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No command performance from Myers in Phillies' loss to Mets
By PAUL HAGEN
Philadelphia Daily News
hagenp@phillynews.com
Jul 24, 2008
NEW YORK - The Phillies wanted Brett Myers to keep them in the game. They wanted their prodigal righthander to rely on his fastball more in his return to the big leagues last night after his scenic, four-start tour of the team's minor league system during which he was variously an IronPig, an R-Phil and a Thresher.
They wanted more than that, honestly, but that's pretty much what they had to settle for on a steamy, sticky evening at Shea Stadium.
Making his first big-league appearance since June 27, Myers lasted five innings against the Mets. He left with the score tied, 3-3, after giving up three hits, five walks and a hit batter.
The Phillies ended up losing, 6-3, to fall back into a tie with New York for first place in the National League East. So, naturally, the emphasis in the cramped visitors' clubhouse afterward was on ferreting silver linings out of the rubble of a largely dismal evening during which they failed to take advantage of any momentum they might have gained from Tuesday night's thrilling comeback win.
It could be pointed out, for example, that Myers settled down after walking four batters and allowing two runs in the first inning.
Or that 61 of the 95 pitches he threw were fastballs, approximately the ratio that pitching coach Rich Dubee had been shooting for going into the game.
Or that he finished with a flourish by retiring the last six batters he faced and didn't allow a home run, after serving up 24 in 101 2/3 innings before his elevator ride through the farm system.
"I felt like he had good stuff and was aggressive," manager Charlie Manuel said. "I felt like we got quite a bit out of him. But his command . . . "
Yes, Myers threw a lot of fastballs. But his control of them was spotty at best, especially early. The best press-box calculation was that only 27 of them were strikes. Overall, he wasn't much better. Many of the pitches missed badly. He departed after throwing 95 pitches, 49 for strikes.
Overall, the Opening Day starter (3-9, 5.82) viewed his effort as a solid first step in the right direction.
"I felt 10 times better [than before going to the minors]," he said. "I just wish I could have thrown my four-seamer better. I definitely think if I can locate that better in my next start, I'll be fine.
"I felt like if that first inning hadn't gone that way, we probably would have won the game and I would have gone nine innings. I felt that good."
The bottom line, though, is that the Phillies lost. Myers has now made 18 starts this season. The Phillies have won just four of them. That's one more than the three games started by J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton.
So Manuel's response was measured when asked if he envisioned Myers remaining in the rotation for the rest of the season, especially with lefthander Happ continuing to pitch well at Triple A Lehigh Valley.
"I think that, right now, we need to take some more looks at him," Manuel said carefully. "I think he definitely needs a shot to get his command down. He was amped up. He had some fight to him, but the walks did him in."
Before the game, Manuel indicated that he was willing to give Myers some rope, referring to his comeback as "a work in progress."
He also made it clear that he recognizes there are now just 61 games left to play and that Myers needs to begin contributing to wins if he's going to keep taking the mound every fifth day.
"He needs to show us something and he needs to pitch good enough for us to win the game," the manager said plainly. "If you look at our schedule, to me that comes into play. We've got quite a bit of baseball left. At the same time, if you look at who we're playing . . . our schedule is pretty tough."
The Phillies have six games remaining against the Mets, including a day game today. They have nine each against Florida and Atlanta and 12 against the Nationals. That's 36 against division teams.
Of the other 25 games, 19 are against teams that went into yesterday's schedule either in first place or within two games of their division lead: Cardinals (three), Dodgers (eight), Cubs (four) and Brewers (four).
"We've got to put it on from here on out," Manuel said. "We've definitely got to play winning baseball."
It would be a lot easier to do that, of course, if Myers turns himself around.
"We need Myers to be good," Manuel stressed. "We need all the pitching we can get. You can never have enough pitching. And the more pitching you can back up the stronger your pitching is. Some guys that don't get to pitch might not like that, but the manager likes it."
Myers will get more chances to give the Phillies what they want. How many more chances will be up to him. *
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