Saturday, April 28, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
All I can say is thank God I had the draft to distract me from having to watch too much of this game. Yeah, it was that ugly and you could tell it was going to be from the start. Phils starter Adam Eaton got roughed up in the first inning allowing the Marlins to take an early 3-0 lead, not good when the starting pitcher in the visitor's dugout is Dontrelle Willis. Even worse when your big bopper, Ryan Howard, has the night off because "uncle Charlie" doesn't want to start him against the nasty lefty. At any rate despite Eaton's struggles, he gave up 7 runs on 10 hits in just 4 and 1/3rds innings, the Phils managed to hang around, as Aaron Rowand singled and scored in the 1st inning and Rod Barajas hit a solo shot in the second inning, his first homer as a Phil. Incredibly, thanks to those RBIs and two RBIs from Chase Utley, the phils managed to enter the 6th inning only trailing the by 3 with the score at 7-4. After reliever Fransisco Rosario quickly got two outs it seemed like it would at least stay that way into the 7th inning, but then the wheels came lose. Rosario allowed consecutive singles to Miguel Cabrera and Mike Jacobs, then Josh Willingham stepped up and crushed a 3 run homer and suddenly the Phils were down 10-4. Unfortunately, they never recovered from the shock of Willingham's homer, as Miguel Cabrera added a solo homer in the 8th inning and the Marlins won going away 11-5, dropping the Phils record to 10-13. Oh well, better luck next time guys.
EAGLES NEWS
Well, it finally here, draft day, so let's see which safety did the Eagles draft in the first round, oh wait they traded out the first round. Okay, so which safety did they draft in the second round with their first pick of the draft, oh wait they didn't draft a safety, they drafted..... a quarterback? okay, well there were still plenty of good ones left, maybe it's Trent Edwards, or John Beck, or maybe even Pennsylvania's own Drew Stanton. No? its not one of them then who is it?, Kevin Kolb out of Houston, who the H*** is he? and why the H*** did they draft him? say the Eagles fans as they boo the pick. Well, according to the Andy Reid the Eagles didn't having any pressing needs to address in this draft(yeah, tell that to Brian Dawkins when he looks at the depth chart this summer, and realizes there's no one behind him, at least not until tomorrow anyway), and thus rather then fill a need they simply selected the best player available, which was apparently Kolb. Now in fairness Reid also said that this pick had nothing to do with the Eagles being worried about Donovan Mcnabb's return from his knee injury at the beginning the upcoming season. Still, until I get a chance to see Kolb play, I can't say whether this was a bad pick or not. Going strictly by his college numbers, Kolb sounds like he might not be half bad. All told, in his career at Houston, Kolb passed for 12, 964 yards and 85 touchdowns and was conference USA player of the year last season with 3,809 yards and 30 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions. He is also the only player in the history of Houston university to pass for 3,000 yards in 3 straight seasons, pretty impressive when you consider that they once harbored Heisman trophy winning QB Andre Ware, and the 12,964 yards rank 4th all time in division 1-A, behind former Eagles Timmy Chang of Hawaii and Ty Detmer of BYU, and N.C state's Philip Rivers now of course with the Chargers. Oh and by the way, Kolb his 6-3 218 Lbs, pretty good size for a QB. So while none of us have heard of him, Kolb has put some pretty good numbers, so I think we should cut Andy Reid some lack before we call this draft a waste. Anyway, as a consolation for trading out of the first round, the Eagles had 3 more picks on the first day of the draft. With the 57th pick of the 2nd they selected Notre Dame's DE Victor Abiamiri to sure up their depth at that position, not that they didn't already have crap load of DEs on their roster, but it never hurts to have another. The Eagles followed that in the third round by taking Nebraska Linebacker Stewart Bradley with the 87th pick in the 3rd round. I know, what kind of football name is Stewart, but hey he lead Nebraska last year with 76 tackles, and he's 6-5 254Lbs so he should provide nice depth for their linebacking core. Finally the Eagles finished the day 3 picks later by taking Penn State RB Tony Hunt with the 90th pick in the 3rd round. At 6-1 233 Lbs Hunt could be the bruising short yardage back the Eagles have been looking for since losing Duce Staley to free agency, or he could just be another in a long line of Penn state RB busts, you know like Blair Thomas, Curtis Enis, and Ki-jana Carter. Yeah I know I don't remember them either, but let's hope that Hunt turns out to be the former.
Friday, April 27, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils didn't play their best tonight by any means. Starter Freddy Garcia lasted just 4 and 2/3rds innings while allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, the Phils as a team left 14 men on base, and Tom Gordon blew another save. In the end on this wild friday night, none of that mattered. Aaron Rowand homered to extend his hitting streak to 16 games and the Phils scored 3 runs in the 2nd inning to go up early 3-1. However, for the next 4 innings it was all Marlins, as the Phils went scoreless and the Marlins put up 3 runs to grab a 4-3 lead heading into the 8th inning. The Phils refused to go down though, and staged a dramatic rally in the bottom of the 8th. Jimmy Rollins homered with one out to tie at 4, and Chase Utley homered with 2 outs to put the phils ahead 5-4. Unfortunately, as noted Tom Gordon blew the save in the top of the 9th, and Phils found themselves tied with Marlins again at 5 , heading into the bottom of the 9th inning. Once again, they refused to give up and loaded the bases with no outs in the 9th. Carlos Ruiz then hit a hard ground ball that Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez couldn't handle, allowing the winning run to score, as the Phils finally defeated the marlins 6-5, to improve to 10-12.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
Sometimes good pitching trumps good hitting and that's what happened to the Phils today. The Phils lineup had been red hot, pounding to 5 wins out of their last 6 games, today however, none of that mattered. Cole Hamels was also on the mound for the Phils today, and he had been there best starting pitcher thus far this season, striking out 15 in his last start, but again none of that mattered as he allowed 4 runs on 8 hits in only 5 and 1/3rd innings of work. In the end, nothing the Phils did today was any match for the mastery of Nationals starter Shawn Hill. Hill is by no means the ace of the Nationals staff, but today he pitched like he was. Through 8 strong innings of work he allowed the red hot Phils to score only 2 runs on 4 hits, one of which was a solo homer by Aaron Rowand which his extended his now league best hitting streak to 14 games, funny how that sort of thing keeps happening to Phillies players. Anyway, no matter what the Phils did today, they simply couldn't figure out Hill, and succumbed to the Nationals, after a furious 9th inning rally against closer Chad Cordero, by a score of 4-2. So, for one day at least the streaking Phils got a little side-tracked, as their record dropped back to 9-12. Still, if they keep playing like this, and consistently win 2 games out of 3, there's no reason they won't be able to get back to the top of the standings sometime soon.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
One name, Chase Utley, that's all you need to hear about tonight's game for the Phils. All told Utley had 5 hits(2 doubles, 3 singles) and knocked in 3 runs. Even without his teammates that would have been enough tie the Nationals, who as a team scored just 3 runs on 7 hits on night. The Phils meanwhile with Utley's help pounded out 9 runs on 12 hits, including two, two run homers from Ryan Howard in the 3rd inning and Jimmy Rollins in the 8th inning. The Pitching was also well in the Phils favor. For the nationals starter John Patterson lasted just 5 and 1/3rd innings allowing 6 runs on 8 hits. Meanwhile for the Phils Jon Lieber went 6 innings allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits for his first win of the season in two starts. Finally, the bullpen was again far better for the Phils. For the Nationals the bullpen combined for 4 and 2/3rd innings, but in those innings allowed 3 runs on 2 hits. Meanwhile for the Phils, Matt Smith, Geoff Geary, Brett Myers, and Francisco Rosario combined for 3 strong innings, while allowing just one run, on 2 hits. So, once again tonight's win was a team win just like it should have been, and it was the Phils 5th in a row, meaning they have now improved to 9-11. Not too shabby if you ask me.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
4, that's how many games in a row that the Phils have won now. Tonight's win just like the others was a team victory. The Phils trailed 3-1 until the 6th inning, but it would have been more if not for 6 strong innings by Jamie Moyer, striking out 5, while allowing just 3 runs on 6 hits. Meanwhile, the Phils suddenly came to life in the bottom of the 6th, as Pat Burrell doubled in a run to cut the lead to 2-1. In the bottom of the 7th Aaron Rowand homered to tie it at 3, then the wheels fell off for the Nationals in the 8th. Chase Utley led off by getting hit by a pitch, then after Ryan Howard struck out, Pat Burrell worked a walk, and Wes Helms singled scoring Utley and Burrell after a Ryan Church throwing error. Then with the Phils up 5-3 Carlos Ruiz singled to score Helms, who had advanced to second on the throwing error, and that was all she wrote. Flash Gordon came in for the 9th, and actually closed the door for once, giving the Phils the 6-3 win. In all, it was as I said a team win. The Phils got a good start from Moyer, the timely hitting they needed, and 3 more scoreless innings out of their bullpen. I don't why, but for some reason everything is just clicking for the Phils right now, and its fun to watch. I just hope it continues for a long while, so the Phils can continue to improve on their now 8-11 record.
Monday, April 23, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
Delayed from last Monday, the Phils finally had their Jackie Robinson night and they made it count. Early on it didn't look it would be a good night for the Phils, as Craig Biggio led off the night by sending Adam Eaton's first pitch into the seats for a 1-0 Astros lead. Fortunately for the Phils, Jimmy Rollins was ready to answer. Rollins answered by leading off the bottom of the 1st inning with a homer of his own, en route to a 4 hit, 2 RBI, 4 runs scored night, that saw him come a double shy of becoming the first Phil to hit for the cycle since David Bell back in 2004. Although he would be all the Phils would need on the night, Rollins wouldn't be alone. In all, the Phils pounded out 11 runs and 20 hits, including a 3 run homer by Chase Utley that went 460 feet, and 3 hits, 3 RBIs, and 2 runs scored by Shane Victorino. Pat Burrell and Wes Helms also chipped in with 3 hits and an RBI each. For his part, starter Adam Eaton wasn't too shabby either, going 6 innings, and striking out 7 while allowing only 4 runs on 7 hits. The Phils bullpen also chipped in with 3 scoreless innings to finish off the game. Still, as well they played the Phils needed a 3 run 4th inning that gave them a 7-4 lead after having traded the lead back in forth through the first 3 innings, to finally put Houston away. All in all, it was a team win for the Phils, and their 3rd in a row. All of which means that we can officially say that the Phils are now on a roll, as they have now improved to 7-11.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
PHILLIES NEWS
He struggled in his first start, but today Freddy Garcia was everything advertised. He only lasted 5 innings, but they were all good ones, as he allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits. Also for once the Bullpen closed the deal for him, as they allowed just one run the rest of way and issued only two walks. Of course, they had plenty of breathing room to work with as Ryan Howard returned to the lineup early and homered and knocked in 3 runs, Wes Helms had 3 hits, and Chase Utley collected 2 more hits and scored 3 runs. In all, although 4 came in the top of the 9th inning when they were no longer needed, the Phils put up 9 runs ,their best output of the season, and won going away 9-3. Thus, the Phils have successfully won back to back games for the first time this season, and 3 out of there last 4 and have now improved to 6-11. Of course, they are still only in 4th place, in the NL East, but that's better than last place, and who knows maybe after today, the Howard can finally get going and the Phils can continue this roll that they are currently on. Well, that's all I have for today, I guess I ma just too excited for words today, for some reason, oh well.
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