feeling he has while gripping the bat. "That's kind of what happens every time I make contact, when it gets bad. No matter what I want to do or try to do, I can't keep two hands on the bat.

"I've tried lots of different things, different padding. Hopefully, we'll figure something out, some type of treatment, something that eventually helps.

"One [surgery] is I would never feel anything in my thumb again, which didn't make sense. The other is they would completely remove the nerve. That doesn't make sense, just long-term, living life.

"In the other one, there would still be nerve endings because they would remove the nerve but the nerve endings would still be there, which could be really painful. [Hand specialist Don Sheridan] said he didn't think that would be a great option either."

Braun’s thumb looked just fine Tuesday.

Now a three-homer day would maybe suggest not pitching to Braun tonight or Thursday, but Milwaukee has weapons up and down the lineup, so if he doesn’t beat you, someone else can.

As far as the Phillies’ bats, Chase Utley is out of the lineup for the second straight game with the flu, but he will be available to pinch-hit (see story). The Phils face right-hander Matt Garza.

Here are tonight’s lineups:

Phillies

1. Ben Revere, CF
2. Jimmy Rollins, SS
3. Carlos Ruiz, C
4. Ryan Howard, 1B
5. Marlon Byrd, RF
6. Domonic Brown, LF
7. Cesar Hernandez, 2B
8. Jayson Nix, 3B
9. Roberto Hernandez, P

Brewers

1. Carlos Gomez, CF
2. Jean Segura, SS
3. Ryan Braun, RF
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B
5. Jonathan Lucroy, C
6. Khris Davis, LF
7. Mark Reynolds, 1B
8. Scooter Gennett, 2B
9. Matt Garza, P

Comments

[GBrettfan]

Phans, undaunted by yesterday's HRs, boo Braun again.

[Juums]

Of course, on the foul ball, Howard demonstrates a fine scoop on another less-than-ideal throw by Asche.

[GBrettfan]

Unintentional intentional walk to Braun.

[GBrettfan]

Asche is actually Nix today, Juums.

[GBrettfan]

Brewers wasted no time putting up a run.

I agree with Jamie, that the Phillies need to pitch inside.

[Juums]

The flash of range followed by a bouncing throw must've put me in the mind of last night.

Seriously, though, why isn't Asche playing? Or does Sandberg that desperately need a left-handed bat off the bench?

[Cyclic]

Pitching and defense!

[GBrettfan]

Juums, Asche tweaked his hamstring and is sitting out today, although he was taking extra fielding practice.

[Cyclic]

Asche tweaked his hammy, right?

[GBrettfan]

Cyclic: Yes, our foolproof losing formula.

[NEPP]

Defense strikes again!

[Cyclic]

If the Phillies finish the season 2nd in the NL in OBP, they will have made the playoffs.

[bay_area_phan]

This is likely getting reversed. Have the Phillies benefited from a replay yet?

[Phanatic]

Instant replay is terrible for baseball. It kills the flow of the game.

[Willard Preacher]

Gonna go out on a limb and suggest that L.A. isn't a fan of the current iteration of instant replay...

[Willard Preacher]

That was actually a really impressive AB by Howard there.

[Cyclic]

They play defense! too!

[bay_area_phan]

These teams are putting on a real defensive clinic, and we're not even out of the 1st inning . . .

[Willard Preacher]

Pitching (balk) and defense (E4).

[Juums]

My exact thought as well, Mr. Preacher Man. My exact thought.

[Cyclic]

Production™

[Iceman]

That 1-0 pitch to Brown was a flat fastball right on the inner-half. He should've murdered it.

[Cyclic]

Abysmal AB by CHernandez

[Iceman]

Did Garza throw a single breaking ball (/TMac) over the plate that inning? Yet Brown and Hernandez are hacking away at them.

[Cyclic]

The quest for a shutdown inning...

[Cyclic]

REVERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cyclic]

How can he make plays like that?

And errors like yesterday...

[Cyclic]

Holy crap that catch. Wow.

[Juums]

Because he's from the Cody Asche School of Defensive Averages. Being consistent is for chumps, after all: Better to be incredibly good and the incredibly bad, with it all averaging out.

[Conway Twitty]

Revere repeating Braun's great catch, now he just needs 3 HR's.

[Cyclic]

Dang. Thought Revere had another one.

[Juums]

I'd say Revere should've let it fall, but Gomez was fast enough that he probably would've beaten Revere's arm no matter how you sliced it. So it was a valiant effort that came up just short.

[Cyclic]

Yeah, 2 outs, Gomez was scoring all the way.

Great effort. I'm just glad he didn't get hurt. Not excited about JMJ in CF.

[Juums]

Cyclic:
Isn't the whole reason Tony Gwynn Jr. is on the team is so that we don't have to endure JMJ in CF?

[Cyclic]

Duh. Totally forgot about him.

[Juums]

Your brain was in the same place mine was when I thought Asche was at 3B tonight.

[Cyclic]

No bat Nix

[bay_area_phan]

Nice hustle, Fausto. You might have been safe.

[Cyclic]

Quiet, TMac. Even if he's running full speed, RHernandez isn't making it to first on that.

[Cyclic]

No way, bap.

[Juums]

That was very illustrative of what actually dogging it up the first-base line looks like, the next time Rollins' hustle is questioned.

[Cyclic]

Still yet to throw a curve ball for a strike... yet they keep swinging

[bay_area_phan]

Cyclic: Probably not, but it would have been a reasonably close play &, on close plays, sometimes the guy makes a bad throw. We've already seen that in this game.

[GBrettfan]

Corey Seidman ‏@CoreySeidman 12m

5th time in 8 games Phillies have failed with the shutdown inning. 5 times they've allowed a run the half-inning after taking lead

[Cyclic]

So hopefully they don't take the lead here...

[Cyclic]

phew. glad I didn't have to worry about that

[Conway Twitty]

This game is on pace to end at 11:40.

[GBrettfan]

We're the best in baseball! In ceding unearned runs.

Corey Seidman ‏@CoreySeidman 47m
Phillies lead MLB with 8 unearned runs

[Cyclic]

68 pitches through 3.

Brewers salivating at the thought of our bullpen

[clout]

The Pitcher Formerly Known As Fausto Carmona is on a 15 K pace if he can go 9.

[Juums]

Garza's at 49 after 2, though, Cyclic. Any salivating has to be tempered by the knowledge that they're in the same boat.

[Reality]

How can anyone watch JMJ play center field for the past few years and clamor for him out there? Revere may be sucky to some but JMJ is considerably worse.

[bay_area_phan]

These game threads ain't what they used to be. There are like 6 posters here.

[GBrettfan]

Pretty sure that in a battle of the bullpens, we're always at a disadvantage.

[GBrettfan]

That's true, BAP. Sad.

[Cyclic]

When the Phillies offense is livelier than the BL comments, then you know it's gotten bad here

[Cyclic]

BABIP double. Sweet!

[clout]

BAP: It's back to where it was in 2006 before the front-runners and fair weather fans got on board.

[Cyclic]

Hey some of us front-runners are still here

[Willard Preacher]

I'm with BAP. I kinda miss the fair weathered clowns. Maybe tonight is a Hatfield Dollar Dog night? Judging the by the empty seats, though, I'm not banking on it.

[Account Deleted]

And some fans with true "geezer" credentials.

[bay_area_phan]

I followed the spring training games on Gameday & my MLB.tv always gives me the home team's announcers. So this is actually the first time I've heard Jamie Moyer doing the game. This could be a small sample size error, but it seems like T-Mac is somewhat less annoying with Moyer as his sidekick.

[Dragon]

I like instant replay! I've always said that what baseball needs is something to slow the game down even more.

[clout]

BAP: Your observation is 100% correct.

[Iceman]

I've heard Moyer correct TMac's awful pitch identification at least three times this season (and once tonight), which is enough for me to like him.

[can_of_corn]

My favorite Moyer moment was once when Tbag started gushing over a Phanatic dangle hat and Moyer abruptly changed the subject.

[Ron Roenicke]

Kim Jong-un is a good guy, too.

[bay_area_phan]

clout: I haven't yet seen how Stairs affects the dynamic, but T-Mac seems to talk less with Moyer on hand than he did with Wheels & Sarge. Plus, Moyer comes off as a fairly serious person, which seems to deter T-Mac from devolving into inanity. A guy like Sarge, on the other hand, brought out the absolute worst in T-Mac.

[clout]

Moyer raises the IQ in the booth by 150 points.

[Cyclic]

Moyer's been awesome. Stairs has some room for improvement

[bay_area_phan]

Letting Fausto hit there was a pretty questionable decision. He's at 89 pitches, hasn't been super effective, and we're losing. On the other hand, it's not like anyone on our bench would have likely gotten a better result (I assume he wouldn't have used Utley there).

[Account Deleted]

Jamie Moyer is the perfect foil for Tom McCarthy. Thank God for small favors! Nothing comes close to Franzke/LA, but I can actually watch a few innings of a Phillies broadcast now.

[Cyclic]

Revere with another multi-hit game

[can_of_corn]

Totally agree on the Moyer vs. Stairs. I like Moyer's professionalism, experience and knowledge.

Also Moyer's voice, while clear and understandable, does not fight with the game. Even with his talking, he allows the game to carry itself. Maybe it's a pitcher's sense of timing.

I have to strain to hear Stairs' words clearly and he babbles and babbles over the game.

It's interesting because the morning WIP guys feel the opposite way. They call Moyer "boring" and like Stairs. I just hope Comcast doesn't feel the same.

[GBrettfan]

Moyer definitely raises the IQ, clout. I'm very happy to have him in the booth and to hear his insights without inanity.

[Juums]

I'm been disappointed that we have T-Mac in the booth since that first rain delay during Spring Training. The conversation, as I recall, went like this:
So, what'd did you guys do during rain delays when you played?
I'd go over the scouting reports again, or if there was time, catch some more film of hitters that would be coming up when the skies cleared.
[Beat]
I, uh, reached for the sunflower seeds. Which doesn't sound nearly as impressive after hearing what Jamie did.

Stairs and Moyer by themselves would hopefully provide a lot of Odd Couple-style humor in the booth.

[Juums]

Huh. It ate the names. Let's try this again:
[T-Mac] So, what'd did you guys do during rain delays when you played?
[Moyer] I'd go over the scouting reports again, or if there was time, catch some more film of hitters that would be coming up when the skies cleared.
[Beat]
[Stairs] I, uh, reached for the sunflower seeds. Which doesn't sound nearly as impressive after hearing what Jamie did.

[GBrettfan]

BAP, I obviously had the word "inanity" in mind because of your earlier comment.

Matt Gelb ‏@magelb 2m
Roberto Hernandez's nine strikeouts are his most since Sept. 15, 2007.

[Cyclic]

Moyer says Hernandez has found a groove. Wishes they weren't gonna take him out after this inning.

[Cyclic]

That's on Howard. Ugh. Watch it cost a run.

[bay_area_phan]

That's another thing I'm not used to hearing from the Phillies' announcers: criticism of the Phillies' players. A long-time teammate, no less.

[Kevin]

Moyer's been pretty strong, IMO, and provides some pretty good insights. Stairs seems like he'd be an awesome guy to hang out with and grab a beer, but honestly doesn't being much to the table as an announcer.

[Cyclic]

Come on, Byrd.

Show da power!

[Cyclic]

Woo! Awesome!

[Account Deleted]

Yay!

[Juums]

If you keep getting on base, the runs will attend to themselves. Eventually.

[bay_area_phan]

Manship has admittedly been pretty good in spring training & the early season. But if you'd told me at the time of the signing that he would be in our opening day bullpen, I would have been nothing short of horrified.

[Cyclic]

bap... and he might START on Saturday

[bay_area_phan]

Cyclic: Not if he's pitching today. Sounds like it will be Pettibone.

[Phanatic]

When the WIP morning team agrees on any thing, they're usually wrong.

[bay_area_phan]

Jake Diekman being brought in to face Braun, Ramirez & Lucroy, right-handers all. What could possibly go wrong?

[GBrettfan]

Strike him out! Yes! Second one tonight for Braun, too. Much better than yesterday.

[GBrettfan]

I'm wrong. That's 3 strikeouts of Braun. Even better.

[bay_area_phan]

Howard's hot start sure didn't last long.

[Iceman]

The posts on the day Manship signed are pretty funny. The sharp talent scouts on BL said with authority that he had no chance of ever cracking the MLB roster and expressed rage over signing him to a minor league deal.

[bay_area_phan]

Manship is 29 years old, has a 6.29 ERA in 118.2 major league innings, and had a 4.85 ERA and 1.404 WHIP at AAA last year. It's certainly possible that he has suddenly turned a corner at age 29, but I'll still put my money on the sharp talent scouts on BL eventually being proven correct about his major league bona fides.

[GBrettfan]

Nice play by Hernandez.

[bay_area_phan]

Oh brother.

[Meyer]

oof the gloove of hoovard.

[bay_area_phan]

Wasn't improved defense the rallying cry of the entire off-season? We dumped the Youngs, and brought in Asche & Byrd, and somehow our defense may actually have gotten worse.