Kuzul

Once Shane Victorino hit the DL, everyone knew it would finally be time to call up the minor league phenom, Domonic Brown. But what no one knew is just how ready he actually was to make an impact in the majors.

Brown, who seemingly did most of his damage in the minors with his long ball, is making his presence felt for the Phillies by doing all the little things. His fielding has been very good and his knack for getting a hit in a clutch situation has been outstanding.

Whether it’s a hard single or a fly ball just deep enough for the sac fly, or his beautiful throw from right field to nail Gaby Sanchez at home on Wednesday night, Brown has been very impressive during his short time with the Phillies.

In fact, if Brown can keep this up, the Phils might have to find a way to keep him on the major league roster, even once Victorino is ready to come back.

It’s going to be tough with the activation of Victorino, Ryan Howard, and the recently-acquired Mike Sweeney, but it might be worth the roster shuffle to keep the kid in the bigs.

With Jayson Werth likely jumping ship in the offseason, Brown is going to see regular time in Philadelphia sooner rather than later, so getting him the experience this year could pay off in years to come.

But even if Brown is able to stay on the hot streak he’s on, I still don’t see him as a viable replacement for Werth next season because he’s left-handed. However, he would be a perfect replacement for Raul Ibanez…in the lineup, and in the field.

If I have noticed that, and some of the fans have noticed that, then it’s likely the Phillies have noticed that and could make such a transition possible this offseason.

Either way, it looks like this kid belongs as a starter in the near future. He can read pitchers, he can run the bases, he can hit in the clutch, he can make plays in the field, and he can do everything else that a starter needs to do.

The one thing we’re not sure of (yet) is whether he can do it consistently. But, they’ll never know unless they give him a shot.

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When it rains in Philadelphia these days, you can bet it’s going to pour.

With the Phillies’ No. 3 hitter, Chase Utley, already on the DL for who knows how long, the Phillies’ No. 4 hitter, Ryan Howard, could be joining him very shortly after spraining his ankle Sunday against the Nationals.

Howard and the team originally said a trip to the DL likely wouldn’t be necessary, but with Howard staying in Philadelphia to see a team doctor rather than traveling to Florida with his teammates when they start a series with the Marlins, the optimism is starting to die down.

And to be quite frank, thinking Howard wouldn’t hit the DL was most likely wishful thinking.

Almost everyone has sprained their ankle at one time or another, and it’s never a quick recovery, as it usually takes a few weeks for the swelling to go down completely and the pain to subside.

It’s also an injury that can linger if not properly healed before it’s put through any kind of activity again.

So, with that in mind, it might be in Howard’s, and the team’s, best interest if he does hit the 15-day DL and allow his ankle to heal before the season really gets to the wire.

If they hurry him back, his production will dip as he deals with the pain all season long. But if they find a way to tough it out and ride the storm while he misses a couple weeks and comes back at 100 percent, it could have a greater payoff at the end of the season.

It would certainly require some lineup juggling, but the Phils have become accustomed to that this season.

Charlie Manuel has a tough call to make, but barring some miracle, I would expect to see Howard hit the DL at some point later today after the doctor tells them that’s the best route to take.

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After being hit by a pitch, Ryan Howard made his way to second base after a single into right field by Ben Francisco. Howard thought, if just for a second, that he might be able to make it to third, and began rounding second.

He realized his mistake in time as the ball was just about to reach second base, and made an attempt to jump back to second with his left leg extended.

His efforts worked as he reached second base safely, but his ankle gave out and twisted underneath him. Howard immediately fell to his knees and even the people of Washington in Nationals Park were silent as trainers and Charlie Manuel came out to attend to the injured first baseman.

Howard was looked at by Manuel and the Phillies’ trainer for a little while before tossing an arm over each of them and limping off the field. Cody Ransom came in as a pinch-runner and Howard’s replacement at first base, and the Nationals fans gave Howard a classy round of applause.

But right now, everyone in Philadelphia is thinking the same thing: here we go again.

Through all the injuries, whether they are to stars like Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Shane Victorino, or other guys like Placido Polanco, Ryan Madson, J.C. Romero, or Chad Durbin, Howard has been the one constant in the lineup.

However, if the injury is as bad as it looked, that could change.

I’ve personally suffered the same type of injury, or at least suffered an injury in the same circumstance heading back to second base. When he plants that ankle and locks it, he still has the rest of his body weight coming and it all forces itself right onto his ankle.

When it happened to me, I sprained my ankle and had a partially torn tendon. Hopefully Howard avoided such an injury and only rolled it, but it certainly looked a lot more serious than that.

If Howard is out for any extended amount of time or if he has to hit the DL, it’s going to really set this team back and leave them without a true clean-up hitter. Ross Gload would likely take over at first and Jayson Werth would probably assume the fourth spot in the lineup.

Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but that’s what I would expect to see for at least the next couple of games.

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If there’s anyone like me who wasn’t a true fan of the move to bring in Roy Oswalt, you’re probably hoarse from screaming at your TV all night long.

Oswalt was incredibly erratic in his Phillies debut as he and the team fell to the Washington Nationals, 8-1.

Of those eight runs, Oswalt allowed four earned, five total. He also allowed seven hits, two walks, and struck out only four in six innings of work.

Is it just me, or could J.A. Happ have done that?

The Phils had better hope that Friday night was an aberration for Oswalt, and that he’ll come back strong in about five days or so, because if he has another showing like that, the Philly police might have to set up a border around Ruben Amaro Jr.’s home and keep watch for crazed fans.

But on a more positive note, Jayson Werth did hit a home run.

And back to the negative: the Phils offense once again looked anemic as they were only able to muster six hits, most of them meaningless, and struck out eight times.

It’s tough to get too down on them after the run they’ve been on recently, but it’s hard not to see the cycle starting again.

Especially when the guys had two errors in the field to go along with their poor showing at the plate.

Joe Blanton takes the mound for game two, so there’s no telling how this game will turn out.

If he gets into trouble early and starts walking guys, it’s going to be a very long night. However, if he’s placing his fastball, it should be fairly easy to hold down this Nationals lineup.

Oh, and if Jimmy Rollins could get a hit and stay healthy for more than a couple games at a time, that’d be great.

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Brown certainly lived up to the hype in his first game.

After suffering an injury that most thought would keep him out a few days put Shane Victorino on the DL, the Phillies’ top prospect, Dominic Brown, made his presence felt immediately.

In his first major league at-bat, Brown nearly went deep with a man on base. Instead, he knocked one off the right center field wall, legging out a double and plating Jayson Werth. Later in the inning, a Wilson Valdez groundout allowed Brown to cross home plate for his first career run.

Brown later showed that he can also run the bases and isn’t just a power bat as he scored from first on a Carlos Ruiz double in the sixth inning.

Overall, Brown went two for three, with two runs and two RBIs. Brown batted sixth in the lineup and played right field, while Werth was kicked over to center in Victorino’s absence.

But as exciting as it was for everyone to finally see what Brown could do in the majors, the news on Victorino has to take some of the wind of the sail.

“I’ll say about two weeks, but it may be at least three weeks (before Victorino returns to the lineup),” manager Charlie Manuel said.

Victorino was placed on the 15-day DL, so it’s possible he returns once his stint is up, but no one sounds too optimistic — including Victorino.

“I’m hoping (to be out only) 15 (days),” Victorino said. “It’s sore today.”

With Victorino gone, and Jimmy Rollins currently riding the bench with a foot bruise, the Phillies are short on contact-hitting base-runners. So unless Rollins is able to return soon, Brown’s play could be overshadowed by the fact the lineup is now dominated by power-hitting lefties.

But, for now, the Phils are riding a seven-game win streak and look as good as they have all season long. Whether or not they can overcome the constant stream of injuries to their All-Star players and overtake the Braves has yet to be seen, but it’s now safe to say they’re out of their slump.

However, as we’ve seen with this team, they can fall back in at any time.

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After the Phillies’ hitting coach, Milt Thompson, was fired a few days ago, it looked like he was simply the scapegoat. But now that the Phillies are smacking the Rockies around a little bit, including a 10-2 shellacking of Ubaldo Jimenez, it looks like the move might have actually worked.

“It doesn’t mean we’re all of a sudden going to start hitting,” Jimmy Rollins said following Thompson’s firing, but that would seem to be the case.

Guys no longer seem to be pressing. They’re standing tall at the plate, watching the bad ones go by, and taking what the pitcher is willing to give.

If that means a single base knock, then so be it. However, they’re still getting their extra-base knocks and going yard because they’re allowing the pitches to come to them rather than chasing them a foot out of the zone in any direction.

But if we’re going to be pessimistic, they are still five games away from the Braves. The winning is nice for now, but they’ve still got a long way to go.

The hitting is a step in the right direction, and Kyle Kendrick and J.A. Happ were very good on back-to-back days. I would even go so far as to say Kendrick was spectacular.

Kendrick is certainly an odd player to watch because he could come back and not make it out of the second inning in his next start.

They’ve just got to keep it up. Really, that’s it. They’ve got to continue coming up with the clutch hit, strikeout, catch, throw, and whatever else. If they keep doing the little things, they can put themselves in a position to catch the Braves.

However, if they fall back into a slump they’re going to look up at some point and realize the Braves are too far ahead to be caught anymore. We’re nearly into August, and it’s time they play with some sense of urgency.

Because if all they’re worried about is stringing a few wins together here and there and just trying to maintain, it’s going to bite them—hard. Whether or not they want to admit it to themselves, it’s crunch time.

Next time they fall into one of their 10 to 15-game slumps, they’re not going to have enough time to dig themselves out.

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The Phillies won 6-0 on Friday night over the Colorado Rockies at Citizen’s Bank Park. Roy Halladay got the win as he pitched eight scoreless innings, fanning nine, and watched his offense explode for five runs in the fifth inning.

And that’s it. That’s all I’ve got. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll read again soon.

… You’re still here? Oh, you wanted more? Sorry, that’s truly all I’ve got. Here is where I would usually add some sort of analysis or my opinion on the game and the Phillies in general, but there’s really nothing more left to be said.

Absent a hot streak soon, wins like this won’t matter.

They’ve got to keep this up for the rest of the season and hope that the Atlanta Braves start losing.

How do they keep this up? Well, they swing the bats better. That’s it. We’ve been over everything and every time it looks like they’re getting their act together, it falls apart—making it incredibly difficult to get excited over any of their wins.

It was great to see them put up all those runs in the fifth inning, but that was their entire offense right there. Outside of an RBI by Raul Ibanez in the eighth, the fifth inning was the only time they could score.

Jayson Werth got another RBI this month, so the world might be coming to an end. For the first night in a long time, Ryan Howard wasn’t their entire offense. And, perhaps most surprisingly of all and tying into the first two feats of this game, Halladay actually got some run support.

But, there’s still plenty of bad to go around.

For starters, they still left 11 runners on base. Yeah, 11 runners were left stranded out on the bags tonight. So even though they were able to score six runs, it could have, and should have, been a whole lot more.

If it was anyone but Halladay, or perhaps Cole Hamels, on the mound, the six runs likely would not have been enough.

On the bright side, they did win. Perhaps I’m being a bit pessimistic but if you take a second to look through my archives, you’ll see that I supported this team up until this point. But they’ve successfully sucked out all my optimism and left me with thoughts like “Cool, they won, but how will they mess it up tomorrow?”

It’s disgusting and I hate them for it. But, odds are they will lay an egg tomorrow, so excuse me if I’m not setting off fireworks in the backyard. I will be sure to watch the game, however, and hope with all I’m worth that I’m wrong.

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With the heat turning up on Charlie Manuel and the Phillies for their pathetic display this season, the team needed to find a scapegoat to turn attention away.

But after a game in which the Phils couldn’t put a run on the board until the 11th inning despite 12 total hits and a eight scoreless innings of one-hit baseball by Cole Hamels, it would have to be a good one.

Their selection was logical: If everyone is upset about the lack of hitting, fire the hitting coach, Milt Thompson.

Of course, anyone paying attention can see this isn’t going to fix things. Thompson can’t swing the bats for the players and it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to talk them out of swinging for the fences every time they step up to the plate.

He can preach and preach and preach about just getting contact and how useful a base knock can be, but he has no control over them once they leave the dugout.

And once they’re in that batter’s box, you can bet every single guy in this lineup gets wide-eyed just looking out at the vines in center field and get giddy just thinking about how they’re going to take their lap around the bases.

That is, until their fantasy is ruined by the ump shouting “Steeerike Three!” in their ear.

But, like I said, it’s a move that certainly makes sense on the surface and will breathe some new optimism into any fan looking for any reason to believe in this team again. So, for that reason, the move has done its job.

The new guy, Greg Gross, has a history inside the Phillies’ organization. He was a player for 10 years and was around for the Phils’ World Series appearances in 1980 and ’83. He was the hitting coach once before, from 2002 to 2004, but went to Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2005 to work in player development.

Perhaps a shakeup is just what these guys need to wake them up, but I’m so sick of saying that by now I could puke.

Either way, Gross is going to have a difficult time ahead of him as he’s taking over a lineup ranked 13th in the National League in batting average with a mediocre .254 average, and a lot of guys who are getting in their own way at the plate more often than not.

One thing is for sure: As a .287 career hitter with only seven home runs in 17 years, Gross will certainly not be preaching that the bats continue to aim for the fences. Hopefully his unique perspective will sink in before the season is officially lost. But I’m not holding my breath.

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In the top of the seventh inning of the Phillies’ 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night, the Phillies had runners on first and second with two outs and Carlos Ruiz at the plate.

Recognizing this, the Cardinals elected to have pitcher Jaime Garcia work around Ruiz, walk the bases loaded, and go after pitcher Joe Blanton hitting in the ninth hole.

Keep in mind that at this point the score was only 1-1.

Ruiz walked after five pitches, and, to the dismay of every Phillies fan watching, Blanton came up to the plate to work against the left-handed Garcia. Needless to say, Blanton struck out, the Phils left three guys on base, and eventually went on to lose the game after Blanton fell apart in the seventh and eighth innings.

So why didn’t Charlie Manuel pinch hit for Blanton in that spot?

The offense has been lethargic, to put it nicely, and even a single would have gotten them at least two runs and a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

One reason is the lack of options on the bench. With Ben Francisco playing left field for Raul Ibanez, the only righty available was Wilson Valdez. Valdez hasn’t exactly been great this year, but he’s certainly been hitting better than Blanton and quite obviously gives them a better chance at scoring some runs.

Another reason is the limited amount of time a new pitcher would have had to get warmed up, considering there were already two outs in the inning.

But, again, that’s Manuel’s fault. He should have realized what the Cardinals were doing while Ruiz was at the plate and got someone up in the bullpen. And if Valdez is able to come through, that gives the guy in the bullpen plenty of time to be loosened up.

Even if the guy Manuel called upon wasn’t loose, he still probably couldn’t have done any worse than Blanton did after that, as Blanton gave up three more runs and turned the ball over with a 4-1 deficit in the eighth inning.

To me, it looked like Manuel has fallen into the same slump as his team and is making conservative decisions in an effort to avoid a loss, rather than being aggressive and going for the win.

Anyone watching Blanton this year knows he’s worthless after six innings, so it was the perfect time to put him on the bench, give him an “atta-boy” for six solid innings, and hand the ball off to, ideally, Ryan Madson.

So now that Manuel has joined in on the bonehead mistakes, the Phils have essentially assured their fans one miserable October.

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All the clamor as of late has been for the Phillies to go out and add another starting pitcher, possibly even one with “ace” qualities. While I’m not exactly a proponent of the move , it looks like that’s inevitably what’s going to happen.

But, as Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com reported recently, the Phillies aren’t looking for just any starting pitcher and will only trade for a top-flight starter. In fact, again, according to Salisbury, the Phils won’t be trading for any pitcher not named Roy Oswalt or Dan Haren.

“Baseball officials with knowledge of the Phillies’ thinking say that if the Phils can’t land a top pitcher, such as Oswalt or Haren,” Salisbury writes, “they may not add a pitcher at all.”

It’s a bit surprising initially to think that Ruben Amaro Jr. would simply give up looking for a pitcher just because he can’t land the exact guy he wants, but it makes sense.

Amaro knows as well as anyone that he can’t press and make a trade just for the sake of making a move. If he’s going to ship players out, he has to make sure he’s getting the same value in return, or else he’s going to hurt the team for a few years.

He does, however, seem to be losing options.

According to reports, Oswalt is likely going to refuse to waive his no-trade clause unless the team trading for him agrees to pick up his $16 million option for 2010.

But, with a huge deal just getting done with Ryan Howard and a couple other guys having to be paid before then, the Phils might see that as a bit pricey for a guy who would be their third starter.

As I’ve said before, I would think the wiser option would be to simply ride out the season with J.A Happ and Kyle Kendrick as your final two starters, then perhaps look to see who is available either via free agency or trade next season.

Happ was very good last year, and Kendrick really hasn’t been that bad. His most recent outing against the Cardinals was certainly one to forget, but overall he’s been an average pitcher on a very average team.

Amaro says he already knows what he’s going to do, so it’s really just a matter of waiting and seeing for Phillies fans. Even though the trade deadline isn’t until the 31st, the Phils have an opening for a starter this Sunday, so whatever move they’re going to make will likely be made before then.

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