{"id":568,"date":"2009-05-15T08:31:57","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T13:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=568"},"modified":"2009-05-15T08:31:57","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T13:31:57","slug":"phillies-dont-count-them-out-just-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=568","title":{"rendered":"Phillies, don’t count them out just yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies\u2019 two-out rally tied the game. The Dodgers\u2019 two-out burst won it.<\/p>\n

All those late-game runs gnarled Joe Torre\u2019s nerves, but the Dodgers manager at least got to celebrate a win.<\/p>\n

Russell Martin(notes) hit a tiebreaking double in the 10th inning and Matt Kemp(notes) followed with an RBI double to lift Los Angeles over Philadelphia 5-3 Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy stomach is not good,\u201d Torre said. \u201cTo digest it all and to be able to do this, tells you something about our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chad Durbin(notes) (1-1) retired the first two batters, then walked Andre Ethier(notes). Martin doubled for a 4-3 lead and after an intentional walk, Kemp delivered.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers, minus the suspended Manny Ramirez(notes), won two of three in a rematch of the NL championship series.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Broxton(notes) (4-0) earned the win despite blowing a two-run lead with two outs in the ninth. Ramon Troncoso(notes) pitched a scoreless 10th to earn his second save, striking out Ryan Howard(notes) with a runner on to end it.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not playing good,\u201d Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. \u201cWe don\u2019t look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Phillies briefly looked good when they wrecked a strong outing from Chad Billingsley(notes) with a two-out, two-run rally in the ninth against Broxton that made it 3-all.<\/p>\n

Broxton struck out the first two batters, then allowed a single and a walk. Torre walked to the mound to visit his closer, then Carlos Ruiz(notes) doubled to right to score the runners and send the crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers won for the third time in seven games since Ramirez was penalized 50 games for using a banned drug. The Dodgers have the best record in the NL at 24-12 and are off to Florida for a series with the Marlins.<\/p>\n

Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal(notes) spoke with Ramirez a few days ago and received some pointers from the dreadlocked star on his swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe seemed OK,\u201d Furcal said. \u201cHe was maybe a little down, but we\u2019re behind him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torre said there was a chance Ramirez could appear in Miami to talk to his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a distraction, but I don\u2019t mind distractions as long as you can leave it (in the clubhouse) and not take it out there,\u201d Torre said. \u201cDon\u2019t deny or ignore that\u2019s a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torre hoped Ramirez would visit his teammates and start to put the stain of his suspension behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we initially see him, with what I sense is embarrassment and the fact that\u2019s he let everybody down, in his mind, I think he\u2019s probably going to be a little tentative,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the sooner you get that stuff out of the way, the better so he can just get into working out. When the time comes, he\u2019ll show up and work out with us. I think eventually by the time he\u2019s ready to come back, by that time he\u2019ll hopefully get his personality back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

By that time, Billingsley may be on his way toward the All-Star game.<\/p>\n

Billingsley struck out nine, gave up three hits in seven strong innings and was set to become the NL\u2019s first six-game winner until the bullpen failed him.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Rollins(notes), back at the top of the Phillies\u2019 lineup after a two-game stint in the No. 5 hole, opened the game with a double and scored on Howard\u2019s sacrifice fly. The Phillies could do little else against Billingsley.<\/p>\n

Making his first start against the Dodgers since Game 5 of the NLCS, Cole Hamels(notes) returned to his postseason form and pitched seven solid innings. He\u2019s already had a sore left elbow, bruised left shoulder and sprained left ankle that led to a shaky first month of the season.<\/p>\n

The MVP of the World Series and NLCS ran into more bad luck in the third, this time on the field. Casey Blake(notes) was on second with a double when Furcal hit a hard grounder to shortstop that Rollins tried to backhand. The ball knocked off the heel of his glove for an error and an unearned run that tied the score at 1.<\/p>\n

Hamels struck out nine over seven innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what would be better,\u201d Hamels said. \u201cI\u2019m going out there and competing as best as I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Loney(notes) hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh. Brad Lidge(notes) continued to scuffle and allowed Blake\u2019s sacrifice fly in the ninth to make it 3-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do something like this on the road means a lot to us,\u201d Torre said. -yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Ok I know I sound like a broken record here. \u00a0But don’t give up hope guys, in the midst of all of this madness there is a lot of hope and potential. \u00a0As for Lidge, I am clueless. \u00a0We still have 15-20 games left to snap our of this funk that were in before it becomes any type of an “oh crap” moment. \u00a0Don’t write off Jamie Moyer yet or Myers. \u00a0While Happ will be getting the start on Saturday night (part 2 of the double header) I don’t think we need to give up on our pitchers just yet. \u00a0This is a great move from Charlie sending out a message saying “Hey guys, if your not busting your arse then we’ve got others waiting in the wings.” \u00a0Lets hope Happ can throw the lights out on Saturday against a manageable Nationals team. \u00a0Once J.C. comes back we better have this team in check. \u00a0JRoll….bro, come on I need you to step up here and put the team on your back for a full series to jump start this team. \u00a0Werth got that message but that only goes so far, as per his 0-4 with 4 strike-outs last night went.<\/p>\n

LETS GO PHILLIES! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Phillies\u2019 two-out rally tied the game. The Dodgers\u2019 two-out burst won it. All those late-game runs gnarled Joe Torre\u2019s nerves, but the Dodgers manager at least… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}