Saturday, September 23, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils just continued their playoff push today with their 4th win in a row and 7th out of their last 8. Jon Lieber went 7 solid innings, allowing just 2 runs on 7 hits, while striking out 6. Offensively the Phils jumped out early with 4 runs in the 1st 3 innings, to take a 4-0 lead. The Marlins fought back to cut the lead to 4-2 in the top of the 6th inning, but the Phils just kept at them, taking a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the inning, as Jimmy Rollins hit his 23rd homer of the year. The Marlins fought back again to cut the lead to 6-4 in the top of the 8th inning, but the Phils again answered with 2 in the bottom of the inning to take an 8-4 lead into the 9th. There, Flash Gordon, nearly coughed up the lead, allowing consecutive homers to start inning, but he bared down and secured a big 8-6 win for the Phils. In all, this was a total team effort for the Phils, as Carlos Ruiz and Jeff Conine, both knocked in 3 runs and Chase Utley and Shane Victorino both had 4 hits and 3 runs scored. Any way you look at it this was a good day for the Phils. Anyway, well I was going to say with the win the Phils moved back into a tie with the Dodgers for the wildcard lead, but as I was writing this the Dodgers finished their game and they lost! Yes, that's right that means that the Phils are now all alone in 1st place in the wildcard race 0.5 games up on the Dodgers. YEAAAAAAAHHHH! oh sorry I got carried away there. Well, happy trails everyone.
Friday, September 22, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
The Good times just keep on rolling for the Phils. Tonight in front of a sellout crown the Phils earned their 3rd win in a row, with a 5-2 thumping of the Marlins. Cole Hamels dazzled the fish for 6 and 2/3rds innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits, while striking out 10. Meanwhile, the Phils offense jumped on the Marlins early and took a 4-0 lead through 3 innings, on an RBI single by Chase Utley in the 1st inning and a 3 run homer by Ryan Howard in the 3rd inning(that's 58 now). The Phils would later manufacture an extra run in the 6th inning to bolster their lead to 5-1 and from there the Phils bullpen closed things out, allowing just 1 more run on 3 hits, as Tom Gordon earned his 33rd save of the year. Now at the moment, with the win the Phils have once again locked themselves in a tie for the wild card lead with the Dodgers. However, the Dodgers are playing right now and if they win the Phils would drop to 0.5 games behind them for the wildcard lead, otherwise if they lose the Phils will move into 1st in the wildcard race 0.5 games up on the Dodgers. Of course right now the Dodgers are locked in a scoreless tie with the Diamondbacks in the top of the 6th inning, so who knows what the Wildcard situation will be like come tomorrow, but when I know you'll know, so don't worry about it. Well, happy trails everyone.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils actually got an off day today and of course it's there last off day of the regular season. Tomorrow they continue their final homestand of the year, with the 1st of 3 games in another crucial weekend series against the Florida Marlins. Hopefully they will be take care of them and increase their standing in the wildcard race. Speaking of the wildcard, the Phils are currently tied for 1st in the wildcard with the Dodgers. Yes, that's right they have finally reached the top of mountain, however they may not be there for long. The Dodgers are playing today(they are tied with the Pirates at 2 in the bottom of the 5th inning) and if they were to win the Phils would drop to 0.5 games behind them in the wildcard. Otherwise, if they were to lose the Phils would be all alone in 1st place in the wildcard at 0.5 games up. Now of course the Padres are playing tonight as well, and they also lost yesterday, but because of the things mentioned above, they remained 0.5 games up on the Dodgers in the NL west. Right now they are leading the Diamondbacks 3-1 in the 6 innings, and if they win they would have no real bearing on the wildcard race, as they would stay in 1st in the NL west. However, if they were to lose and the Dodgers were to win, they would drop back into a 1st place tie with the Phils in the wildcard race. So Anyway, go Pirates and go Diamondbacks, and happy trails everyone.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Another big win for the Phils tonight, due to good starting pitching, and timely hitting. Brett Myers went the distance for the Phils allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits, while striking out a career best 12. Although it took them awhile to get going, as the Phils went scoreless for the 1st 3 innings and actually fell behind 1-0 after the top of the 4th, once the Phils offense got going it never stopped. They answered Cubs 1st run with 2 in the bottom of the inning, then tacked on an extra run almost every inning afterward, with 1 in the 5th inning, 2 in the 6th inning on a homer by Chase Utley(his career high 29th), and 1 more in the 7th inning on a homer by Pat Burrell. By the time the Cubs finally scored another run in the top of the 8th inning it was already 6-1 Phils and the game was out of their reach. After allowing a hit and a walk to start the 9th inning Myers induced a groundout and then struck out the side, earning his 1st complete game of the year and a huge 6-2 win for the Phils. Now at the moment, with the win the Phils have to moved to within .5 games of the Dodgers for 1st in the wildcard. Right now, the Dodgers are trailing the Pirates 2-0 in the top of the 4th inning, and if they lose the Phils will move into a tie for the wildcard, otherwise if they win the Phils will remain 1 game behind them in the wildcard. However the Padres are playing right now as well, and they are trailing the Diamondbacks 3-1 in the bottom of the 4th inning, and if they were to lose, and the Dodgers were to win, the Dodgers would move back into 1st place in the NL west and the Padres would drop to 1st in the wildcard just .5 games ahead of the Phils. Either way the worst the Phils can be at the end of the night is 1.0 game back, so I would say they are in good shape. Well, happy trails everyone.
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers started their preseason today. Now since it is only 7 games long and almost none of the games are televised, I am not going to talk to much about the Flyer's preseason games, but I will give you quick a summary of their preseason when it is over, just so you know where the Flyers are before they start the season. Anyway, just in case you're reading this to find out if they won or not, I will tell you that they lost to the Penguins 5-4, but it's the preseason so who cares.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
After an embarrassing 11-6 loss to the Cubs last tonight, the Phils really needed to bounce back and beat them tonight and you know what, they did. Jamie Moyer did what Jon Lieber couldn't last night and shutdown the Cubs, allowing just 1 run over 7 innings while scattering 6 hits. Still, even with Moyer dazzling the Cubs, the Phils needed a little luck to get the win. After going scoreless for the 1st 4 innings of the game, the Phils somehow managed a 2 out rally in the 5th inning scoring 3 runs on a double by David Dellucci, and a 2 RBI single by Abraham Nunez. The Cubs answered back with their previously mentioned 1 run, in the 6th inning cutting lead to 3-1 and temporarily putting the outcome in doubt. Fortunately Jimmy Rollins gave the Phils some insurance with a solo homer in the 8th inning to push lead to 4-1. From there the Phils bullpen, which had been roughed up last night, closed the door tonight as Flash Gordon closed it out in top of the 9th inning for his 32nd save of the year and a 4-1 Phils win. Anyway with the win the Phils at least keep pace with Padres, who currently lead the wild card(the Dodgers pulled a manning last night a came back to beat them in extra innings, thus they moved back into 1st place in the NL West, and the Padres dropped back to 1st place in the wild card). The Phils came into the night 1.5 games behind the Padres and with the win moved to within 1.0, but right now the Padres are leading the Diamondbacks 5-1 in the bottom of the 6th inning, so it looks like the Phils are going to stay at 1.0 game back of whoever is leading the wildcard race after tonight(the Dodgers are currently trailing the Pirates 2-1 in their game, and if they were to lose the Padres would jump back into 1st in the NL West, and the Dodgers would fall back to 1st in the wildcard, 1.0 up on the Phils). Well now that I got all that cleared up, happy trails everyone.
Monday, September 18, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
If you looked at the schedule tonight, you probably thought, "sweet we're playing the Cubs tonight, the Phils are gonna win easy". Well, apparently someone forgot to tell the Cubs that they have worst record in the NL and that they were supposed to lose, or maybe someone just forgot to tell the Phils they were supposed to win. Needless to say, after a solid road trip in which they went 7-3, the Phils didn't quite play there best ball today. Jon Lieber, who had been virtually lights out lately, looked like someone had turned the lights out on him, as he lasted just 2 and 1/3rd innings and allowed 5 runs on 5 hits, 3 on a homer by Aramis Ramirez. Things didn't get much better for the Phils after Lieber left, as Eude Brito tossed up another 3 run homer to Aramis Ramirez, and suddenly after only 3 and 1/2 innings it was 8-0 Cubs and things looked bleak. In the bottom of the 4th, the Phils raised hopes of comeback, with 6 runs on a 2 run single by Christ Coste and a grand slam by Jose Hernandez, cutting the lead to 2 at 8-6. Unfortunately the Cubs weren't finished yet and wound up scoring 5 more runs to bury the Phils by a final score of 11-6. Basically, this was just an off night for the Phils, but hopefully they will be able to bounce back tomorrow with a win. Anyway, at the moment the Phils are 1.5 games behind the Dodgers for the wild card lead, but currently the Dodgers are tied with the Padres at 4 in the bottom of the 7th inning. If the Dodgers lose the Phils will be back to within 1.0 game of the wildcard lead otherwise they will drop to 1.5 games back, so go Padres. Well, happy trails everyone.
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers officially ended their off-season wheeling and dealing today, by resigning head coach Ken Hitchcock to a new 3 year deal through 2008-2009. Hitchcock led the Flyers to the conference finals in 2004 and won the stanley cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999, so it should come as no surprise that the Flyers resigned him and I think it's a good move on their part. Hopefully, he can still figure out a way to get the Flyers deep into the playoffs again.
EAGLES NEWS
If you thought yesterday's lost was bad than wait to you here this one. If you watched the excruciating overtime period of yesterday's game then you probably saw Jevon Kearse injure his knee and get carted off the field. Well, today the x-rays came back and the prognosis is not good to say the least. Kearse sprained not, 1, not 2, but 3 ligaments in his left knee and is out, that's right out for the remainder of the season, and probably won't be able to comeback until next year. All of which means that Trent Cole, yes that Trent Cole who got flagged for a late hit, will replace Kearse in the starting lineup and Jerome Mcdougle who was inactive the past 2 weeks will fill Cole's spot in the Eagles d-line rotation. Let's just hope that the Eagles d-line is as deep as everyone thinks it is.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
EAGLES NEWS
Ummm, you know what I don't know what to say. I mean the Eagles dominated the Giants in every facet of the game and led 24-7 heading into the 4th quarter, and yet still wound up losing in overtime 30-24. I mean if you can't protect a 17 point in the 4th quarter at your home stadium, then what can you do. It's just inexcusable that Eagles lost this game. I mean it's not even that they lost the game, it's that they gave it away with some really sloppy play in the 4th quarter. Yes, it's still early in the season, but this is still a hard pill to swallow regardless. Think about it, if the Eagles had won they would be 2-0 and all alone a top the NFC East, while the Giants would be in a huge hole at 0-2 and all alone in last place. Instead, the Eagles lost and are now tied with the Giants for 1st at 1-1. Yes, it's true that the Eagles upcoming schedule is somewhat soft other than an OCT 8th meeting with the Cowboys, and that there is still a possibility that the Eagles can get off to a fast 6-1 start, but this one was important. It was supposed to reestablish the Eagles as the beasts of the East, but instead all it did was establish that the Eagles aren't quite all the way back yet. With this loss the Eagles have now dropped 7 consecutive games to divisional opponents. If they want to turn things around and make playoffs this season, or get back to the top of the divison, they are going to have to figure out a way to beat somebody in their division. Now, normally I would talk about the stats, but I don't even want to do that, because after what happened in this game they really don't matter. I mean the Eagles had over 400 yards of offense and sacked Eli Manning 9 times, and still lost so you tell me if the stats mattered today. As for why I think the Eagles lost today, well I am not sure I even know why. All I know is that they missed opportunities early in the game, which allowed the Giants to hang around, and they played just a horrible 4th quarter, losing fumbles, not getting 1st downs when they needed them, and taking stupid penalties at inopportune times. If that's not a good enough explanation for why they lost, then I don't know what is. Anyway, I just hope the Eagles can rebound with a win next week, because if they don't they will be in big trouble.
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils are just plain hot right now. I mean they are burning up with 5 wins out of their last 6 and 3 in a row with today's win. That's right the Phils finally got their sweep today with a 6-4 win over the Astros. Randy Wolf went 5 and 2/3rds innings and allowed just 3 runs on 5 hits, while the Phils offense hit 4 homers , 2 by Mike Lieberthal who just returned from the DL and 1 each by Ryan Howard(that's 57 now) and Jimmy Rollins. 3 of the 4 homers came in the 1st 4 innings as the Phils built an early 5-0 lead and never looked back. Wolf nearly coughed it up, as all 3 runs he allowed came in the 6th inning, cutting the lead to 5-3. Fortunately, Lieberthal hit his 2nd homer in the 8th inning to put the phils up 6-3 and put it way for good. Reliever Geoff Geary did give up a 4th run in the bottom of the 8th inning, but it didn't matter as Flash Gordon came on in the 9th inning and got the save. All, in all this was another good day for the Phils, and I really like the way they are playing right now. I mean it's beginning to look more and more like the Phils are going to push their way into the playoffs, but only time will tell. Anyway, the Padres also played today and they defeated the Dodgers 2-1. However, with that win the Padres moved in to 1st place in the NL west and the Dodgers dropped to 1st place in the wild card race, just 1 game ahead of the Phils, so things are really getting exciting now. Well, happy trails everyone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)