Offseason begins

While everyone is preoccupied with Jayson Werth and whether he will become a SoxandPhil, there's a good chance that J.C. Romero has officially become a former SoxandPhil. Unless some team is interested in a 34-year-old reliever who has a surgically repaired arm and walked more hitters than he struck out the last two seasons.

Jon Lester is a wuss

It's hard for me to say that about our beloved cancer conqueror and World Series hero, but I think I can be critical of a fellow newly minted first-time father:

In the real world, a first-time father returns to work after a day or two off and eases back into the routine while showing everybody photos of his pride and joy.

Jon Lester's task last night was to climb the mound at Fenway Park in drenching humidity and to try and pump pitches past the Cleveland Indians.

Sleep had come sparingly since the arrival of his son Hudson on Saturday and after a few innings his left hamstring started to ache. Errors, a passed ball, and the other residue of a season going steadily awry only made things worse.

“He'd had a long three or four days," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

OK, I took off four days (not including the weekend) and I returned to work in a climate-controlled building. But...

I'm just glad that Lester didn't become the 16th Red Sox to be DL'd after hearing last night that the trainer made a couple of visits to the mound.

Tonight's games: Kevin Youkilis' injured thumb will cost him the rest of the season, but the gimpy Sox forged ahead. Daisuke Matsuzaka went 8 strong innings (?!?!?), and the Sox lead the Indians 6-2 in the 9th. ... Roy Oswalt pitched much better than in his debut and left with a 2-0 lead in the 7th, but J.C. Romero allowed the runners he inherited to score and the Phillies trail the Marlins 4-2 in the 9th. They might be attempting a comeback now with two on base and no one out.

J-Roll and Fattie whack Dobbs

The other day, when we wrote about the surprise recall of Scott Mathieson, whose return to the big leagues lasted one game, we remembered to check on the progress of Mike Zagurski, who we affectionately call Fattie. "He's pitching well in AAA, so maybe we'll see him join Mathieson again," I wrote last week. I was half right. Fattie's in the bigs, but Mathieson is back in AAA.

Also making his return to the Phillies is a forgotten infielder, Jimmy Rollins. To make room for them, the Phillies DL'd Carlos Ruiz - not a surprise because he was hit in the head by a broken bat on Friday - and designated Greg Dobbs for assignment. That's a bit of a surprise because he was so good as a pinch-hitter in 2008, but hasn't done squat since. Ruben Amaro didn't make the move lightly:

"Dobber has been a very, very productive player for us over the last several years," Amaro said. "He helped us win a World Series and he helped us get back to the World Series and it's hard. That role is not an easy role and it's a bit of a rollercoaster ride. I've lived it myself, so I have some empathy about how difficult that job is."

For the record, in 128 games in 2008, Dobbs hit .301/.333/.491, and in 139 games in 2009 and 2010, he hit .218/.274/.341. Does anyone need a crappy pinch-hitter, or is Dobbs going to be an IronPig?

Tonight's games: Jamie Moyer had another good start and has just about supplanted Roy Halladay as the Phillies' ace. Tonight, the old man went eight innings, giving up a run on just two hits and a walk with five strikeouts. Unfortunately, he needed 107 pitches (his season high is 111), so he had to yield to the bullpen.

J.C. Romero started the 9th (platoon splits) and got one out, but then put two men on, creating an awkward save situation for Brad Lidge, who hasn't been lights out lately. But he was tonight, striking out two to earn the save in a 2-1 win over the Indians. That's win No. 266 for J-Moy.

The Red Sox returned to the scene of their last World Series victory. Jon Lester pitched the 2007 clincher in Colorado, and he's opening tonight's series against the Rockies. So far, it's 0-0 in the 3rd.

Classic

Last night we were flipping around the TV while trying to forget that we were colder than penguins during this cold snap. MLB Network was not an option because it was showing games from the 2009 playoffs. We were quite surprised, however, to see ESPN Classic come through with Game 5 of the 2008 World Series - both parts.

Although we have this game saved on DVR and in a DVD set, we watched.

Three thoughts:

1. In the 7th inning, when J.C. Romero was summoned from the pen, Christine looked at me wondering why I wasn't heckling. As soon as I started the "ster-oid" chant, it went to commercial and the first one was the anti-steroids commercial with the crumbling statue. Just sayin'.

2. Our amazement for Chase Utley's play in the 7th inning continues to grow. It just gets better every time we see it. When watching it unfold live, I didn't think he had a play at home or first, but somehow he nailed Jason Bartlett at home and prevented the Rays from taking a lead. I don't know where it ranks among defensive plays in World Series history, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't get the credit it deserves.

3. We still can't believe we were there. Even though Christine has the pin to prove it.

Phillies pitcher goes wild

Christine and I trekked into YanksandMets territory yesterday to see family. We happened to be online and saw that a then-unnamed Phillie had been involved in an altercation with a fan in Tampa and was accused of battery.

Soon, the mysterious identity was revealed as J.C. Romeo - hasn't he had enough legal trouble this year?

Given the history of Romero's suspension and that the Rays were the Phillies opponents in last year's World Series, we'll take the player's word here:

"What did he say? That he was drunk and got into a fight?" Romero, 33, said yesterday when asked whether he wanted to hear the fan's complaint. "I'm not going to comment on it. I'm trying to be professional, and I don't really want to get into that. Don't want to make a story out of nothing."

The fan, 25-year-old Robert Eaton, told the St. Petersburg Times that he asked Romero for an autograph outside Tropicana Field and was refused. Eaton said that he then made a comment about steroids and that Romero grabbed him by the neck and pushed him, Eaton told the Times.

Eaton filed a report with local police. He could not be reached last night for comment. It was not immediately known whether charges would be filed.

Of course the guy's name is Eaton. That automatically makes him suspect.

Weekend wrap: Charlie Manuel finally held his closed-door meeting after Friday night's loss, and the team responded with a 10-0 romp on Saturday. (J.A. Happ needed just 100 pitches for his first shutout, and Jayson Werth went 4-4 with two home runs.) They won the series finale against the Blue Jays 5-4 today. I didn't see much, but caught the ending in which Brad Lidge struggled but picked up the save.

They said it's the second time this year the Phillies won a series against an American League team. Christine had to remind me that the other team was the Yankees. Go Phils!

The Red Sox split a couple of pitchers' duels. Tim Wakefield, who is making it tough for Joe Maddon to leave him off the All-Star roster, beat Javier Vazquez on Saturday 1-0. Brad Penny followed that up with a good performance today, but Braves phenom Tommy Hanson was better as the Braves avoided the sweep with a 2-1 win.

Pitchers' Civil War may be ending

This morning I read a note in David Murphy's blog about how well the Phillies starters have been doing since Chan Ho Park has been banished to the bullpen:

Don't look now, but Phillies starters have recorded a victory in each of these six straight wins. Since a win over Washington on May 18th when Chan Ho Park allowed five runs in 1 1/3 innings and lost his spot in the rotation, Phillies starters have an ERA just over 4.00, which is nearly two and a half runs better than the 6.35 ERA they posted in the first 36 games of the season.

Actually, that start was May 17. The next day, I took a look at how much better both of our teams' bullpens were than the starting rotations. Things have improved since then:

BOS starters
May 18: 5.76 (28th)
Today: 5.05 (26th)

PHI starters
May 18: 6.35 (30th)
Today: 5.58 (29th)

BOS relievers
May 18: 3.02 (3rd)
Today: 2.86 (1st)

PHI relievers
May 18: 3.97 (12th)
Today: 3.72 (9th)

BOS total
May 18: 4.77 (21st)
Today: 3.31 (14th)

PHI total
May 18: 5.59 (27th)
Today: 4.88 (27th)

Although both teams' starting staffs still have poor overall numbers, things are moving in the right direction - enough so that the members of both teams vaunted bullpen can put their muskets down for the time being.

Speaking of pitching, interesting report the other day on Junichi Tazawa, who seems to be the anti-Daisuke Matsuzaka in that he is pitching well - and efficiently. The Red Sox put their AA pitchers on 85-pitch limits. That would barely get Dice-K through the lineup once. Tazawa pitched into the 7th inning last time out on that limit.

Phillies: J.A. Happ finished off the sweep of the Padres last night, pitching seven scoreless innings in the 5-1 win. J.C. Romero gave up an unearned run in 1 1/3 innings - his 2009 debut. Ryan Howard hit another home run, but much of the ink went to Greg Dobbs, who got a rare start in right field, because of a running catch he made to end the 2nd inning with the bases loaded. It was a win-win for me because it was a solid drive by Padres pitcher Chris Young, right after Chris Wheeler said he looked futile at the plate. So, Wheels looked dumb without the Phillies getting hurt.

The Phils return to Los Angeles tonight for the first time since beating the Dodgers in the NLCS.

Red Sox: They also completed a sweep when Tim Wakefield got his seventh win this afternoon against the Tigers, 6-3. For the second straight game, Kevin Youkilis was removed with injury. David Ortiz did not make an out today. He was riding the pine. But he made news by saying he's going to try to end his slump with an eye exam - or maybe just being happier. I hope something works.

Cleaning up yesterday's Tasch

In yesterday's post recapping our conversation about Jack Taschner's crappy performance and lack of a nickname, I forgot to say that it started with Christine lamenting, "Where's J.C. Romero?" when things started to turn bad.

"I dunno, off doing steroids," I snarkily replied.

Well, turns out Christine wasn't the only one missing J.C. for Sunday's game. While most reporters obsessed about moving Jimmy Rollins out of the leadoff spot, Scott Lauber focused on the Phillies playing a tight game without their best reliever of the past three seasons.

"That would have been J.C.'s role if he was here, definitely, without a doubt," Manuel said later, standing outside his office in Citizens Bank Park. "That's how we did it last year. That's what got us through to [closer Brad] Lidge."

[...]

"I gave up three base hits, and not one of them did I consider to be well struck," Taschner said. "It's just the way the game goes. I'm the one to blame for this one."

Somewhere, Romero must've felt responsible, too.

Red Sox: Dan Duquette defended his regime against the steroid accusations leveled by Lou Merloni. Their stories aren't entirely dissimilar; it's just a matter of interpreting whether the doctors were purely educating about the risks of steroids or how to do them safely. I don't want to be dismissive, but I'd be more concerned if it involved the current ownership.

I didn't like one answer because it's more implication of Manny Ramirez's Red Sox years:

On whether he was surprised by Manny Ramirez's suspension:

Duquette: "I was disappointed. I wasn't surprised."

Last night's game: I struggled to stay up as Jonathan Papelbon struck out the side to preserve the 4-3 win after starting the inning with a walk and a hit. Other than the time (and an injury to Dustin Pedroia, who wasn't playing shortstop, as first reported by the Globe), it was a pretty good game - solid start by Josh Beckett and another late clutch hit for Jason Bay.

Pat Burrell jumped out of the box when the crowd erupted in reaction to the Celtics playoff win.

With Hideki Okajima on the mound, much of the crowd started applauding for no reason that was evident on the field. Burrell, in fact, was confused enough that he stepped out of the batter's box and looked around.

Glen Davis's jumper at the buzzer had just gone in, and the Celtics had evened their series with Orlando.

"I didn't know if there was a big fight going on or did somebody run on the field," Burrell said. "Definitely, it was time to get out of the box. No idea.

"And then as soon as I thought about it, I said, 'Oh, it's probably hockey.' The home plate umpire said, 'I think it's basketball.'"

Damn WBC

All day I was planning today's post about how Christine and I got sucked into watching the exciting end of last night's World Baseball Classic in which the United States put off its inevitable tournament loss with a 9th inning comeback against Puerto Rico.

I was going to talk about the SoxandPhils impact on the 9th inning - J.C. Romero pitched against Shane Victorino, who led off with a single, and Jimmy Rollins, who walked and later scored the winning run. Kevin Youkilis walked against another pitcher.

I even teased Christine that the post would be called "Mr. Met is Mr. Clutch" because David Wright might shed his choker reputation with the game-winning hit. Then we watched the players dog pile in celebration, nervously wondering which of our players would suffer a season-ending injury during the pandemonium.

Those fears were unfounded. It turns out Youk was already injured - three or four days ago - and decided to play the game even though he could barely walk afterward.

I guess it's too early to concede defeat for 2009, but I don't like what this stupid tournament is doing to my team. I hope the next victim of the WBC isn't J-Roll or Victorino.

8:24 update: Argh! Greg just told me that tonight's game is being played in the rain. Of course, both Victorino and J-Roll are in the lineup. We wouldn't want Derek Jeter to get hurt playing in the rain, would we? You better keep my guys safe, Davey Johnson.

Eagles postmortem

One Team. One City. One Dream.

That was the Eagles slogan a few years ago that completely ignored the city's three other major professional sports teams, as well as the not-so-major Soul that, like the Phillies, also beat the Iggles to a championship.

I mention because, thankfully, the Eagles were embarrassed yesterday in yet another NFC championship game. I feel bad for some of the crestfallen fans, but I was rooting hard against the team because an Eagles win would have diminished the Phillies championship. Yes, that's what happens with the Red Sox dwarfing the Patriots. I don't mind that because I'm a Red Sox fan who doesn't live in New England. But it's not right.

If you think I'm going overboard, check out the Jan. 19 Sports Illustrated story leading up to the Cardinals game. Shawn Andrews fantasized about stealing the Phillies' parade. He won't be seeing that vision anytime soon.

The other day I joked about Charlie Manuel scripting plays for Andy Reid. Maybe it's not such a joke. When Cholly was asked if he had any advice for Big Red, he said:

"I would tell Andy he's on his own. No, seriously, I don't have to give Andy Reid any advice. He's a tremendous coach, and I have a lot of respect for him."

Manuel was joking, but the Eagles did lose.

Back to the Philly sports team that matters: Ryan Madson did sign that three-year $12 million deal after all. And, apparently, J.C. Romero's infraction wasn't such a big deal to the World Baseball Classic; he's eligible to play in the series for Puerto Rico.

Roid rage

Usually when there's a story about steroids, I get mad at the player for doing drugs and at baseball for doing nothing about it. Last night, when the maddening story of J.C. Romero broke, I wasn't mad at the player, but at baseball for not doing nothing about it.

Sure it's possible that Romero, who got in front of the story and explained himself to Phil Sheridan, is sugarcoating his version. And now the players' association may be disputing part of his account. Romero's story: He took a supplement he was told was safe, but then failed a drug test after learning the supplement contained a banned substance. Great, there's a 50-game lesson learned for J.C. and the Phillies.

Give him credit for sticking to his guns and not accepting a halved penalty for playing along with Major League Baseball:

"If people are intimidated because Major League [Baseball] is a big organization, so be it," Romero said. "But they are not going to make an example of me thinking that I'm just a [dumb] Puerto Rican. It's not going to happen. It's not the way I'm built.

"For me to keep my mouth shut? That's not the right thing to do. If they want to bump me out of the game, so be it. What am I going to do, just sit back and take it? When I know in my heart I'm innocent? That doesn't fly well with me and it doesn't fly well in my house, either."

Since he brought up ethnicity, there's another point to this story. Early on in baseball's steroid testing, there was a complaint that a predominant number of Latin players were caught because they couldn't understand the policy. Well, here's a Latin player who has no language issue and did everything you would want a player to do, but he still winds up penalized.

This is a bad day for baseball.

Yankees farmhand Sergio Mitre was snared in similar circumstance. Normally I'd say he probably deserved it, but these facts are too disturbing even for Yankee jokes.

Also disturbing were comments by Ruben Amaro - he stood by the team's trainer and baseball, but not Romero - and the players' union, which said baseball should address these problems in the future. Yup, somehow this is the one case in which the union isn't going to try to run baseball.

Notes: Marcus Giles, who has also faced whispers of steroid use, just joined the Phillies as infield insurance. ... Comcast SportsNet reported last night that the Phillies did offer Pat Burrell a two-year contract during the season for more money than he got from Tampa Bay. So I take back a little of my organization-bashing: Pat, we're in bad economic times. You should have taken the money and run. There's not that big of a market for a slow-footed, .250-hitting left fielder, regardless of his bulldog.

So why exactly did we buy season tix?

I'm cynical when players argue calls that go against them, but I've never seen a left fielder run to the infield to argue a home run call. But Pat Burrell did just that after umpire Adrian Johnson ruled Mark DeRosa's poke in the sixth inning fair, giving the Cubs a 4-2 lead. The replay on Baseball Tonight showed the ball was definitely foul.

The game seemed over. Even when the Phillies trailed by only one run today, it felt like seven for some reason. I can't decide whether they were flat or whether the cold day made them seem so. But the Phillies finally made a game of it, taking the lead with three in the bottom of the sixth. Unfortunately, Christine had to miss much of the rally to dry off after a drunk sitting behind us dropped his beer bottle on her. He was all excited that 10 people, two sections over, were starting a wave. People suck.

The Phillies gave the lead back in the eighth when Jimy Williams (Charlie Manuel was ejected in the sixth arguing the home run call) decided to stick with the book that says Tom Gordon starts the eighth inning, not the better pitcher, J.C. Romero. Flash struck out Kosuke Fukudome and then reverted to his awful self, giving up two singles.


Williams suddenly remembered he had Romero. J.C.'s quite adept at pitching out of self-inflicted jams but couldn't pitch out of Gordon's today. Pinch-hitter Geovany Soto (Christine's pick for NL Rookie of the Year) hit a dying quail just out of Chase Utley's reach. The game stayed tied until the 10th,when pinch hitter Carlos Zambrano (yup, Lou Piniella depleted his bench by the eighth inning) grounded into a surefire double-play, but Utley couldn't turn it and threw the ball into the Phillies dugout.

Overheard in the stands: One nimrod blaming Eric Bruntlett for that throw; another blaming Howard, who was getting ripped unmercifully by the fans every time he touched the ball. Don't let the facts get in the way of preconceived notions.

Observations from the stands: The maligned Bruntlett had a good day, going 3-5 with a homer. You probably won't see this on the highlights, but Burrell made a good catch in foul territory to end the ninth with a man on. Chris Snelling made his Phillies debut, popping out to third on a towering fly.

Lineup change: Today's lead-off batter was Geoff Jenkins. Usually when we walk by the wall where they post the day's lineup, I happen to look up. Today I didn't, even though everyone was wondering who Cholly would bat lead off without Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. When was the last time "Rollins" didn't appear atop my scorecard?

Losing streak: Counting playoff and exhibition games, the Phillies are in a three-game losing streak when we attend. We don't think we've seen three straight losses ever. They better break it next Sunday night against the Mets. And Daisuke Matsuzaka better dominate tonight against the Yankees.

Last night's notes: We left the house at 5 last night but saw five innings in what seemed to be the quickest Yankees-Red Sox game ever, until rain hit. Good job by Josh Beckett, Manny Ramirez and Jonathan Papelbon. And when our party ended, the Phillies game was still in the eighth, so we bought drinks and watched the end in a bar in Philly.

[Photo credit: Christine {Please excuse the blur. These are zoomed in from the 400 level.}]