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PHILADELPHIA -- Still stinging from an early post-season exit, Charlie Manuel isnt ready to lower his teams expectations. Packers Eddie Lacy Black Jersey . The Philadelphia Phillies didnt win the World Series title that everyone from management to players to fans expected this season. But their manager doesnt think its time to settle for less. "Absolutely not," Manuel said Wednesday. "Thats the way I like it. You can put expectations on all you want to, its the expectations that they put on themselves and how we look at things. Right now, when we go to spring training, what we will be talking about is getting to the World Series and win. Thats been our goal ever since we won after 2008." The Phillies followed up the best regular season in franchise history -- 102 wins was a franchise record -- with their worst disappointment in the post-season. They blew a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five first-round series against the St. Louis Cardinals, and were eliminated at home in a 1-0 loss. Even having all those aces couldnt help the Phillies. The wild-card Cardinals beat Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt. "Our expectation coming out of spring training, we wanted to go to the World Series and win. That was our ultimate goal. We did not fulfil that goal," Manuel said. "We had a tremendous regular season, we got to the first round of the playoffs and got beat. I look at it that we didnt reach our goal. We got into a 2-2 situation, we lost the third game in a shutout. "Baseball is a game youre asking a whole lot when you say we have to win a World Series. Thats high stakes. With the talent assembled on our team, people and the media put expectations that we had to win the World Series. It didnt happen. Im sorry for that." Manuel made it clear the team needed to improve its hitting, echoing the thoughts of general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. A woeful offence was the biggest reason Philadelphia didnt advance. The Phillies hit .226 against the Cardinals, and scored just 10 runs in the last four games after an 11-6 victory in the opener. Only three regulars -- Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino -- hit above .211 in the series. Manuel and Amaro want players to change their approach at the plate, take more pitches, work the count and be smarter hitters. The current lineup can no longer outslug teams they way they used to when the Phillies won the World Series in 2008. "Its a matter of keep reminding guys," Manuel said. "We definitely will have meetings and things like that in spring training and carry it out during the season. We have to get better hitting. You have to know what kind of hitter you are. Im definitely on board with what Ruben says." In 08, the Phillies had three guys hit more than 30 homers. They had four players hit more than 30 and five hit more than 20 in 2009, when they lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. In the last two seasons, only Ryan Howard has reached 30. The big slugger hit 31 in 2010 and 33 this season, down from his average of 50 per year from 2006-09. The Phillies have to manufacture runs without relying on home runs. But this lineup doesnt play smallball. Howard led the team with 75 walks. No one else even had 60. Rollins was the only player with more than 20 stolen bases. Many of the hitters are too aggressive and lack plate discipline. "The pitchers make adjustments and the hitters have to make adjustments," Manuel said. "If you dont like to or are afraid to go deep in the count or to hit with two strikes on you, you are going to get anxious, youll be aggressive and chase bad balls. At times, well take a fastball right down the middle, some guy will throw a breaking ball down and well roll over it and swing at it and miss. Thats not good hitting. We talk about that all the time." Six of the eight regulars are under contract. Rollins will be a free agent, but he wants to return. That doesnt leave room for much of an overhaul. So, can a group of veteran hitters alter their approach at this stage of their careers? "I take a lot of pride in hitters," Manuel said. "I know how good a hitting coach I am and I dont care whether you want to believe that or not. "We will get better." Packers Eddie Lacy Green Jersey .ca! Hey Kerry, Maybe my views are just biased, but I am having a really hard time understanding the calls that the refs are making in this series. I realize that past performances from players like Burrows and Lapierre are being taken in to account to ensure the games integrity, but last game was an embarrassment for the officials. Packers Clay Matthews Green Jersey . The trio are being recognized as "pioneers of winter sports." A native of Barrie, Ont., Burke won four gold medals at the Winter X Games and was the first female skier to land a 1,080-degree spin (three full rotations) in competition.DALLAS -- Andrew Ladd stepped on the ice in a shootout knowing Winnipeg had lost two in a row after regulation. The Jets captain made it a happy ending this time. Ladd scored the only goal in a shootout, Ondrej Pavelec had 35 saves and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 on Saturday night. The Jets played past regulation for the third straight game and fourth in the past five. They snapped a three-game losing streak. "Yeah, nice to be on the other side of an overtime and shootout game for sure," Ladd said. After Jamie Benn hit the post and Alex Chiasson was stuffed easily by Pavelec in the shootout, Ladd beat Kari Lehtonen on the glove side. The Jets got the win when Ray Whitney missed wide. Olli Jokinen missed on Winnipegs first attempt. The Jets were penalized for too many men on the ice with 24.6 seconds left in regulation, and Pavelec made a pad save on a point-blank shot from Benn just a few seconds after the faceoff. "We need him to be our best player on a lot of nights," Ladd said of Pavelec. "He bailed us out a couple times, but still thought we did a lot of good things." The Stars had a 4-on-3 advantage for the first 1:35 of overtime, but the Jets had the two best scoring chances during that stretch. Bryan Little was stuffed by Lehtonen, and Zach Bogosian couldnt finish a play, trying to beat Lehtonen with a crossover on the goalies glove side. "We made some ill-advised decisions," said Stars coach Lindy Ruff, who returns to Buffalo on Monday night for his first game since getting fired during his 15th season with the Sabres in February. "We gave some pucks up again. Our shots are going to stay high against until we manage the puck better." Lehtonen had 37 saves for Dallas, including four in the final minute of overtime, but lost for just the second time this season. Winnipeg won in Dallas in its first visit since relocating from Atlanta, and for just the second time in the franchises 14 seasons. &"These three in a row, losing that extra point would have been tough on our group," Jets coach Claude Noel said. Demetri Goodson Packers Jersey. "So I thought we got rewarded." Stephane Robidas pulled Dallas even at 1-all at 6:36 of the third period when his shot from the point went through the legs of Lane MacDermid and under Pavelec. The assists went to MacDermid and Vernon Fiddler, who carried the puck into the zone and flipped a pass backward to Robidas. "Its tough to win games when you have bad starts," Fiddler said. "Youre playing catch-up hockey. We cant be a team that just turns it on in the third and expect to win." Evander Kane opened the scoring at 3:28 of the second with a goal during a delayed penalty as an extra Winnipeg skater was joining the play. Kane settled the puck with his glove on the right wing and shot it past Lehtonen as the goalie was settling back in after jumping to make a pad save on a shot. Tyler Seguin, who had a career-high four points when Dallas beat Winnipeg 4-1 for its only road win earlier this month, was held scoreless but had a team-high five shots. Winnipeg just missed going up 2-0 in the opening seconds of the third period on a rush that ended with Dallas defenceman Jordie Benn sweeping the puck out of a wide open crease after a shot hit the post. The Stars had a good chance to go in front with about 6 minutes left, but Seguin couldnt control the puck with Pavelec out of position. Notes: The Winnipeg franchise had just one previous win in Dallas dating to its days in Atlanta. ... Stars defenceman Alex Goligoski played nearly 20 minutes after he was a healthy scratch in Thursdays 5-1 win over Calgary. Kevin Connauton, who replaced Goligoski against the Flames, was a scratch against the Jets. ... Winnipeg opened the second of 10 back-to-back sets this season. The Jets play at Colorado on Sunday night. ... The Stars were 0 for 4 on the power play and have failed to convert in all 16 chances at home. ' ' ' |
