Game 36 Phils @ Marlins May 11th

The Phils haven't scored in cliff Lee's last three games. He fanned 16 in seven innings his last start and 14 of his final 15 outs were strike outs Wow.
He ties Steve Carlton for most K's in a game by a Phils lefty.
Dominating, too bad they don't score an runs or this team might win 120 games.

Tonight it will be Lee vs. Some guy named Ricky.
Not to say that Ricky Nolasco isn't a good pitcher but he is no Cliff Lee.
Lee in his last start struck out 16 making him the second pitcher in about 100 years to strike out 16 or more and lose because his team had been shut out and had 2 hits or less. The other was Randy Johnson about 15 years ago when he struck out 19.

Lee becomes the Phils first base runner when he walks in the third inning
But it's with two outs and Rollins pops out to center after being ahead in the count 3-0.

First hit comes with one out in the fourth. Polanco blooped one into shallow right, Stanton ran in for it but instead of running through the ball he did this new trend of the last few years of sliding into the ball. He misplayed it into a double as he completely missed it and it went right passed him.

Cliff Lee smokes a ball off the second baseman and here comes Schneider around third to score, and he blows a tire. Looks like he pulled a hammy coming in and, well it costs them a run and Schneider is out of the game.

Into the sixth inning of four starts by Lee and still no runs. They have 3 hits one by the pitcher.
Th bottom of the lineup, the last 5 hitters are all under .230. In fact three are below the Mendoza line including the pitcher.
Mendoza line, named for Mario Mendoza.

Origin of the term from Wikipedia:

The term is named for former shortstop Mario Mendoza, a flashy defensive player who struggled at the plate. Although Mendoza's batting average was .215 lifetime, he was known as a sub-.200 hitter whose average frequently fell into the .170 to .180 range during any particular year. That proved to be true in 1979 when Mendoza managed to finish the year with a meager .198 average.
The "Mendoza Line" was created as a harmless clubhouse joke amongst friends. "My teammates Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte used it to make fun of me," Mendoza said in 2010. "Then they were giving George Brett a hard time because he had a slow start that year, so they told him, 'Hey, man, you're going to sink down below the Mendoza Line if you're not careful.' And then Brett mentioned it to Chris Berman from ESPN, and eventually it spread and became a part of the game."
Berman deflects credit back to Brett in popularizing the term. "Mario Mendoza — it's all George Brett," Berman said. "We used it all the time in those 1980s 'SportsCenters.' It was just a humorous way to describe how someone was hitting."

One explanation for the expression relates to the historical presentation of numerous batting averages in the Sunday newspapers. Since not all players appeared in those papers, the theory holds that Mario Mendoza was placed at the bottom and those players with lower batting averages did not appear. Thus, the players that did not appear were said to be "below the Mendoza line".

Bottom six for the Marlins and after one out three straight hits to load them up for .226 hitter Buck, he singles four hits and 2-0 Marlins.

Tom McCarthy just said it's only a 2-0 game but for this team it each opposing run is like 2 runs, this may as well be 4-0.
Next batter, mike Stanton gets the count to 3-0 and McCarthy ponders that no way will he get the green light to swing away.
I said, why not let him go for it if he gets a good pitch. He did and lined it to Victorino for a sac fly and a three zip lead.
Finally three outs, that was a long inning and the marlins tacked on two for a three nothing lead after six.

I'll keep saying it until it doesn't matter anymore but this offense is terrible and it will catch up to them.

Pete Orr comes in to hit for Valdez and gets a hit and an RBI, first run for Lee in almost four games.
Lee is out after six innings for a pinch hitter Ross Gload.
No choice on this because they have runners on the corners and need to try and score another run right now.

Victorino just extended his hit streak to 14 by tying the game with a ball over that tall left field fence.
Cliff Lee off the hook for this one.

Kyle Kendrick comes in in the eighth and I think he might be in there for awhile or at least until or if the Phils can score a run. Or until he gives up runs.
...and he walks the first hitter, awful.
A ground into DP by their catcher and onto the ninth, wonder how long this can go since they have so much trouble scoring.

It didn't take long, Phils got second and third with one out but Mayberry went down swinging, but, but..... Jimmy Rollins doubles them in and it gives them a 5-3 lead. Can Ryan Madson get the save?

YES he can.


Mood still concerned about the scoring on offense, it's just not good but this was a good win. The need to do this more at least earlier in games.
This is one of those two game swing games. Lose and only a one game division lead, win and its a three game lead. They won.
Cliff Lee as very close to being 3-4 on the season, instead it's a no decision.
Looked like they were going to be 2-4 on the trip this puts them at 3-3, much better.

Win 5-3
Streak 1 win
Record 24-12