Saturday, July 22, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Oops they did it again. For the 2nd game in a row the Phillies spoiled an otherwise good outing by their opponents, this time the Braves, by roughing up their bullpen with a late inning rally. Like I said in order to win tonight the Phillies were going to need an off night from John Smoltz, and tonight for him anyway, it was an off night, although most other guys would probably just call it bad luck. Meanhwile, Phillies starter Cory Lidle went 8 solid innings, giving up just 3 runs on 6 hits, and effectively cooling down what had been, the MLB's hottest offense in July. It took the Phillies offense a little while to get going, 3+ innings to be exact ,but the Phillies were actually able to procure the early lead in this game with a two run homer by Chris Coste in the 4th inning. However their lead would not last long as Left-fielder Scott Thorman, followed Coste's 2 run homer with one of his own in the top of 5th inning, and Edgar Renteria added a solo shot in the top of the 6th for a 3-2 Braves lead, but alas, that lead would not last long either. Jimmy Rollins answered Renteria's solo shot with one of his own in the bottom of the 7th inning for a 3-3 tie, chasing Smoltz from the game, like I said off night for Smoltz despite giving up only 3 runs on 7 hits, bad luck for anybody else. In the bottom of 8th inning the Phillies went to work on the Braves bullpen, and thoroughly humiliated them, just like they had humiliated the Padres bullpen on Wednesday. With one out in the inning Aaron Rowand drew a walk. David Bell followed Rowand with a single, his 4th hit of the game, and pinch-hitter David Dellucci followed him with another single plating Rowand with the go ahead run. Now the Scoring ought to have ended there for the Phillies but it didn't due to a major gaff by Braves reliever Ken Ray. With 2 outs in the inning now, Jimmy Rollins stepped to the plate and hit a grounder to Adam Laroche, for what should have been the last out of the inning, but oops Ray forgot to cover 1st and Rollins beat Laroche to the bag for his 4th hit of the game to extend the inning. Chase Utley then followed Rollins with an RBI single, extending his hitting streak to 22 games and plating 2 more runs for a 6-3 lead. Now at the time these 2 runs seemed like little more than insurance for closer Tom Gordon, but later it would become apparent just how big they were. In the top of the 9th before he could finish off his 23rd save of the year, Gordon served up a 2 run homer to Jeff Franceur making it a 6-5 game, but that was all she wrote as Gordon closed it out for the 6-5 win. Now, in retrospect if the Phillies had not scored those 2 runs following Ray's gaff that homer by Franceur would have put the Braves ahead 5-4. So I guess it's like they say, sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good. Anyway, in closing let me just give a shout out to Mr. Ray. Thanks for the win buddy and hey do you think you could pitch tomorrow night too, because you know we could use all the help we can get. Well, happy trails everyone.
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2 comments:
- to phillysports
Argh, for what, the Phillies won man, what are you against them now, or are you still trying to stretch that Pirate bit. Anyway argh to you too
- 3pointsafterbuzzer
good point, a win is a win any way you slice it.
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