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Saturday, June 20, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils continued their series with the Orioles tonight. J.A Happ got the start and was pretty good allowing just 2 runs on 10 hits in 6 solid innings. Unfortunately the Phils again couldn't provide any run support. However, down just 2-0, they were finally able to get on board and take the lead in the 7th inning. In the end though Ryan Madson was not able to hold the lead in the 9th and the Phils lost their 5th in a row. From the beginning the Phils were a bit shorthanded as Ryan Howard came down with the flu and was deemed unavailable for the game. So it was not surprising when Aubrey Huff doubled in a run in the 5th inning and Brian Roberts sac flyed in a run in the 6th inning and worked a bases loaded walk in the 7th to give Baltimore a 3-0 lead through 6 and 1/2 innings. A dramatic bottom of the 7th then nearly saved the day for the Phils. First Chase Utley doubled in a run and Greg Dobbs singled in a 2nd run. Finally with 2 on and 2 out, the flu-ridden Howard managed to drag himself to the plate to pinch hit and in a scene reminiscent of Kirk Gibson in the 1988 world series, slammed a dramatic 3 run homer to put the Phils up 5-3. That set the stage for Ryan Madson to get the save in the 9th, but he could not. First Greg Zaun slammed a solo homer, and then with 1 on and 2 out ,Roberts broke the Phil's hearts with what turned out to be a game winning 2 run homer. Final score Baltimore 6 Phils 5. So the Phils are now just 13-21 at home as they lose yet another series at the bank. Oops, it seems Jimmy Rollins is not out of his slump yet after all, as he is now 0 for his last 6. While Howard did pinch hit today, he didn't stay in the game afterwards and the jury is still out on whether he'll back in the lineup tomorrow or not. I hope to god he is, because otherwise the Phils will struggle to score runs big time. With or without him they really need to figure out how to win tomorrow otherwise they'll suffer an embarrassing 2nd sweep in a row at home no less. So anyway the Phils drop to 36-30 overall now, but they remain 2 games up in the NL East, because the Mets also lost again.

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Friday, June 19, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils welcomed the Baltimore Orioles to the Bank tonight to begin a weekend series. Antonio Bastardo got the start and was fairly decent allowing 4 runs on 5 hits in 7 solid innings. Unfortunately the Phils couldn't give him much support with just 2 runs on 5 hits. In the end the Phils were never able to add to those 2 runs and they and Bastardo went on to take the loss again. The Phils actually had the early 2-0 lead after Jayson Werth slapped a 2 run double in the bottom of the 1st. In the top of the 2nd the Orioles took the lead on a 2 run double by Matt Wieters and an RBI single by the pitcher Rich Hill. In the top of the 6th Aubrey Huff doubled in a run for a 4-2 lead. Finally in the top of 9th Nolan Reimold slammed a solo homer and Nick Markakis slapped a 2 run double to push the lead to 7-2 and avert any hopes of a Phils comeback. So the Phils drop to 13-20 now at home and they have now lost 4 in a row. That's just awful and I just don't know what they can do now to turn that around. John Mayberry Jr looked pretty good again today as he went 2 for 4, but he struck out the one chance he had to knock in some runs. Still, I think he might be alright after all, but the Phils aren't right now. The only hope for the Phils now is to somehow take the last 2 games of this series and then they go back on the road and can start another winning streak. Anyway so the Phils drop to 36-29 overall and are now just 2 games up in the NL East.

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Thursday, June 18, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils completed their series with the Blue Jays this afternoon on yet another wet and dreary day. This time they played a little bit better but it still wasn't good enough. Joe Blanton got the start and lasted just 5 and 1/3rd innings while allowing 4 runs on 9 hits. Meanwhile, the Phils were able to take advantage of the fact the Toronto starter Brad Mills lasted just 3 and 2/3rds innings, just enough to take a lead into the 7th inning, but everything fell apart from there. The Jays took the early lead 2-0, on a 2 run homer by Chavez in the 2nd inning. Jayson Werth answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to cut it to 2-1. In the top of the 3rd Vernon Wells doubled in a run for a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd Werth sac flyed in a run to cut it to 3-2. In the bottom of the 4th Jimmy Rollins slugged a 2 run homer to put the Phils up 4-3. In the bottom of the 5th John Mayberry Jr (playing in place of the injurted Raul Ibanez) slammed a solo homer for a 5-3 lead. In the top of the 6th Adam Lind lined a solo homer to cut it to 5-4. In the top of the 7th Scott Rolen doubled and scored on a single by Alex Rios to tie it at 5. In the top of the 8th Wells ,and Rolen each knocked in another run for a 7-5 lead, and then Mayberry Jr gunned down Wells at plate to prevent a 3rd run. In the bottom of the 8th the Phils battled back one last time, as a solo homer by Greg Dobbs, and a 2 out RBI single by Shane Victorino tied it up again at 7. Finally in the top of the 9th, behind 0-2 in the count, Rod freaking Barajas clubbed a pinch solo homer for an 8-7 Jays' lead and at last that proved too much for the Phils to overcome. So the Phils drop to 13-19 at home now and I mean things really can't any worse than that can they? Actually with Ibanez on the DL for at least 2 weeks due to a strained groin, things could easily get a whole lot worse. The Phils just have to hope Mayberry Jr can fill the void while Ibanez is out. He is a very good outfielder and has legitimate power to all fields, he's just a little raw right now and a bit of free swinger, so hitting coach Milt Thompson has his work cut out for him. Speaking of hitting, its official now, the slump is over, JRoll is back. He had 3 more hits today, including a homer and appears to have to returned to all-star form. Anyway, so the Phils drop to 36-28 overall now , but remain 3 games up in the NL East, thanks team that comes in tomorrow to begin a 3 game series, the Orioles, who took 2 of 3 from the Mets.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils continued their series with the Blue Jays tonight. Jamie Moyer got the start and pitched okay through the first 6 innings, holding the Jays to just 4 runs and keeping the Phils in it. Then in the 7th inning he got a little roughed up and wound up ending his night having allowed 6 runs on 10 hits. Meanwhile, Scott Richmond was Brilliant for Toronto allowing just 1 run on 5 hits, while striking out 11 in 8 innings. In other words the Phils never really had a chance in this one. They fell behind early as Toronto scored 3 runs right off the bat in the 1st inning, on a double by Marco Scutaro, a single by Aaron Hill and a fielder's choice, and Richmond was just too tough the rest of way. The only bright spot for the Phils was a solo homer by Jayson Werth in the 4th inning, which brought the Phils to within 3 at 4-1, but they never got closer. In the end after the Jays added homers by Rod Barajas, Hill, and Scott Rolen, the Phils fell 7-1 on this literally dark and dreary night(it rained lightly through half the game, but not enough to force a delay). So the Phils drop now to 13-18 at home and there's nowhere to go but up from there, hopefully. Moyer has games like these from time to time, so hopefully this was just a slight glich and he'll be fine his next time out. As for the rest of the Phils they just can't seem to get up for games at the Bank anymore for some reason and I don't understand it. Maybe Charlie Manuel should get himself thrown out of the game tomorrow or something, surely if nothing else that will light a fire under these guys. Oh well, so anyway the Phils drop to 36-27 now but remain 3 games up in the NL East.

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils welcomed the Toronto Blue Jays to the Bank tonight. Cole Hamels got the start and was steady as usual, surviving a bases loaded jam in the 6th inning to hold the Jays to just 2 runs on 7 hits in 6 solid innings. Meanwhile, the Phils were able to scratch out enough runs to take a lead into the 9th inning. Unfortunately, it was simply not to be for the Phils on this night. The Phils jumped out early as Jimmy Rollins leadoff the 1st inning with a double and scored on a single by Chase Utley for a 1-0 lead. In the top of the 4th Toronto finally got to Hamels as Adam Lind slugged a solo homer and Kevin Millar doubled in a run for a 2-1 Jay's lead. After as mentioned Hamels got out of a jam in the top of the 6th, the Phils rallied ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the 6th, as Jayson Werth slammed a 2 run homer. Both teams put on the pressure on again in the 8th inning, but came up empty, as the Jays left bases loaded again and the Phils stranded 2. In the 9th Ryan Madson came in for the save and you guessed it, loaded the bases with nobody out no less. He too nearly got out of it, before offering up a game-tying walk to Lyle Overbay. Madson then retired the side from there and the Phils failed to score in the bottom of the inning. So once again the Phils would need to win in extra innings. At this point after loading bases 3 times without registering a single hit with the bases loaded, Toronto had stranded 15 runners on base and yet somehow they still managed to tie the game at 3 and force extra innings. So you knew something weird was going on. It only got weirder in the 10th inning as Clay Condrey came in and you guessed it, loaded the bases, but only after allowing Scott Rolen to bloop an RBI single to put Toronto ahead 4-3. Condrey then walked in a run and his night was over. Rookie Tyler Walker, recently called up from AAA, was then left to cleanup Condrey's mess. Unfortunately, Walker wasn't quite up to the task, allowing a sac fly and a bases clearing double by Rod Barajas of all people, for an 8-3 lead. The dejected Phils then went down quietly in the bottom of the inning to finish the 8-3 loss. So the Phils drop to just 13-17 at home now, and with their next 5 games at home(2 more with the Jays, and 3 with the Orioles) they're going to have figure out how to turn that around in a hurry. Seriously, where's the Nationals when you need them? Anyway one thing that does appear to have turned around is JRoll's swing. After crushing a homerun sunday, he went 2 for 5 tonight with a run scored and most importantly no strikeouts. So he's making contact in every at bat and making progress. Anyway so the Phils drop to 36-26 overall and back to 3 games up in the NL East.

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Monday, June 15, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils return to action tomorrow night against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Bank. In the meantime I thought it would be fun to do another countdown. Last time we did the top emotionally charged moments involving Philly sports figures. This time we'll do the top 25 most dramatic Phillies victories. Starting today we'll go through numbers 25-21 and reveal another 5 on each Phillies off day until we hit number 1. So let's get started.

25. Dude-riffic July 7, 1993 Phillies 7 - Dodgers 6

In a season full of crazy, wild and unbelievable finishes this was one of the most memorable. It started just like any normal game. Terry Mulholland tossed 7 strong innings and John Kruk and the dude, Lenny Dykstra each homered to give the Phils a 5-3 lead heading into the top of the 9th. Then well, let's just say they didn't call Mitch Williams the wild thing for nothing because wild is exactly what he was on this night. He walked 3 batters, allowed a single and before you knew it the lead was gone, leaving Larry Anderson to get out of a bases loaded jam. First Kevin Stocker bailed out Andersen with a perfect throw off a ground ball to get Mike Piazza at home and preserve a 5-5 tie. Then Anderson found his way out of the inning after that. From there it just kept dragging on through the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and on until the 20th inning where then rookie Mike Williams finally allowed a run on an error no less, after having pitched 5 brilliant scoreless innings. So the Phils found themselves down 6-5 in the bottom of the 20th inning and ordinarily that might have been too much for them to overcome, but not this year and not with this team. With 2 on and 2 out Dysktra, who had leadoff this whole mess 6 hours earlier, delivered a game winning 2 run double and at last after one of the longest games in Vet history the fans could go home happy.

24. Miami Miracle #1 Sept 17, 2005 Phillies 10 - Marlins 2

Things haven't always gone the Phillies way at pro player stadium. The Florida Marlins are always a scrappy bunch and there was a time when the Phillies just couldn't buy a win there, that is until this game. The psychologically challenged Vicente Padilla put together a rare good outing allowing just 2 runs in 7 innings, but then all-star Dontrelle Willis was downright nasty tossing 8 scoreless innings. So good was Willis that although he had already thrown over 100 pitches in the game manager Jack Mckeon decided to leave him in for the 9th. The move backfires badly, when the obviously exhausted Willis loses the strikezone and his infield suddenly forgets how to field a ball. First a Jimmy Rollins leadoff single squirts through the infield. Then after getting ahead 0-2 Willis walks Jason Micheals. Next Bobby Abreu hits what should be a double play ball, but Luis Castillo boots it and a run scores to cut it to 2-1. Then Todd Jones replaces Willis, and precedes to give up 4 straight RBI singles, followed by another error, this time Carlos Delgado misplays a ground ball, and now its 6-2 Phils. Now Ron Villone replaces Jones and gives up two more singles and at this point it is now 8-2, 10 Phillies have come to plate, and not one has been retired. Finally Villone strikes out Micheals for the first out, but the Phils aren't done yet. Two more hits and yet another error and another pitching change later the Phils are up 10-2 and inning is finally over. The Final tallies are 4 errors, 8 hits, 10 runs, and 1 shellshocked Marlins team.

23. Johnny On the Spot September 23, 2001 Phillies 5 - Marlins 4

Thanks to games like these the young 2001 Phillies came within a couple games of a surpise playoff berth. The Phils came into this game just a half a game behind the Atlanta Braves for first place in the NL East and desperately needed a win to stay there. Early on it looked like they would get it as Brandon Duckworth pitched into the 6th inning, allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits. Thanks to Duckworth and a 4th inning homer by Travis Lee the Phils took a 3-2 lead into the 8th inning. After retiring the first two batters in the inning Ricky Bottalico served up back to back homers to Preston Wilson and Mike Lowell for a stunning 4-3 Marlins lead. For the most part after that the Phils gave no indication they had any fight left in them. Then with 2 out in bottom of the 9th Lee saved the day with a game tying solo homer. It was his 3rd game saving 9th inning homerun of the season(the first won a game against Montreal and the 2nd tied a game which the Phils went on to win in extra innings). After Jose Mesa rolled through a rare 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 10th, Johnny Estrada leadoff the bottom of the inning with a pinch solo homerun, just his 8th homer of the season, to complete the huge 5-4 win.

22. Del-lightful July 10, 1979 Phillies 6 - Padres 5

The 1979 season was probably one of the Phillies most dissapointing as after 3 straight trips to the postseason they came up completely empty. They had added Pete Rose to the roster in the offseason and everyone thought they would finally get to and win the world series. Instead they were ravaged by injuries ,and got off to a slow start, costing Manager Danny Ozark his job in mid-season. Of course he was replaced by Dallas Green and rest as they say is history. Anyway one of Ozark last bright moments came on this night. Nino Espinosa started the game for the Phils terribly, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits and failing to get out of the 5th inning. Somehow the Phils bullpen, always stellar in those years with the likes of Rolly Eastwick and Warren Brustar, managed to keep the game from getting any further out of hand with 5 and 1/3rd scoreless innings the rest of the way. Still, through 8 innings the Phils could only muster a solo homer by Mike Schmidt and trailed 5-1 heading into the 9th. After 2 runners reached base with just one out, future hall of famer, Rollie Fingers came in to clean things up, but he instead he allowed Bob Boone to slap a 2 run single to cut it to 5-3. A few batters later with 2 out and 2 on Del Unser came into pinch hit and crushed a game winning 3 run homer, his record tying 3rd consecutive pinch hit homerun, an impossible feat no one saw coming.

21. Schmidt Tames Wrigley April 17, 1976 Phillies 18 - Cubs 16

Wrigley Field has a history of wild high scoring games, especially when the Phillies are in town. Few Phillies-Cubs matchups at the old ballpark were wilder than this one. By the 3rd inning the Cubs are ahead 12-1 and seemingly in control. Then Mike Schmidt goes to work. In the 5th inning he hits his first homerun of the day to cut it 13-2. In his next at bat in the 7th, he homers again and the lead is down to 13-7. In his next bat in the 8th he goes deep again, this time a 3 run homer and its down to 13-12. By the end of the 9th the game is tied at 15. Finally, in the 10th Schmidt bats again and crushes his 4th straight homerun this time a 2 run homer and now at last after Dave Cash adds a sac fly the Phils are ahead for good 18-15. The Cubs score again in the bottom of the inning before Tug Mcgraw finally ends this wild affair. All told the two teams combine for an incredible 43 hits and 34 runs. As for Schmidt, he is still the last Phillies player to hit 4 homeruns in a game, and the only one to do it consecutively. Not bad for a day's work and you were wondering why people frequently call him the greatest 3rd baseman ever.

20 -16

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Sunday, June 14, 2009

PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils finished their series with the Red Sox this afternoon in a wild game. J.A Happ got the start and did just enough to keep the Phils in it, allowing 5 runs on 7 hits in a decent 5 and 2/3rd's innings. Meanwhile, after he had pretty much shut them down for4 innings the Phils recovered to touch up Josh Beckett for 7 runs on 11 hits. In the end those 7 runs would be all they needed to claim victory, but it wasn't easy. In the bottom of the the 1st, Jayson Werth actually gave the Phils the early 1-0 lead with an RBI single. That lead lasted all of about 5 minutes until the top of the 2nd, as Rocco Baldelli and Nick Green each slammed solo homers, Jacoby Ellsbury smacked a sac fly, and Jason Bay singled in a run for a 4-1 lead. From there Beckett seemed to be rolling and the Phils looked finished. Then in the bottom of the 5th they finally got to Beckett, scoring one run on a fielder's choice, another on a single by the "Flyin Hawaiian" Shane Victorino and finally 2 more on a clutch RBI double by Ryan Howard, for a 5-4 lead. After venting his frustrations in the dugout, Beckett used them to his advantage as he leadoff the top of the 6th with a solo homer to knot it up at 5. After rolling through the bottom of the 6th, Beckett ran out of bullets in the bottom of the 7th and the normally reliable Red Sox bullpen imploded allowing, 6 runs on 4 hits. First Jimmy Rollins crushed a solo homer. Then Shane Victorino singled, stole second and scored on errror. Next Pedro Feliz slapped a 2 out 2 run double. Then Chris Coste was walked intentionally, Chan Ho Park was walked unintentionally to load the bases and JRoll was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Finally Victorino came up again and worked a bases loaded walk to force in another run and just like that the Phils were stunningly ahead 11-5. George Kottaras(that's the Red Sox backup catcher in case you're wondering) later doubled and scored a meaningless run in the 8th inning which only delayed an inevitable 11-6 Phils win. So the Phils do salvagea game in the series and move to 36-25 overall and back to 4 games up in the NL East. I am not sure but I think after that homer, JRoll might finally have his swing and confidence back. Hopefully it will stay with him now for the rest of the season. It was a little tough to see Happ get a bit roughed up today, especially after what happened to Bastardo last night. He did keep his cool though and he kept the Phils in it long enough for their bats to get going. Essentially that is exactly what the Phils shorthanded staff will have to do for the rest season, just keep it close and let the offense do the rest.

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