Pirates Hit Herndon, Take Game and Series from Phils

Phillies fans like PNC Park, but PNC Park doesn’t like the Phillies. On Opening Day, 39,585 fans, most of them Phillies fans, crammed in to PNC Park to watch the ailing, defending NL-East Champions take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Throughout the three-game series, a plethora of Phillies fans were easily noticeable all around the ballpark. The Philly faithful congregated in Pittsburgh to watch the Phillies win a pitchers’ duel on Thursday, lose in walk-off fashion in extra innings last night and again had their hearts drop today when Andrew McCutchen hit the ball over Shane Victorino’s head and drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

The screaming headline from this opening series is the lack of offense from the Phillies. The phenomenal pitching from Roy Halladay on Thursday allowed the Phillies to win while only mustering one run across the plate. On Saturday, the Phillies were in the game till the end, due to the pitching of Cliff Lee, while again only scoring one run. Today the Phillies had Vance Worley on the mound. Worley is not in the same class as Halladay and Lee, which meant the Phillies had to score runs to come out victorious today.

The Phillies offense did come to the ballpark today, but it still wasn’t enough. Worley had a solid outing as he went six innings, giving up five hits and only allowing one run. When Worley exited the game, the Phillies were winning 2-1. The game was then in the hands of the supposed stable bullpen.

Juan Pierre got the start in left field today and it paid off at the plate for Charlie Manuel and the Phillies as he contributed two hits and two RBIs. Hunter Pence eliminated the Phillies from the short list of teams that had yet to hit a homerun in 2012 when he hit a solo homerun in the top of the fourth inning. The bats were silenced until the seventh inning when Ty Wigginton, who started at third base today, got walked. The 22-year old Freddy Galvis reached on an error while he was attempting a sacrifice bunt to advance Wigginton. With runners on second and third, Pierre hit a single to right field and drove both runners in and gave the Phillies a 4-1 lead.

The Pirates countered the sudden burst of offense with two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh. The Pirates kept the bats going in the 8th inning when Matt Hague got his first career MLB hit in his first MLB at-bat and drove in McCutchen.

David Herndon was brought in out of the Phillies bullpen in the ninth. This was an interesting choice as Jonathan Papelbon would have been a smarter choice as I think getting that game to extra innings was of the utmost importance for the Phillies. It seemed that Chad Qualls was unavailable to use or he most likely would have been called on to pitch in the ninth. Herndon gave up a lead-off double to start the bottom of the ninth. A sacrifice bunt moved the winning run to third and McCutchen delivered the deciding blow.

For the second straight day the Phillies left the field with their heads hanging after being stunned by late-inning heroics by the Pirates’ hitters. It seems that small ball is what is going to generate some production from this line-up. It is clear that the absence of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley is really hurting the Phillies. Without those two big hitters in the middle of the order, it makes the Phillies line-up vulnerable. Leadership roles are still available in the Phillies organization as no one has stepped up yet. After these first three games, Phillies fans are getting worried. This type of play is what fans were worried was going to happen without Howard and Utley playing, but were praying for not much of a drop off.

The Phillies will scramble out of Pittsburgh after being shown the cold reality of life without Howard and Utley. They return to Philadelphia tomorrow to take on the Miami Marlins in their home opener at Citizens Bank Park. Let’s just hope that the Phillies forgot to pack their offense for the trip and didn’t lose it forever.

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