It seems that Roy Halladay is at the center of every conversation that involves the Philadelphia Phillies, and with good  reason.  No one is quite sure what to expect from him this year, and the future Hall-of-Famer showed just why he will be a first rounder.

Photo Credit: BJ Wilson

Doc will get credit for a complete game, though he only pitched 7 innings.  He made two mistakes all night, and those two mistakes landed into the stands.  That’s ok, I’ll take those mistakes to get the rest of his pitching performance any day of the week.

It helped that he had 5 runs to work with after the first inning.  Those 5 runs started with Chase Utley drawing a 2-out walk, 4 games after their Phillies last walk.   Incidentally, the was after Ruben Amaro Jr went off about how he doesn’t care about walks, but about production.  Clearly he doesn’t understand how walks can be beneficial.

Ty Wigginton really helped the Phillies tonight.  It took for him to be on another team to do that.  On what should have been an easy grounder to third and ending the inning, turned into 2 runs for the Phillies as he overthrew first base.  Ben Revere followed with an RBI triple, his first multi-base hit of the year, and I would love to see more of it.

Domonic Brown is still sitting after straining a muscle, so of course Freddy Galvis is playing Left Field.  I mean, of course he is.  I have to hand it to the kid, he can flat out play defense, but, well, his offense…  Also, so one should probably teach him how to make sliding catches in the outfield.  I’m kind of surprised that he didn’t break his wrist here:

The Phillies would win the game 8-2 and it was a beautiful victory.  I want a lot more of them.  Now, let’s hope that they saved some runs for Cliff Lee tomorrow…

MLB announced that Freddy Galvis has been suspended 50 games due to taking a PED called metabolite of Clostebol.

Wait, what did I do?

According to Todd Zolecki, Galvis’ statement was this:

A trace amount of a banned substance – 80 parts in a trillion – was detected in my urine sample.

That does not sound like a lot, but it’s still something.  And it shouldn’t/won’t be tolerated.

Jerry Crasnick tweeted out all of Galvis’ statement:

I cannot understand how even this tiny particle of a banned substance got into my body,” Galvis said.

“I have not and never would knowingly use anything illegal to enhance my performance,” Galvis added.

Galvis said he has always tried to follow the team’s strength and conditioning program & listen to the trainers.

“Unfortunately, the rules are the rules and I will be suspended,” he said.

So, there you go.  Galvis claims to have no idea how the drugs ended up in his system.  The only reason I am even slightly inclined to believe him are because of these numbers:

.226/.254/.363/.617

Galvis, if you were juicing, couldn’t you have at least put up better numbers?

Galvis’ suspension starts tonight.  In which, he will be on the DL for most of it anyway.

Strangely enough, he might have contracted it by having sexual intercourse.  No, I’m not kidding.  Check out the article.

Photo courtesy of Steve Trapani – Flickr Follow him on twitter: @Trap_33

Karilee Jeantet is Lead Contributor for A View From Section 116.  Follow her on Twitter @kjeantet and @viewfromsec116 and e-mail her AViewFromSection116@gmail.com.

My seats from Friday Night 6/8

Throughout the Phillies’ “Golden Era” of baseball, the one aspect of the game that remained constant was the defense.

For the last 5 years, the Phillies have been at the top, or near the top in all of baseball with their defense.  They did not make errors.  It was so odd that when they did the fans were often taken back.

That is not the case this year.  We are 2 months in the season and they have already committed 35 errors.

Let me put that in a little bit of perspective for you, last year, they committed 74 errors, ALL SEASON LONG!  In 2010, there were 83.  2009, just 78.

That is the reason the Phillies are losing!

Stop blaming the offense.  They haven’t been as bad as people want to believe.  The pitching has been more than serviceable.  It’s the defense that has taken a nose dive.

I was at yesterday’s (and Friday’s and Sunday’s) game.  Mike Fontenot alone had 3 errors (though he was only charged for 2.)  Jimmy Rollins had an error yesterday too.  If those 3 (4) errors did not occur, the Orioles do not score, the game does not go into extras and the Phillies win in a standard game.

Today, they saved the error until the bottom of the 10th, when Ty Wigginton fumbled a grounder.  That allowed Adam Jones to reach first.  The very next batter hit a double over Hunter Pence’s head and Jones scored.  Game over.

I’m not sure if the Phillies would have won or lost today’s game.  That’s not the point.  They lost then because of an error!

I understand that they are without Placido Polanco, Chase Utley and Freddy Galvis right now, but these error should NOT be happening.

Please wake up and stop playing sloppy ball!  It’s one thing to loose because the other team out-plays you, it’s another to give the game away!

If this continues, the whole season is going to be long, heartbreaking and frustrating.  Please don’t do that to us!  Please play fundamentally sound ball!

Karilee Jeantet is Lead Contributor for A View From Section 116.  Follow her on Twitter @kjeantet and @viewfromsec116 and e-mail her AViewFromSection116@gmail.com.

It has not been that long since our last episode, unfortunately, another one is needed.

Out:

Freddy Galvis is the latest victim of the DL curse this year.  He was placed on the 15-day DL earlier today with lower-back strain.  Galvis has been a bright spot this season.  When the rest of the team was falling apart, he was making spectacular plays at 2B.  Especially considering he had never played second for any length of time before the middle of Spring Training.

My friend Brett (not a Phillies fan, but a baseball fan) said on Facebook:

Ya’ll are paying for that deal you made with the devil to win 5 straight divisions.

And as soon as I can figure out what deal was made, then we can figure out how to get out of it.

» Continue reading “As The Phillies Roster Turns: Part 6″

This is my only take away from last night’s game.  Nothing else matters:

Click on the picture for a link to the video.