MIAMI — The Philadelphia Phillies finished with a flourish Sunday. As Jimmy Rollins squeezed a routine popup for the final out, he delivered a one-legged dance kick.

With that, the Phils waltzed back to Philadelphia riding their longest winning streak in three years.

Unbeaten rookie J.A. Happ pitched seven innings and the first-place Phillies won their eighth game in a row by beating the Florida Marlins 5-0.

Happ (7-0) escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the sixth to help the Phils win for the 12th time in the past 13 games. The winning streak is their longest since taking nine in a row April 30-May 9, 2006.

“We have a lot of confidence, and I have a lot of confidence in the guys,” Happ said. “It makes it fun to have them go out there behind me.”

Happ helped himself with a two-out single to start a three-run rally in the second inning. Rollins had three hits by the third and came within a home run of the cycle, while Raul Ibanez doubled home two runs to help the Phillies complete their second three-game sweep in Miami this season.

Marlins got swept by the Phillies on sunday, scoring just 4 runs in the 3 game rain shortened series, with all of those coming on Friday night.

The chicken littles are coming out and saying the season is pretty much over with the Marlins falling 7 games back of the Phils, but the fact remains they are just 4.5 back in the Wild Card and there is a ton of baseball left.

Sure, it was a disheartening way to lose a series, with almost nothing going right (and our best chance to win, Josh Johnson’s start, was cut short by rain; more on that later), but the only thing that is over is the series. At some point, they’ve got to turn it around against the Phillies, they aren’t that much better than the Marlins.

It’s a shame that the first three games we’ve covered on this blog have featured the Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award, but we’ve gotta give it out after today, so receiving their second of the year is the collective known as the Marlins offense.  Andrew Miller looked like a surefire winner following his 2.2 IP, 4 run, 4 BB peformance, but when the bullpen held those up and the offense couldn’t manage anything, the Bats snatched victory from Miller’s hands.

About JJ’s rain shortened start, he’ll probably resume his normal spot in the rotation and pitch this Friday, though it is possible they may elect to use him on Wednesday against SD.

Also, I have to note the irony of the start on Saturday being rained out a few hours after the groundbreaking for the new roofed stadium; Samson and Loria couldn’t have asked for a better coincidence.

I did make my way out to the groundbreaking, though Rab covered it all in his post, I do want to say that they couldn’t have expected that many people to show up. I was there 45 minutes before the gate opened, and I wasn’t anywhere near close enough to see or hear anything of consequence, and with the oppressive heat, I had to leave. It was nice to say I was there, but it wasn’t worth it to stay for me.

A few random notes:

Samson announced we will see new uniforms for the team when they make it into the stadium. Him and Loria seem to love Orange, but my dream is that they keep the home whites with pinstripes, as I think those are some of the classiest threads in all of baseball.

The seats in the new stadium will be blue, it has been confirmed. Would’ve liked to have seen teal, though the front office seems to not care for that color. It’s a shame, as the fans seem to like the colors.

I’ll do a trade deadline preview, a stadium breakdown, and try to get a stadium countdown up soon so keep an eye for that stuff.

MIAMI (AP)—A midgame downpour meant an early exit for Cole Hamels on a long night for the Philadelphia Phillies. Yet they keep winning, rain or shine.

Chase Utley’s RBI single broke a tie in the 12th inning, and the Phillies extended their winning streak to seven by beating the Florida Marlins 6-5 on Friday.

The Phils were up 4-1 when Hamels left after a rain delay of one hour, 18 minutes midway through the sixth inning. The bullpen blew the lead, then escaped several jams in the final innings.

Brad Lidge, pitching for the first time in a week, walked two in the 12th and gave up a run on a wild pitch but earned his 19th save in 25 chances. Dan Uggla grounded out with a runner at third to end the game.
-STEVEN WINE, AP Sports Writer

Tonight came a heartbreaking loss at the hands of the Phils, this time in extras, and the Marlins are now 46-46, 0-2 in the series and 6 games behind the Phils. As we said before the series, the Marlins must split the series if they want to stay in the division race so the next two games are arguably the most important of the entire season.

Tonight, Cole Hamels looked like he was back to form in his 5 innings of work before the rain delay, only giving up 1 run and 4 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Ricky Nolasco, on the other hand, gave up 4 runs and 7 hits with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts in his 6 innings of work, but arguably pitched better than his line.  He’s now has a  3.06 ERA since returning from AAA.

On the offense, Paulino, Coghlan, and Hanley all had multi-hit games with Paulino going 3-5 and Coghlan hitting a homer in the bottom of the 1st.

The bullpen before Badenhop, Pinto, Meyer, Calero, and Nunez threw 4 innings while only allowing 2 baserunners.

But, now that that’s out of the way, we get to everyone’s favorite segment after a loss.

It’s of course the Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award, given to the Marlins player who most exemplified why some people should never ever ever play a baseball game. Ever. For the game in question.

Tonight’s “winner” is…

Burke Badenhop!

Look at his smug face… The Hopper has been a great asset to the bullpen this year but in his second inning of work faced 7 men, putting on 4 runners and 2 runs, absorbing the loss. For that he “wins” the Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award! Good job Hopper.

Jamie Moyer allowed one hit in seven innings to continue his domination of the Florida Marlins, Ryan Howard hit his 200th homer to sustain an unprecedented pace and the Philadelphia Phillies extended their winning streak to six games with a 4-0 victory Thursday night.

Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero pitched one perfect inning each to complete the Phillies’ one-hitter.

Moyer (9-6) limited Florida to two baserunners and departed after throwing 94 pitches. The 46-year-old left-hander has won all eight of his career starts in Miami, and he’s 13-2 overall against the Marlins.

The Phillies enjoy the longest current winning streak in the majors, and they’ve won 10 of their past 11 games.

- CBS Wire Reports

Volstad really can’t keep the ball in the yard, and it’s the damnedest thing because it’s really anomalous for him. He’s never given up home runs like this, and you want to say it’s unlucky as I alluded to in my pregame post, but quite frankly, he’s leaving too many hittable balls up in the zone.

The Marlins need this series. If they somehow get swept here, you can pretty much write off the season. You hate to say must win, but winning the next three is huge, and two of three is absolutely essential.

Moyer continues to be tantalizingly befuddling to the Marlins, and really there’s no reason for it. These guys need to be better prepared for a guy who is very easy to hit, and yet they have consistently failed to make adjustments. I’m not going to be knee jerk and say that is represents a failure on hitting coach Mark Wiley’s part because, well, Moyer’s just one pitcher. But it’s extremely frustrating to watch a guy who looks like he wouldn’t flourish at the high school level one hit a major league team.

Note

One thing we’re going to be doing is selecting a “Fish of the Game” during Marlins wins to denote the player or players who played the key role in the victory.

Of course, it’s only fair to spread a little blame around in losses (and, in all honesty, it’s fun!), so in our inaugural post game story, I introduce the illustrious Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award for the Marlin who’s play contributed most to the Marlins loss. At the end of the season, we will feature a season long winner (Bonifacio is currently in the lead, though Coghlan is making a strong push recently).

Without further ado, and with much fanfare, I present the very first recipient of the Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award in a miraculous, split ballot decision:

Chris Volstad!

AND

The Marlins bats!

Speaking of Volstad:

Volstad is someone I’ve analyzed and agonized over all year because he really makes no sense.  Low LD rates, good GB rates, low FB rates, decent K rates and improved control, and not an outrageous amount of hits. When he does get hit hard, though, it goes flying out of the park. I’ll probably devote a whole post to trying to figure him out someday soon when I get the time to look at PitchFx

Volstad has probably been miscast by most Marlins fans; he was a top prospect not because he had top of the rotation potential but because he was exceptionally projectable and was a safe bet to be a productive player.

(Had to include a picture of Volstad from his high school days since my high school, Flanagan in Pembroke Pines, beat him in his last start as a senior on our way to a state championship. Sorry, Chris.)

Chris Volstad

Volstad is 6-foot-7 22 year old with a low-to-mid 90′s fastball and a nice spike curve ball that makes his living when he’s going well on forcing hitters to pound the ball in the dirt and feeding his middle infielders grounders. When he has been on this season, he’s been great; 8 of his 18 starts have feature less than two earned runs crossing the plate, including the first complete game shutout of his career when he allowed just 5 hits while striking out 6 and walking none in his last start before the All Star Break against the Giants.

However, Volstad has been prone to giving up home runs, and that’s really been the biggest problem (and the biggest outlier) of his season. When looking at batted ball data, he is among the league’s leaders in home runs per fly ball, an astounding 16.2%. He doesn’t allow many fly balls, but he’s getting killed by those that do make it to the air.

The last time he faced the Phillies, he gave up 3 runs on 6 hits, including two home runs in a 6.2 IP W.

Lineup behind Volstad:

Emilio Bonifacio 3B
Jeremy Hermida LF
Hanley Ramirez SS
Jorge Cantu 1B
Dan Uggla 2B
Ronnie Paulino C
Cody Ross CF
Brett Carroll RF
Chris Volstad P

VS

Jamie Moyer

The term “ageless” had been used to describe Jamie Moyer for the better part of the last 7 seasons or so, but as it inevitably does, age seems to be catching up to the 46 year old lefty, who is in the midst of arguably his worst season ever.

Moyer’s trademark control has been there, but besides that, nothing has gone right for him. He is allowing 2 home runs per nine innings, and although that is with a high 15.2% HR/FB, he has been throwing more fastballs than ever this season (65% of his pitches, compared to about 40 each of the past 3 seasons, according to FanGraphs) and hasn’t been using his great change up or cutter nearly as often. If you top out at 84 MPH and you are throwing that pitch 65% of the time, you’re going to get pounded.

Still, Moyer has his reputation as a Marlin killer to uphold after his most recent start in Florida, a 4 run, 6 IP loss. Despite that, he still owns a 12-2 record with a 3.06 ERA in 14 starts against the Fish, so he had historically had their number. He is 7-0 with a 1.58 in 7 starts at Former-Dolphins-Joe-Robbie-Pro-Player-Currently-Landshark-Stadium in his career.

Prediction:

No Pedro to save the Phillies tonight, and Paulino, Cody, and Hanley are going to tee off on Moyer’s beer league fastball while Volstad keeps the ball down, though it’s hard to not give up home runs to this team, so that might still be a problem tonight. Marlins win on an early surge.