The Ryne Sandberg Era Begins

The Ryne Sandberg era started exactly how most Phillies fans expected it to start; with 23 straight scoreless innings. The Dodgers were in town, and if you haven’t been paying attention, the Dodgers have won 50 out of their last 60 so yeah, they were a tough team for Sandberg to break in against. Anyway, the Phils showed some life in the final game of that series and managed a come from behind victory by the score of 3-2. The Dodgers had been 30-0 when scoring first during their extended streak of white hot play.

You have to give Sandberg some credit for coming in right away and not pulling any punches. He has been labeled the interim manager, but nobody would be surprised to see him at the helm to start the 2014 season.

It’s no secret to this fan base that Jimmy Rollins is quite frustrating to follow on an everyday basis. It’s been mentioned time and time again in this blog that Rollins’ approach to the offensive side of this game needs work. Especially now that he no longer can produce like he could in his prime. He is a leadoff man who currently has a .309 on base percentage and can’t get his batting average above .250. He pops the ball up in the infield, a lot. When batting left handed he rolls the ball over to the right side of the infield and never runs out the ball. What do you think Chase thinks when he sees Jimmy lollygagging it up the first base line every night? Jimmy is just basically incredibly stubborn.

It’s also no secret that Charlie Manuel allowed Jimmy to get away with all of these less than flattering habits. I’d have to guess that Charlie’s relationship with Jimmy was so close and Jimmy had come through more often than not for so long that Charlie just couldn’t bring himself to force Jimmy to be different. Jimmy’s unwillingness to change at the plate would be tough to stomach on a team that was doing well, but on this team something needed to be said.

Ryne Sandberg came right in and said everything that all fans wanted him to say regarding Jimmy. He has to be more patient. He has to work on his on base percentage. He needs to stop being so “pull happy” and try to work all parts of the field with more consistency.

It remains to be seen if Jimmy will employ some of the tactics necessary to change his game, but at least he’s been put on notice publically from the manager that it’s time for a change.

So Sandberg’s Phillies are not exactly Manuel’s Phillies if you take a look at a box score. Right now you’ll see names like Bernadina, Wells, Ruf, and McDonald. This addition of new names and youth mixed with standbys like Utley, Rollins, and Chooch has produced a bit of a new mojo for Sandberg over the course of the past week. The Phillies have showed signs of this thing we call “life” late in ball games all week.

The Rockies came to town and the Phils took 3 out of 4 including bottom of the 9th wins on Wednesday and Thursday. Michael Young delivered a game winning single the first night, and the game tying single the next night. In fact, Jimmy Rollins was a catalyst in Thursday night’s comeback. The Phils were trailing 4-3 with 2 outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 9th when Rollins lined a double into the right field corner. He promptly stole 3rd and scored easily on an infield single from Young. Utley followed with a walk and Dom Brown singled home the game winning run in walk-off fashion. Scoring 2 runs with nobody on and 2 outs in the 9th was not something you’d see coming from a lifeless bunch, but the influx of youth has seemed to breathe some life into this much maligned squad.

The next night the Phillies continued their late game heroics when Chase Utley worked a 1 out walk in a tie ball game with the based loaded. The win was their third straight in their last at-bat.

Then came Saturday night. Starter Ethan Martin could not make it out of the first inning and the Phils seemed dead in the water trailing 7-3 for most of the game. Dead in the water until the 8th inning that is. So let’s talk about it folks, Darin Ruf is starting to create a bit of a legend (too early and too much of an exaggeration alert!!). Well, Ruf had hit a two run homer in the 8th inning of Thursday night’s ball game that allowed for Jimmy to get them to a win. In the 8th inning of Saturday night’s ball game he stepped to the plate down 7-5 with a man on. Boom, fly ball to deep left field sails over the fence. Tie ball game. Unfortunately, the Phils could not pull off their 4th straight walk-off win and failed to score for the next 10 innings! They wound up losing in the 18th after Casper Wells gave up 5 runs in two thirds of an inning. Wells played the entire game in right field and went 0-7, rough night for Casper the friendly outfielder. Nevertheless, the Darin Ruf legend grew significantly in this game.

Once again, if you haven’t been paying attention you should at least be checking Darin Ruf’s box score every morning. The kid has been hitting with power. In the last 30 games only Miguel Cabrera (by far the best hitter on the planet) has more home runs. Ruf has 9 in that stretch and plenty have been in big spots. At this point, Ruf has 11 home runs on the season which is good for 4th among all rookies. Here’s the thing, he’s only played 42 games. The three guys ahead of him, including Yasiel Puig who has 12, have all played a minimum of 73 games. The rookie leader, Jedd Gyorko, has 16. Also of note, Ruf’s 11 home runs have come in 151 at bats. Ryan Howard also has 11 home runs on the season, in 286 at bats. Ruf’s play since being called up has earned him a roster spot next season.

The 18 inning Saturday night game included 5 scoreless relief innings from Tyler Cloyd. The funny thing is, Cloyd was scheduled to start Sunday afternoon’s game. So guess who got a phone call in the middle of the night while sleeping in Reading, PA? You guessed it! Roy “Doc" Halladay made the trip from Berks County to South Philadelphia and suited up for his first big league game since Cinco De Mayo. All texts with my buddies prior to the game predicted carnage since Halladay had not looked too sharp in his minor league starts. Carnage is what happened, but it was for the DBacks starter Patrick Corbin. The Phillies smoked Corbin for 9 runs and Halladay was solid. Doc’s velocity was down, which was expected, but he finished 6 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits earning himself a win. You can’t expect much more from him than that.



I must say it’s nice to see the Phils “playing out the string” with some life and some purpose as we head into September. The Phils record under Sandberg currently sits at 6-4 and they have won 6 of their last 8. At least the baseball being played seems interesting again.