17: Phillies (Eflin) @ Dodgers (McCarthy)

zambonir 2017-04-30 04:06:17 UTC #9

Seems like it was a deliberately lefty-heavy line-up (with Stassi and the SH Knapp also in), and sometimes "the book" makes a manager look smart. Tomorrow the RH batters will return.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:11:10 UTC #10

Doesn't look like it was mentioned above. Stassi had a 3 run home run in the 4th to put the Phillies into the lead.

After the Knapp homer in the 8th, Phils had two singles and a successful sac bunt to put runners second and third, one out. Herrera went down swinging on full count. Looked high to me but only saw it once on my phone, so I could be wrong. Can't afford to be called out but ..... Anyway, they didn't score more that inning. Hope 3 run lead will be okay tonight.

BostonRoss 2017-04-30 04:13:01 UTC #11

GOing to the ninth, the Phillies are outhitting the Dodgers 13-5. Also have three walks to the Dodgers' one. But only a three run lead as they've left 11 on base (2 for 15 with RISP).

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:19:37 UTC #12

Another strong start from Eflin. 7 innings, 4 hits, 0 walks, 4 Ks. Two runs on solo home runs in the first and seventh. Well done.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:21:18 UTC #13

Back to back home runs off Neris and its 5-4 with no outs in the ninth.

BostonRoss 2017-04-30 04:21:35 UTC #14

Yikes. Gomez could have done this.

tom81 2017-04-30 04:21:36 UTC #15

Back to back hrs for the Dodgers

DurhamBull 2017-04-30 04:21:43 UTC #16

Including a second from Bellinger.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:22:38 UTC #17

Puig and Bellinger Second of the night and second of his career.

tom81 2017-04-30 04:22:39 UTC #18

Turner gets the third. Still no outs.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:23:12 UTC #19

I guess Mac can't see what is happening here. Neris doesn't have it tonight.

BostonRoss 2017-04-30 04:23:54 UTC #20

When they're slugging 4.000 against you, you don't have it.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:24:43 UTC #21

What a shame for Eflin tonight.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:28:56 UTC #22

One out single knocks Neris out of the game. Faced 5, 4 hits, 3 home runs, blown save. On the hook loss if they lose it here.

Not his night.

Second night in LA that Phillies lose a lead. All those runners left on base looming large now.

BostonRoss 2017-04-30 04:34:23 UTC #23

There may be something to the idea that a closer needs to have a certain mentality. There have been some good relievers who did not make good closers when given the chance.

HopeSpringsEternal 2017-04-30 04:37:27 UTC #24

Joely comes in to face 3 lefties - Toles flies out, Barnes singles, and A-Gone grounds to Franco who boots it. Game over.

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-30 04:40:39 UTC #25

Winning run scores from second on ball not out of the infield.

Clearly, this team has some work to do. A crushing defeat tonight.

Evidently they gave AGon a hit on the bobbled infield grounder that gets the run in to win. Bush league home town scoring.

zambonir 2017-04-30 05:57:47 UTC #26

Well, the managing of the offensive line-up worked.

That's unfortunate but lots to like anyway (the hits, the starting pitcher). Competitive fantasies aside, if you believe in the closer, the Phillies don't need one right now; they need to develop one. If there really is something to the role/mentality, Neris is going to learn that, just like Giles and Madson before him. Or he won't. I'm happy with the flexible/committee model myself, but if he's your closer, you send him back out, like so many before him. Gomez was different because he obviously didn't have the stuff even when he was getting better results.

BostonRoss 2017-04-30 13:22:46 UTC #27

I was kind of a believer in the committee model, but I've evolved into a skeptic. In part this is because it seems to fail much more often than it works. I recognize that in most cases, teams chose to go with a committee at least partly because they didn't really have a lights out closer, or at least they didn't think/know they did. Maybe the committees failed because their members weren't that good. But it's been tried enough times that one would think the might be a success story somewhere,

Another reason I'm a skeptic is that if you have a committee, you need to have more than one reliable reliever. Even if yo use your best guy in a high leverage situation earlier in the game (like the Indians do), they still have a reliable closer. If the Phillies used Andrew Miller to get out of tough situations early in the game, they still could have problems if Gomez was the guy in the 9th.

It also seems to me that while the best closers aren't always on good teams, the winning teams usually (but not always) have that lights out closer.

I would like to see managers not manage to the save rule, and also to let good pitchers go more than one inning at least some of the time.

Austinfan 2017-04-30 15:14:33 UTC #28

I think you need two guys, a closer who can handle the mental part and a rubber arm guy who can pitch in crucial situations from the 6th to 9th inning, even if he lacks the killer instinct at the end of the game. Neris may be better suited to the latter role, Benoit also seems more comfortable when the game isn't on the line.

Fortunately, they have 2-3 years to find that guy.

Eflin is a work in progress, but he's clearly added velocity with healthy knees, now he needs to sharpen his secondary pitches, especially developing a changeup to work off his FBs. But he just turned 23, so there's lots of time. I can see him upticking to 93-96 over the next year or so when he gets an offseason to build up his legs and fill out a bit more. That FB has nasty movement, add a tad more velocity and a change and sharpen that curve and he has #1 potential. I actually see him with more upside than Velasquez, because he generates his velocity with less effort.