Painful to watch, Phils swept
Posted by mattsmith on 8:09pm, Sunday August 9th 2009
Sunday, August 9th
Marlins 12, Phillies 3
This was the ugliest loss of the season.
The Marlins finally solved Jamie Moyer and Josh Johnson pitched like an ace for Florida, which swept the Phillies and is four games back in the division.
We could have seen the last of Moyer, who allowed 11 hits and three runs over five-plus innings.
The Phillies have had 1-9 homestands, horrible starting pitching and a closer who can’t close, but this loss ranks at the top of worst moments of 2009.
Shane Victorino was ejected for arguing balls and strikes… in center field.
Victorino ran in from center field and had to be restrained from home plate umpire Ed Rapuano. Victorino threw his arms up in the air after a pitch by Rodrigo Lopez was called a ball in the seventh inning. Victorino pushed Paul Bako out of the way and nearly made contact with Rapuano.
Go here to watch it all unfold.
(The ejection was bush league all the way. Rapuano should be disgusted with himself and, consequently, fined for his actions).
The Marlins unloaded for six runs in the seventh. Jayson Werth, who replaced Victorino, failed to put his glove on the grass to field a single up the middle by Mickey Man… err, Chris Coghlan, allowing three runners to score while Coghlan advanced to third base.
The Phillies’ bats, meanwhile, were quieted once again. Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard both haven’t hit a home run in 12 games and Chase Utley is mired in a terrible slump.
Ibanez hasn’t had an RBI in August.
The lack of production is mind-boggling.
Philly will look to get back on track at Wrigley Field starting Tuesday.
Player of the Game
Chris Coghlan
Rab Bethan from Fish Guts here. You do a good job here. That said I disagree about the Victorino thing. You can’t show up the umpire and his calls calls from 300 feet away. Not to mention that Ed Rapuano was right about both calls.
The pitch to Howard was low and outside. It was a ball, but I’m not going to argue with it, because he gave Jamie Moyer the outside corner, too.
Rampuano tossing Victorino out was uncalled for. Victorino’s reacting the way he did was uncalled for, too, but how many times during the course of a game do players react negatively to balls and strikes? Many times. Rampuano is to be blamed because he let it get to that point. It’s one thing if Victorino kept hollering at him from center field. That, we don’t know for sure. Otherwise, Victorino should not have been thrown out of the game. Body language should never result in ejection, unless the player is waving his middle finger.
The pitch to Howard was on the black, but that’s not even the point. The point is that Victorino wasn’t slumping over, nodding his head or doing anything like that, Victorino threw his arms in the air, showing Rapuano up. And, like I said, it didn’t help that he was wrong.
And, yes, sometimes players show displeasure, but how often have you seen a guy 300 feet away from the play argue about it? Not often at all. I can’t think that I’ve ever seen it.
After watching the clip as an innocent bystander Vic should have been ejected earlier and the ump had every right to do it then. CF is right in the umps vision and you can’t argue balls and strikes. Vic was warned and did not shut up.
The ump had it coming since the first inning. Utley took about, not kidding, six balls before he lined out. The walk would’ve loaded them up with none on… We know that Victorino had probably been saying things to them all game whenever he ran by at the end/beginning of the inning or came up to bat, especially after he was doubled up. But tossed from centerfield….really?? I think it just shows that he let a player get to him and he really did handle it poorly whether he deserved it or not.
i dunno, I watched the replay a few times, and Matt, you say that players react all the time… and I don’t think thats so true…maybe a head not like “aww man” or something.. but notice EVERY time a pitcher does something like that, he is tossed immediately? Heck, sometimes you can’t even like look into him without a warning or a tossing. Victorino acted like a fan would, and neither of us can say for sure, but you may hate the calls, but you need to be professional about it and hope it comes around to your pitcher. Then Victorino coming in like that, it looked at first like he was gonna just come in all calm and to do that? He deserves a suspension now too to be honest.
Call me a Met fan, but thats me being unbias, I wouldn’t have appreciated any player on the Mets doing it, and possibly someone like Reyes would and i’d be more annoyed with the immature reaction then the ejection, there have been PLENTY of more bad calls that have probably happened to Victorino at the plate or the Phillies than that one.
All I’m saying is this: Players bark all the time WITHOUT getting ejected. You could make a case that Victorino was showing up the umpire by waving his arms, whatever he was doing out there, but you mean to tell me that never happens? I disgaree strongly. Fact is, reacting verbally to a pitch w/out being tossed out happens frequently. I don’t know if Victorino was warned, by either way, body langue shouldn’t result in ejection. In my mind, the umpire reached a boiling point, stemming from Howard’s strikeout, and felt obliged to throw a guy out some 300 feet away. It was unnecessary. There are varying opinions and that’s fine. This is my opinion.
I’m not sure how you get at deserving a suspension…? He didn’t make contact with the ump. He was yelling and being restrained but doesn’t that happen almost everytime a manager is ejected? Prince Fielder can go to a locker room and try banging down the door cursing and what not and no get suspended but Victorino should? I like the passion. Some calls were tight and it fired him up and I really don’t mind that reaction…Call me a Phillies fan I guess
well, this has never come up, but anytime a player or manager goes nuts like that, making contact or not, I think suspensions should be warranted. With Fielder, he should be suspended too… thats how I feel about it..
Matt Smith said it right and Matt, I was not trying to attack your opinion at all, I just was stating mine as well. It certainly will make me pay attention to other players on the field when an ump is borderline
also, passion is fine.. I don’t think a player should just walk away after being tossed like a little dog with his tail between his legs, but to run right into your catcher and then make such a scene, I understand he was upset, but he could have shown passion without throwing himself around like a pinball in a machine..thats all… once again, show me any situation of this, Mets or any other team, my opinion stands, yelling in the umps face is one thing, running around like a mad man and having to be restrained is another…
well no player should at that way but it was obviously a heat of the moment thing. Victorino has always been an energetic/spark plug kind of player and I think that was the boiling point from a series of events. He even apologized for his actions afterwards
“You’re going to get get thrown out of the game,” Manuel said. “You don’t do things that basically have an effect on the game, that’s going to hurt the game.”
Charlie understands it as well. You just can’t do that.
Though, I think a suspension is too far. Victorino never touched Rapuano and we can’t be sure that he was going to do anything more than just get in his face.
Hey Matt ROse, this what you get when you try to “unite” Mets-Phillies fans on the Internet with a network of blogs
Disagreements/fist-fights are bound to happen!
No, Victorino shouldn’t be suspended. That’s ridiculous (Rapuano shouldn’t be either. I was just pissed off when I initially wrote that!).
The Phillies have hit a low point and Victorino’s tirade kind of epitomized the team’s state. Everything will be fine, though.
Come on, a Marlin fan started this! We can’t even get our due credit here? Damn.
start filling the seats and we’ll take ya seriously.
You guys don’t take care of your business and we will come October.
Pretty sure we took care of a little bit of business last October… I don’t see where you’re coming from
Ohh… and we know everybody in the world outside of the Delaware Valley and Hawaii despises Shane Victorino. It’s so funny because he’s probably one of the nicest guys, but I can understand why other teams/fans would be annoyed by him… I guess.
I wish Jose Reyes many terrible things, too. Without that nitwit catcher around anymore, whose name escapes me, Delgado and Beltran both on the DL, Pedro in a Phillies uniform, hmmm… there isn’t one Met on the current 25-man roster that I loathe, come to think of it…
Wait… Fernando Tatis takes that honor
Nevermind. K-Rod gets under my skin, too, with his “I just won the World Series” end-of-game celebrations.
Haven’t seen that lately though! Apparently giving up a walk off grand slam doesn’t warrant that celebration…who knew?
The thing I hate is that according to mets fans, Victorino “showboats” and Reyes just “celebrates.” …pointing around the bases and doing an over the top hand shake with EVERY player on the team is celebrating…?
The main reason why I hate Reyes is because of that ridiculous dance (I’ll never say he’s “sucks” because he’s a great talent). Remember when Victorino hit a homer in the NLCS (I think… or maybe it was a Mets game last year?) and he ran around the bases with his finger in the air? He did it to make fun of Reyes.
Fans have different perceptions on things. If Mets fans think his child-like hands-dancing antics are fine, that’s cool. Jimmy Rollins does show-boating things now and again, as well as Howard… It’s alla round baseball!