Why the Phillies' next seven games are crucial

It’s not time to push the panic button on this 2014 Phillies season.

But depending on how the team fares over its next seven games, it soon could be.

After the next seven at Citizens Bank Park, the Phils head west for what sure looks like a difficult 10-game road trip. If the Phillies go limping into those 10 games, it will spell trouble — and not just for the trip, but the season.

The Phils — especially the bullpen — just got done showing their vulnerability against deep and powerful offenses.

Here’s what they’ll get on this 10-game road trip:

· The Rockies, who lead baseball in batting average (.320), on-base percentage (.371), slugging percentage (.494), and feature MVP candidate Carlos Gonzalez (.389 avg.), Troy Tulowitzki (.407 avg.), Michael Cuddyer (.415 avg.) and Justin Morneau (.387 avg.)

· The Dodgers, the defending NL West champions with names such as Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier sprayed throughout their order, not to mention quality starting pitching to go with it

· And the Diamondbacks, who have an MVP candidate of their own in Paul Goldschmidt (.370 avg.) and one of baseball’s early home run leaders, Mark Trumbo (5 HRs, 13 RBIs)

That’s power, power and more power on tap for the Phillies’ leaky, questionable and inexperienced bullpen.

One nightmare road swing can crush a season. Entering July 20 last year, the Phils were 49-48, in second place and 6½ games out of first. They then lost eight straight to finish their nine-game trip away from home and the season was gone.

Given the circumstances, the Phillies can’t afford a bad April. They need to play well enough before the July trade deadline approaches to convince management to keep this going.

And that brings us back to these seven upcoming games. If the Phils don't stem the tide before going west, April could be disastrous and the season unsavable.

Comments

[Allen Thornberg]

Having Chooch attempt a steal is right up there with Cholly having Laynce Nix try to lay down a bunt back in 2012; my opinion of Sandberg's superior managerial skills just took another hit.

[M. Martinez]

One of the few dumb things Cholly didn't do was hit-and-run. Nice to see Ryno/Bo filling that gap.

[clout]

If Mayberry plays until he's 50 he'll never hit RHP. Never.

[NEPP]

Damnit Bastardo.

[M. Martinez]

One of the few dumb things Cholly didn't do was hit-and-run. Nice to see Ryno/Bo adding it to the repertoire. Shows good versatility.

[Curt]

Our BP has to be averaging a BB per inning.

[MG]

Is Bastardo going to throw strikes this year? It has been a huge problem almost every outing so far.

[NEPP]

***Our BP has to be averaging a BB per inning.***

I'd be surprised if its that low.

[bay_area_phan]

Phillies aren't playing a man short in the bullpen. They'd been playing with 8 relievers because they didn't need a 5th starter. Now they're down to 7, which is a normal number.

The Phillies' problem is that the 7 relievers all suck. Their problem isn't that they lack an 8th reliever who sucks.

[clout]

Bastardo has had command problems throughout his career. What we don't see is progress.

[NEPP]

Ironically, Burnett is the one that's been a walk machine so far. 14 BB in 16 IP.

[EDGE]

Before tonight: 31.1 IP 15 BB by the bullpen.

[clout]

Bastardo threw 7 strikes and 8 balls, a typical outing for him.

[EDGE]

BAP is right. The bullpen had an extra arm until tonight.

[NEPP]

Team LOB% (coming into tonight): 59.2%

That's just pathetic.

2011 LOB%: 77.2%

Even last year it was a decent 72.2%.

[NEPP]

***Bastardo threw 7 strikes and 8 balls, a typical outing for him.***

And yet, he's arguably one of our top 2 relievers.

Great job of assembling a bullpen, Rube!

[M. Martinez]

Another good AB by Gwynn, even against a lefty. Got screwed getting called out on an outside pitch the previous AB. Keep BR nailed to the pines where he belongs.

[NEPP]

Howard's swing is all arms.

[bay_area_phan]

Mini-Mart: What line do you think Tony Gwynn, Jr. would put up over a 500-PA season?

[LorecorE]

yes, lets start a 31yr old who can no longer keep his OPS above .600

[NEPP]

Mini-Mart, remember that you have to put "JR" in the B-R.com search field to get the Tony Gwynn on our roster.

[Pat]

Whatever happened to Chris Gwynn?

[clout]

Th poster who's latest name is Mini-Mart keeps changing names because he's an idiot. So of course you get idiotic posts.

[Pat]

Chris Gwynn is 18 years older than brother Tony Jr. Wow, Tony Sr. really spread out his progeny.

[NEPP]

Pap is up a bit velocity wise from last week. He's been 91-93 last night and tonight instead of 89-91.

Slider looks sharper too.

[EDGE]

How can an infielder have any confidence in throwing to Howard.

[LorecorE]

Easily safe, but its still pathetic our 1B is unable to catch a ball.

[Pat]

Wrong! Chris Gwynn was Tony, Sr.'s brother and Tony, Jr's uncle.

[EDGE]

NEPP: Maybe the weather helped him get a slight uptick.

[NEPP]

Maybe he was going through a bit of a dead arm period and he's worked through it...

Maybe its just normal arm strength buildup.

Hopefully he keeps it.

[LorecorE]

I can't wait for TMac to start giddily proclaiming "Paps strikes him out with a NINE-TY TWO MILE PER HOUR FASTBALL, WOW! He put a little extra on that one!"

[NEPP]

Got a little mustard on that one!

[bay_area_phan]

Maybe it's just selective memory, but it sure seems like a lot of Papelbon's recent problems have occurred with 2 outs.

[EDGE]

Good pitch selection by Paps/Chooch, Dobbs was fastball hunting on the first pitch.

[Curt]

Edge - thanks for the stat. I've clearly missed a couple games where the BP didn't walk anyone, because one per inning seems pretty standard.

[MG]

NEPP - I thought the same thing. First time all year Papelbon's fastball had a bit of life on it and similar to his first outing or two in spring training.

Need a walk-off now.

[Curt]

Fish LOB: 12. Phils: 3.

[EDGE]

Curt: Maybe you watched Bastardo pitch those games because he has 7.1 IP and 7 BB.

[Meyer]

Get Freddy to the plate.

[bay_area_phan]

Phillies pretty much have to win right here. Once we're down to guys like Rosenberg and Manship, the odds shift drastically in the Marlins' favor.

[MG]

Good AB Chooch. End this Freddy!

[Pat]

I don't think there were any other Gwynn's.

[clout]

Ideally, Asche would still be on the bench to give you a chance here rather than the automatic out.

[Pat]

Fred Gwynne played Herman Munster.

[EDGE]

Galvis looks like he lost some weight, I wonder if it was over the winter or due to the infection.

[MG]

Good pitch by Marmol to get Galvis. Looking fastball all the way and never expected a slider 3-2.

[LorecorE]

Is Revere unavailable?

[bay_area_phan]

"Fred Gwynne played Herman Munster."

And his signature role: the judge in "My Cousin Vinny."

Also the crazy neighbor in "Pet Semetary."

[MG]

Best stuff by far of any Phils' pitcher tonight so far.

[MG]

Offense needs to end this game. Bullpen hasn't been great but they have only given up 2 R now over 5 IP.

[Pat]

"And his signature role: the judge in "My Cousin Vinny."

Also the crazy neighbor in "Pet Semetary.""

Yes!

[Pat]

Fred Gwynne batted .344 in 1956 for the Chicago White Sox. This was before he turned to acting and Munster fame.

[kuvasz]

bap, Fred Gwynne played Francis Muldoon in "Car 54 where are you." btw, Grandapa Munster(Al Davis) was also in the "Car 54" sit-com.

Man, I getting old.

[MG]

Red-light player!

[Meyer]

Jimbo.

[Curt]

Red light with an encore performance.

[bay_area_phan]

That was timely.

[NEPP]

Red Light Player

[LorecorE]

eat it loogy.

[NEPP]

Win attributable to the bullpen!

[LorecorE]

I wonder how many laps Sandberg will make Rollins run for hitting a flyball.

[clout]

Walked him off.

[Gsl]

Jimmy told Marlon to shut the f up.

[Rally Red '67]

YOUNG JAMES!!!

Must.
Sweep.
Fish.

[MG]

4-3 when JRoll scores a run so far this year.

Gotten hot the last week and him along with Utley have been carrying the offense. Need to sweep tomorrow.

[EDGE]

Fred Gwynne's best line : Did you say yutes?

[LorecorE]

Last extra inning HR for Rollins was 9/23/04.

[Rally Red '67]

Utes?

[Eddie Munster]

Somewhere in heaven Fred Gwynne is smiling.

[jr]

Hamels looked good.6 innings,6 strikeouts. No balls hit really hard. Double over Gillies head when he thought he was the short fielder in a softball game.consistently throwing 87-89,hit 91 once.Threshers 1-8,not much in the way of talent there. Lost tonight on 3 run homer with 2 outs in 9th.
Despite others getting all the ink,my favorite,Cam Perkins letting his bat do the talking. Off to great start at vReading.

[NonamePHame]

91? Uh oh. He was throwing 95 before

[Lake Fred]

Got in late tonight. No new thread header for tonight's game? C'mon Comcast get on the ball here!

Nice win. Jimmy Rollins with the big stick.

[M. Martinez]

Phils remain undefeated with Gwynn starting in center!

[Phillibuster]

Managed to listen to the last 3 innings of this one, let out a nice whoop in the car taking the 695 exit towards home. Sad to hear that Howard looked so bad, especially since he's been doing a pretty solid job with getting on-base (for him) so far this year. I'd be ok with the ~.350 OBP if he was also bringing some power, but that's been lacking pretty hard so far.

Although I suppose he was always more of a "second half" kind of guy. So we can hope?

[MG]

If Hamels is only in the upper 80s consistently, that is going to be an issue. He is normally 90-92 instead.

[EDGE]

MG: Hopefully he's still building arm strength.

[EDGE]

Speaking of Howard's OBP, through 11 games he has already accumulated 8BB. Last season, it took 32 games for him to reach that total.

[Phillibuster]

Also, BAP, I'm usually not around on weekends, at least not until pretty late.

[epicurean]

Man. Raul Ibanez's 2,000th career hit was a good one: a game-tying three-run shot with two outs in the 9th against the Mets. That was cool to see.

[Severino]

Lots of fungible relievers on this squad. Pap still ok but on a decline. Call me up and "Sever" through a line up like butter. For Iam Severino...

[MG]

JRoll didn't hit his 2nd HR last year until May 10th.

[GBrettfan]

Does this mean I can never watch or listen to a game again?

Last Friday and Saturday, I was busy helping at my daughter's school musical, missed the games, they won.

Sunday through Thursday, I watched. I was at the stadium on Tuesday. They lost all four games.

This Friday and Saturday, I again missed both games because of the school play, and they won.

[GBrettfan]

So, this interview with Jimmy is interesting.

http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/rollins-shuts-heckler-walk-homer?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[PLM]

Saw the interview on Channel 6. Jimmy taking a page from Braun's playbook. A fan lit a far under Jimmmy arse and he responded. Had fun in the process win win anything to give or ol geezer squad a extra push is good.

[PLM]

Although they won the game taking the KO swing for the fence is exactly what Sandberg doesnt want Jimmy to do. I saw it in Sandberg's eye's during the interview.

[Gobaystars]

Two outs and nobody on? Go ahead and swing to end the game. Sandberg needs to get over himself.
Also is like to assemble a highlight reel of these new hold school managers (Sandberg, Williams and Gibson) not running out every groundball or swinging for the fences.

[Rally Red '67]

If Ryne Sandberg thinks that he's going to turn Jimmy Rollins into Juan Pierre one of 2 things must happen:

* Ryne Sandberg must get a grip and realize that you can't change a 35 year old 3-time All Star/former MVP's style of play, or
* They have to dump Rollins ASAP for magic beans.

Personally, I believe Ryne Sandberg must do a better job of picking his battles. If he (and Larry fvucking Bowa) think for a microsecond they are going to change Rollin's approach to his game, we have 2 incomprehensibly arrogant and stupid persons in the dugout.

Oh yeah, and 2 more of the same; one in the ownership group and one in the GM seat.

[PLM]

Im not condemning or approving just trying to read Sandberg during the interview. "I done told this Fracker to put the ball in play and hit it in the gap. At 35 you know longer have HR power but gap power. This will cut down on the popups and fly balls, Frackity Frack."

[bittel]

Any update from Burnett's groinocologist?

[Geraldo]

I wonder if they'll twirl his groin?

['groin soreness"]

Still sore wait until the day before my next start for 15 day DL announcement.

[Iceman]

BAP- I was at the game last night. Otherwise I'd have been here and baited by Mini-Mart's stupidity.

That first HR Stanton hit was maybe the farthest and hardest hit ball I've ever seen in person. I almost stood up and applauded.

The fans might need to start heckling Rollins more often for the good of the team.

['groin soreness"]

You have two noobs that still think they can get the meatball by a hitter thus mammoth HR's

[Geraldo]

LOL, someone's posting under the handle 'groin soreness'.

[M. Martinez]

Gwynn starting again in center, with Ben "Pipp" Revere on the bench, as Ryno shrewdly tries to keep The Streak rolling.

Nice to have a CFer where every flyball/liner isn't an adventure and runners on first can't take 3rd with impunity on singles to shallow center, a la Gomez for the Brewers last week.

[NEPP]

Man are you gonna hate it when the real Tony Gwynn shows up.

Enjoy this "hot streak" while it lasts as he's barely a 5th OF on a bad team most of the time.

[M. Martinez]

No question that Gwynn is a journeyman but at least he can keep baserunners from going wild taking the extra base, judge flyballs without getting turned around on anything that isn't routine and even get an extra-base hit every once in a while.

[NEPP]

He's a very good defender...no doubt about that.

[jr]

You never know about guns in minor league parks.Although it is the Tigers ST site.Time will tell.

[Curt]

Not a Gwynn (Jr) fan, but certainly not missing the Ben Revere experience either. With defenders like Revere and Howard you're starting the games with minus one run.