Rockies, Diamondbacks Advance
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Phillies, Cubs Swept by Rockies and Diamondbacks
The Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs were both swept after not hitting at all like they did during the season. On paper, both of these series seemed to be ones in which take all five games to determine a winner, but instead, the Cubs and Phillies went into a hitting funk they couldn't get out of and will watch the rest of the playoffs on television.
Worst of all, the Cubs fans, who have been the most loyal fans in the National League, only got to see them play one game at home before being eliminated by a 5-1 score.
Last night, time after time, when the Cubs had runners on base they would hit into double plays. Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano and Cliff Floyd were a combined 2 for 31 in the series. Geovany Soto and Daryle Ward led the team in RBIs with two each, while Derrek Lee, Mark DeRosa, Soriano and Ramirez drove in no runs. Soto hit the only homer of the series for the Cubs, while the Diamondbacks, led by Stephen Drew and Chris Young with two each, had a total of six home runs in the series.
Augie Ojeda, who played for the Cubs for four years hitting .221, .201, .186 and .120 in those years, hadn't played in majors since a stint with the Minnesota Twins in 2004 before joining the Diamondbacks this season. Ojeda took advantage of a chance to play when Orlando Hudson was injured. He has pitched an inning of scoreless baseball in both the minor leagues and in the majors.
Jamie Moyer pitched six scoreless innings, but the Phillies hitters could only manage three hits, including a home run by Shane Victorino in their 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies. The first three hitters in the Phillies order, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Pat Burrell, hit .182 for the series. Ryan Howard hit .250 and Aaron Rowand hit only .083 in the series. The first five Phillies hitters were 10 for 57 in the series. The same players hit home runs except for Chase Utley, and he also was only one of the five to not drive in a run. Victorino hit the only other Phillies home run.
Yorvit Torrealba led the Rockies in batting average with a .500 average, while Kazuo Matsui was next on team with a .417 average. Todd Helton had the lowest average of any Rockie in the series having one hit in twelve trips to the plate for a .083 average.
The Phillies outhomered the Rockies 5-4 and Matsui drove in six runs and had 13 total bases in the three game series. Uvaldo Jimenez pitched six innings and allowed only one run and three hits, but Brian Fuentes took the win when Jeff Baker hit a pinch hit single in the bottom of the eighth inning. Manny Corpas who saved all three wins for the Rockies took the save.
Postseason Statistics
Hitting
Stephen Drew leads all hitters in postseason with seven hits in three games. Kazuo Matsui leads in triples with two. Drew, Matt Holliday, and Chris Young are tied for lead in home runs with 2 each.. Matsui leads in RBIs with 6, while Drew leads in total bases with 16. Chris Young leads in strikeouts with 8. David Ortiz leads in hitting with a .750 average. Drew and Matsui lead in extra base hits with 4.
Pitching
Josh Beckett leads in ERA with a 0.00 mark. Ted Lilly has the highest ERA among pitchers with at least 3 innings pitched with a 16.20 ERA. Manny Corpas leads in saves with 3 with Jose Valverde getting the only other save after the first ten games of the playoffs. Chien-Ming Wang has given up the most earned runs with 8 allowed. Joba Chamberlain is only pitcher with a blown save.
Today's Summary
If the present trend continues, the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels will be eliminated today, but don't count on it too much with Jake Westbrook pitching against Roger Clemens today. If the Yankees and Angels do lose today, there will be no baseball till Thursday when the Rockies and Diamondbacks open their series, with the Diamondbacks hosting the Rockies. The ALCS doesn't start until Friday.
So far, the exciting end to the season hasn't carried over into the playoffs, as it seems like the team that gets the early lead in the series so far has emerged as the winner of the series. It is bad enough to lose in the playoffs, but to lose every game played is even worse, especially when fans of teams like the Cubs only get to see their team at home once.
The Rockies or Diamondbacks could still have as many as 14 games left if both of their remaining series go the full seven games.
