You wouldn’t have liked the rest of the game any better. Tampa Bay opened a 4-0 lead early in the game, and the Phillies spent a large portion of the game alternating between trying to hand Tampa more runs and failing to drive in any of their own in crucial situations.
Game was more fun for us last night, although neither team did much to get excited about on offense and both made some mistakes defensively. One thing I find interesting is that both Boston and Philly have had long, cold stretches with RISP, yet most announcers can only attribute that to weird luck. Only heard one give credit to some clutch pitching and defensive plays.
We need to get a little more production out of Pena, Longoria, Crawford and sometimes Upton. Philly needs more out of Howard and Werth and a few others. Will Moyer get a start if Saturday night’s game gets pushed back. I was really hoping we’d have Garza against Moyer in Game 2.
Yeah, I gather that. Apparently this trend of the Phillies forgetting how to, you know, hit the ball wasn’t just a one-game thing.
Anyone know what’s the normal ratio of men left on base to runs scored? (Is this something that anyone keeps track of?)
This spreadsheet captures 2008 data on RISP, RISP Scored, RLISP, LOB%, etc through the first 124 games or so. Out of 846 RISP, 334 scored for the Phillies in the span of 124 games.
On edit, there is also a tab for the AL. By comparison, TB had very similar numbers: 854 RISP with 343 scored.
NL Average was 353/873
AL Average was 380/887
Note: I may be upside down on this. Not sure if this is for defense or offensive production. Here’s a link to the original link:
Interesting note from the comments at that site:
Looks like my original numbers are for offensive production, btw, given the discussion in the referencing area. I’d like to also find the opposite for the defensive side, that is, which team has forced other teams to strand the most runners.
Stoopid rain!
I am in favor of the rain because I don’t have to decide between the World Series and the Penn State/Ohio State game.
It’s a funny statistic because it depends how you count it. Individual left-on-base doesn’t add up to the correct team number because they’re counted separately.
Suppse Adams leads off and singles. Brown walks, and Cooper walks, so the bases are loaded. Then Davidson, Edwards and Fernandez strike out. Each of Davidson, Edwards and Fernandez leave 3 men on base, so how many LOBs does the team get? 3, not 9.
Or suppose instead of striking out, Fernandez hits a grand slam. Both Davidson and Edwards are credited with 3 LOB, but the team in fact left no men on base at all.
As a general rule it’s good to bear two things in mind:
-
Better hitting teams usually leave more men on base than bad hitting teams. While it sounds weird, it’s perfectly sensible when you think about it. If you’re a REALLY bad hitting team you won’t have any guys on base to leave. A good hitting team will have guys on base a lot of the time when the inning ends.
-
Failure to hit with men on base is, 99% of the time, the product of luck, not a repeatable skill or “approach” or whatever Tim McCarver is selling.
ALL RIGHT!!!
Wind coming in from right field knocked down Langoria’s HR, then Utley and Howard (who’da thunk) come up with back-to-backs the other way. Go Phils! 
Phillies up 2-1 in the series. Two more home games. A good one to win.
GO PHILS!!
I was sure we were going to go into extra innings. Looks like playing at home might have woken the Phillies up a bit and they’re beginning to remember that the point is to hit the ball with the stick in your hands.
I started off rooting for the Rays in the Series, but the way the Phillies are getting screwed by the umps is making me reconsider. There was the hit by pitch batter(Howard?) that didn’t get to go to first and now the amazing play by Moyer was called safe.
I am really glad that ump’s terrible call didn’t cost the Phils the game!
MAN that was stressful. My stomach just hurt after that terrible inning were Moyer got screwed on that EXCELLENT play.
Both teams had some screwups. Guess the long delay hurt concentration a bit. still a good game, though.
Go Phils!
What a fascinating and bizarre call by Madden to use a 5-man infield. This is a fun series. Just glad the Phils pulled it out.
That was an amazing play by Moyer and a good catch by Howard. I don’t think that the umpire “blew” the call but just didn’t see it because he was shielded off by Howard’s body, which is huge. Maybe he should have gotten into a different spot.
Very exciting, albeit stressful, game, from a Tampa POV.
Yeah, I don’t figure the umpire was expecting a “throw with the glove, catch with the bare hand”. He was probably watching, if anything, Howard’s glove. More likely, he was watching Crawford’s foot and listening for the sound of the ball smacking into Howard’s glove (I’ve heard announcers say that’s what the first base ump usually does, since the fielder’s glove and the runner’s foot are usually too far apart to watch both). In any case, one of the replay angles clearly showed that Howard’s body would have completely blocked the ump’s view of the catch anyway.
But still a spectacular play, and props to Jamie. It would have sucked if the whole game ended up turning on that bad call. I only wish Moyer could have gotten the win.
I don’t have a dog in the fight, but agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment.
Did anyone else think Longoria could have made a better play on the game ender? I know it’s asking alot, but his 30 foot horrid shovel toss had about an 0.01% chance of success, whereas if he had tried the standard horizontal body/sidearmed throw that 3rd basemen implement on bunts and slow rollers, his chances would have been much better, say 5-10%-especially with the force in order.
I am by no means trying to mete out blame, after all, the bases would still have been loaded with 1 out if he (and the catcher) had made that spectacular play-it would have been amazing if the Phils hadn’t scored-but I just thought it really strange that he chose to play that ball the way he did. Am I alone on this?
It may be because my team sucks dick and failed out instantly but I’ve barely even noticed the WS going on. It seems to me like the playoffs are the most exciting time of the season now adays. The WS is just an extra series.
Good luck to you guys who have a dog in the fight.
To confirm this, here’s a quote from the MLB.com article about the call:
(bolding mine)