Phillies Slam Cards, Tie Series 1-1…
Posted: July 26, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Ankiel, Blanton, Cardinals, Cards, Grand Slam, Holliday, Laser Light, Lohse, Lopez, Lugo, Motte, Park, phillies, Pujols, Rollins, St. Louis, Victorino, Wellemeyer, Werth 2 CommentsYesterday the Phillies posted 14 runs, but the Cards out hit the Phillies 14-15. It is clearly evident the Cards are team on a mission, and that mission is to get to the post season.
The bottom of the 1st is when the Phillies started the onslaught, driving in 3 runs off Kyle Lohse, the former Philly. The Cardinals, like the Phillies never give up without a fight, top of the 2nd inning they started their come back run at the Phightins, Lopez was able to hold them to just 1 run, the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings saw the Cardinals post runs to the board giving them a 4-3 lead, it caould be that something was said in the dougout, or could be that the Phils players just get their 
groove back, bottom of the 6th with a hit and a couple of walks the bases were loaded for J-Roll, who had been running an O-fer with bases loaded this year, today would be different, with his short swift swing, Rollins launched the ball to right field and it just kept going over the fence and into the stands…. GRAND SLAM HOME RUN JIMMY ROLLINS… things were going right for the Phillies and when J-Roll is hot the Phillies are hot, Motte had that,’Ican’t believe I threw that pitch’ look upon his face… a fiercesome looking pitcher that Motte is, pitched to Victorino, while Jimmy was still taking his congratulatory cheers from the crowd, and then the unthinkable happened, Victorino lauched the ball deep to right center field for back to back home runs off Motte, the Cards somehow managed to quieten the Phils bats and get out of the inning leaving the Phils with a 4 run lead.
Top of the 7th with Chan Ho Park on the mound and Lugo at the plate, some one in the stands decided to play the fool and shine a green laser pointer at Lugo, this is one of the worst things you can do to a hitter, take his clear vision away,
the results can be nothing more than deadly… Lugo was eventually struck out on a good breaking ball from Park, but it certainly doesn’t take away the fact that there would have been some part of him still looking for that green light. It didn’t stop there, with Pujols at the plate the light re-appeared, this time the umps put a halt to the game and confered with the Phillies dugout who had security trying to locate the fan responsible… This does nothing more than add to the already tainted reputation of Philadelphia fans, regardless of the sport, not only should this person be barred from sporting events in Philadelphia, but anyone with him that allowed it to happen should suffer the same fate. My suprise was that with all the cameras there, and the fact that Lugo had made people aware of it, was that no one was able to spot who was doing it, the search seemed to have the effect of stopping this person from doing it anymore, still they should be found and punished.
The Cardinals did manage to score another run in the top of the 7th, but the bottom half of the 7th brought on another onslaught from the Phillies, with hits a plenty the Phils drove in another 6 runs making it 14-5.
St. Louis tried to start a comeback in the 9th, but was finally held to just 1 run, giving the Phillies a 14-6 victory.
There were moments in this game when, personally I thought Ankiel
was going to single handedly prevent the Phillies from winning this game, he made 2 tremendous catches, 1 tight against the outfield wall and the other where he saved a home run off the bat of Werth. Following the last series between with Cards and Phils, we all know how hard he plays.
As usual both Holliday and Lugo hit the Phillies well, if the Phils hadn’t recieved some of the same luck the Cardinals experienced Friday, they could have very easily lost this one.
The Phils and Cards go at it again today, and to be honest, it’s anybodys game. Wellemeyer is on the mound for St. Louis looking for his 8th win to give him a .500 record on the year, while the Phillies have the workhorse Blanton starting and he’ll be trying to keep the Phil’s with an above .500 record at home this year, while looking to remain unbeaten in July. He is currently running a 0.83 ERA in the month of July through 21.2 innings of work.
With less than an hour to first pitch, it’s time for me to get ready for the ball game, lets hope it’s another Phillies win
Phillies Trumped by Cards…
Posted: July 25, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: #5, Cardinals, God, Happ, Holliday, Lugo, Molina, phillies, Pujols, St. Louis 4 CommentsAs a Phillies fan there is not much you can say about this game, it wasn’t that anyone didn’t play hard, it was one of those games where everything was going right for the opposition. If anything, the only negative was we left 10 men on base.
Happ actually pitched very well, he didn’t make very many bad pitches, if any, the 6th inning turned into one of those innings where, broken bat hits, bloop hits all fell in just the right place for the Cards. Every team gets those games, last night it was the Cards turn to enjoy one.
The funny thing about that game was that the score was 8-1 and yet the Cards actually drove in 9 runs, evidently they must have felt they couldn’t score enough of their own runs, so they brought a Phillies player in from 3rd base on a pitch that just got away from Molina.
In light of the fact that there was nothing really exciting and nothing that really stood out in that game I thought I would offer a welcome to the 2 newest players on the Cards team, just to help them out in getting acclimatised with the new ball club they have joined….
Luckily for the Cards, Holliday was in New York, so a quick train ride was all he needed, and he was actually the main drive of their offence, Lugo also somehow found his way to CBP and managed to pick up a couple of hits and runs.
Personally I am not sure the cost to the Cards for what is probably a 2 month bat for for hire will be worth it in the long run, but we will see as the last couple of months of the regular season is almost upon us.
To help at least one of them get to know the club they have joined, here are some helpfull facts they will need to know and learn…..
First you will need to understand that no longer will you be seen as a GOD amoung players, you will never get the #5 shirt in St. Louis, you will not be allowed to stare up into the sky and pretend you are summoning the almighty…
That job is only allowed by the person you will now refer to as GOD, he is the only one allowed to wear the #5, anyone else caught trying to wear the #5 or summon the Almighty will be traded, here is your NEW GOD get to know him
You will be required to learn the art of the Cardinals congratulatory hand shake, this will be practiced at all times, it is part of the Cardinals way of life and has been practiced for years.
Once you have learned this, the Cardinals method, and you are as good at this as you are hitting, you will be rewarded, if you become exceptional at this and help the Cards to the post season you will be rewarded by your new GOD, you will be required to SMILE and enjoy your reward.
We hope you enjoy you 2 month rental agreement with your new club…
This blog was made with the intent of light hearted humor, no animals were hurt in the making of this blog, some images may have been slightly altered to give the effects of the story, in no way does this blog imply anything about anyone, we ask you to draw your own conclusions and hopefully laugh or smile, if at anytime a Cardinal fan has been offended while reading this blog then…. okay, really we don’t give a flying ……:-)
Back To Winning Ways, Phils take Padres 9-4
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: bus, Cardinals, Carpenter, Chan Ho Park, Cubs, Feliz, Hamels, Lugo, manuel, Padres, Philadelphia, phillies, plane, Ruiz, train, Utley, Werth 7 CommentsThis was the make-up game that was PPD because of rain back on April 20th, before we get into the game itself, I think we need to give a thought to the San Diego Padres, who when this game was PPD was a winning team and playing very well, 
so the benefit with this has gone to Philadelphia, who’d have thought back then. In addition to that the Padres are in Washington this weekend, so the Padres bosses thought it would be beneficial to help their team out by flying into Washington late, then getting the bus to Philadelphia to play this game, then getting the bus back to Washington, and if anyone has ever travelled between Washington and Philly then you’ll know it’s not the best of times even in a vehicle you can kick back and relax in. We can at this point only assume that the Padres arrived at the ball park not very well relaxed and ready to play ball, however, I will say this the players played like they wanted to win, the problem was they were playing a team who is not only hot at the moment, but wanted to prove that yesterday’s afternoon game against the Cubs was an error on their part.
The Philadelphia Phillies of yesterday, literally, the team of Sloppy Joe’s (no offence to Joe)
was nothing more than a day game following a night game where all the players were just sluggish and what seemed hung over.
A different story today, not just because they won, not because they won with authority, but because they played like they wanted to win and acted like they wanted to be there playing baseball. They just looked different, they had a spring in there step, even Utley who against the Cubs yesterday, looked as though he may be suffering, from some sort of injury, acted like he’d just come off a weeks rest, without any sign of an injury. The team was swinging the bat better, running the bases better, and more importantly today they were pitching better.
Cole Hamels came out throwing strikes, he had command of all his pitches and was showing all the elements he had as the 2008 ACE that we saw during the 
World Series, he hit a minor speed bump in the top of the 4th inning where he gave up 3
runs on 3 hits. Hamels ended the day with a solid 7 innings, 3 runs, 4 hits, 2 walks with 6 strike outs. Carpenter who had just been re-introduced to the big’s today came in, in relief of Hamels to start the 8th inning managed to get a batter out on a fly ball, then gave up a couple of hits, with a run and a walk, Manuel not wanting to let this slip away, nipped this in the bud early and went to the pen again for Chan Ho Park who has been nothing but exceptional from the pen. It didn’t even seem to phase him, 1 pitch and he was out of the 8th inning, it did take a very unusual double play by Feliz and Utley, a 5-4-5 double play. I am not sure what the base runner was thinking, but it certainly put a smile on the face of Utley and Feliz as they ran to the dug out, even as late in the game as this was, it was just another sign that the Phillies were here to play, they were having fun out there. Park came out in the top of the 9th to finish the game off, he did it as calm as he started with 3 outs, he ended up pitching 1.2 shut out innings.
The Offence went to work in the bottom of the 2nd inning and never looked back, by the end of the 4th inning everybody, except Ruiz and Hamels had had a hit and there were 8 runs on the board, they continnued to threaten with more but never quite got across the plate until the 7th inning when Ruiz, not to be left out hit a solo home run to left field. Feliz and Werth each went 3 for 5 with an RBI each and Werth also scored a couple of runs, excellent work from the 6 and 7 spot of the batting order, both managed to raise there averages to respectable levels.
As I said at the begining, excellent show by the Phillies, but spare a thought for the Padres who had to endure that bus ride to Philadelphia after getting off a plane ride…. Okay thought over, I know the Padres are struggling, but I don’t feel that sorry for them.
The only damper on the game, was again the Phillies commentators, unfortunately I watch via MLBTV and since I am in BFE, OH. I can not get the radio station for the Phillies so have to put up with the TV commentary, and after reading a blog post today at How ‘Bout Them Phils it just emphasized how they comment on the most obvious things, and seem to talk and joke about things that unless you have been with them all day would have no idea and not get the humor of it, enough of that, read the entry “Phillies Need a New TV Team” from the above blog and you’ll hopefully get it.
The weekend is on us, almost and we have the St. Louis Cardinals in town, so since I showed sign of pity for the Padres do I show signs of pity for the Cards, you see today they flew in to Washington from Texas, have a night game with the Nats, which has 
already had a rain delay and I think at this time they are in another rain delay and it’s only the top of the 7th inning, you know, I know you have to be fair to all but the Cards are going to catch the
train from Washington to Philly, not sure if the plan is tonight or tomorrow, well the way the game is going there now it will be tomorrow regardless, but surely it’s not going to affect the Nats and the Cards have a 4-1 lead, you’d think they’d call the game and give it to the Cards. Back to the question should I have pity on the Cards for these unfortunate occurances that could be detrimentle to their stay in Philly, well I thought about this for all of a minute, I know to long, shouldn’t hesitate, but I don’t think so.
I am sure the Cards fans wouldn’t have any sympathy for the Phillies if the tables were turned, we even did them a favor by issuing 2 loses to the Cubs, what more could they want. Nope sorry no sympathy, enjoy your stay in Philadelphia, you know the ‘City of Brotherly Love’,
UPDATE:
Since I wrote this at around 11:30 pm last night the Cards and Nats game was called early, around 1 am this morning I think, so the ump’s did the Cards a favor, so they could get the train to Philly. We are bound to see their newly acquired Lugo in Philly this weekend, I am sure some Cards fans are thrilled with this and others not so happy, we’ll see if it makes a difference in Philly this weekend.
What If…things were different…
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Cole Hamels, Pardres, phillies, San Diego, WHAT IF, win streak 8 CommentsYes, it’s that big ‘WHAT IF’, there’s a lot of things you could do with a mulligan or a ‘WHAT IF’, but think about this…..
WHAT IF… in your job you could be traded to a competitor, or sent down to a lower level of employment or released and replaced with someone
from a competitors company and that was the only way you could work, no resumes to write, you couldn’t apply for a job, you just had to work hard and hope you were noticed or good enough to be picked up by a company so you could earn a living… how many people would still have the jobs they’ve got now..
WHAT IF … ballplayers had to fill out resumes and apply to other ball teams to get a new job, what if teams had no say in who left and when they left, who would be playing where now, and how many would actually be playing..
WHAT IF … there was no trade deadline ..would you see a large volume of trades come the end of September or not…
WHAT IF … they allowed tied games and instead of wins and losses the divisions were decided on a points system, say 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss…
WHAT IF … they had replay for all disputed calls, how long would a game take…
WHAT IF … there was a time limit per inning and you could have has many batters as you wanted go to the plate…
WHAT IF … people really did treat others the way they would want to be treated themselves
WHAT IF … common sense wasn’t so un-common
WHAT IF … yesterdays game was a night game and the Phillies won….
I for one wouldn’t be writing this just for something to write….
I also know somethings in life will just never happen
So San Diego comes to town for a make-up game tonight.. here’s hoping Cole Hamels give us the outing we all know he is capable of and the Phillies start a new win streak….
Sloppy Phillies End 10 Game Win Streak…
Posted: July 22, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Charlie Manual, Cubs, ejection, phillies, Sloppy Play, Umpires, Zambrano 3 CommentsWell there was not much to say about today’s game, except the weather conditions were almost perfect for the ball to travel far and wide, except it didn’t, it didn’t even come close to reaching the fences.
It would be unfair to single out any specific Phillies player, because frankly most were sloppy at one time or another, pitching, offence defense, you name it.
The home plate umpire is a different story, he deserves to be singled out. It wasn’t the fact that he should have been wearing a Zambrano Fan Club shirt, it was more like an ‘I Hate Phillies’ shirt, the strike zone was a little, shall we say expandable and contractable, and his sun glasses blocked his view of a critical called strike on Bako when it clearly wasn’t a strike, the ball actually bounced in the dirt, dirt flew up and everything, but as usually they’re always right, so came the ejection of Charlie Manual
Pitching, Luck, a Dive & a Homer, give Phils 10 straight
Posted: July 22, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 10 straight, 13 innings, Blanton, bullpen, Cubs, Harden, Homer, Ibanez, Lidge, phillies, Pitching, Werth 11 CommentsThis game had it all, and took 13 innings to make it happen.
PITCHING –
Starters Blanton for the Phillies and Harden for the Cubs were outstanding last night, neither gave up more than 1 run and both went 7 solid inning, batter after batter was retired with no sign of any real threat from either offence. Then it was time for both bullpen’s to take over and take over they did, both bullpens were as dominating as the starters had been, going 5 innings, it was the bottom of the 13th with 2 on and 2 out, Werth drove the ball deep to left field for a 3 run walk off home run.
LUCK-
Has Brad Lidge been watching David Beckham at work?
Top of the 9th Lidge is in to hold the 1-1 tie, he ding’s Ramirez
with a ball to put 1 on, gets an out, then with some fancy foot work, normally seen on a soccer field, with a ball hit back up the middle, Lidge turns and flicks the ball with his heel straight to J-Roll at 2nd base, who throws to 1st to get the double play… definately a highlight reel playback
DIVE-
This was simply perfection from Ibanez, you could almost see his cape flapping in the wind behind him as Raul ‘superman’ Ibanez ran to his right, left his feet and flew to catch a line drive that would almost definately have been a double, possibly a triple and set up a chance for a Cubs winning run.
HOMER-
The walk off kind of homer that everybody loves, Werth at the plate, 2 on 2 out, extra innings with both pens about to run out of pitchers, a slight hanger of a pitch and BOOM there it is in some lucky fans glove up in the stand in left field.
Another series comes down to a possible sweep…
Phillies go NINE straight, Cubs get cooled off…
Posted: July 20, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 9 straight, Batman, Chicago, Cubs, Durbin, Homer, Hot, Howard, Howards Homer, Ibanez, Jack Nicholson, Lopez, Phanatic, Phillie Phanatic, phillies, Piniella, RBI, Rollins Utley, Ruiz, Superman, Victorino 7 CommentsWell the HOT Chicago Cubs found out tonight how HOT, HOT really is when the Phillies put 10 runs on the board, via 3 home runs and a couple of RBI hits.
The Phanatic was playing Batman for Jack Nicholson while Rollins and Victorino were doing there impression of the dynamic duo at the top of the line up, Victorino got an education on ‘where to’ and ‘where not to’ run when stealing a base, from the umpires.
Ibanez of course was playing superman again, with a 3 run homer in the 1st with 2 outs and 2 strikes on him. Even as cold as Ruiz has been at the plate, he felt the heat of the team as he hit a 2 run homer in the 2nd and then hit an RBI double in the 4th inning.
Rollins and Utley both picked up RBI’s in the 4th to make this a 9 run game.
Lopez did not have his best stuff tonight, was fishing around the strike zone, giving up 3 walks, even so, he only allowed 1 run through 6 innings of work and 1 extra base hit.
Howard not to be out done by Ibanez struck a typical ‘Howards Hom
er’ in the 8th inning to make it a 10-1 game.
Durbin came out of the pen in the bottom of the 7th to earn a save the old fashioned way, 3 innings of shut out work, even in a 10-1 game gave Durbin the save, and he earned it allowing just 1 hit in those 3 innings he gave the rest of the pen a night to rest up and have fun.
The Cubs looked like a team with a ‘For Sale’ sign hanging over them, even Lou Piniella looked as though he was in the middle of a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode, either that or someone placed a robot version of him in the Cubs dugout and forgot to read the warning label ‘Batteries Not Included’.
Cubs come to the City of Brotherly Love
Posted: July 20, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Cardinals, CBP, Chapter 11, Chicago, Cubs, For Sale, NL Central, phillies, St. Louis 4 CommentsSo how much love will they get, not much from a hot Phillies team. Yes the Cubs are hot, well very warm compaired to the Phillies hot. On a 4 game winning streak, that the Phillies hope to end tonight at CBP. They will be followed closely by St Louis who holds a 2 game lead over them in the NL Central, but is this the full story, 
why are the Cubs on a winning streak, well they just got done with the strugling Nationals, even so they have beaten some good clubs in the last month. Are they making a run for the title or creating a good reason to get any interested parties to up the ante on bids for ownership of the club. Reports indicate the current owners would like to place the club into chapter 11 in order to release any future owners of the debt the Tribune Co. has generated.
So when the Cubs take the field tonight at CBP give a thought to all those players who don’t know if they’ll be playing for a team in chapter 11 or a team who’ll be playing post season ball this year.
Okay so you’ve had that thought now think about the Phillies going for 9 wins in a row…
GO PHILLIES………
Triple H can help the Phillies…..
Posted: July 20, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Beeston, Blanton, Halladay, Hamels, Happ, Jays, Moyer, phillies, Ricciardi, Trade, Trade Deadline, Triple H, WWE 4 CommentsHusband to Stephanie, son-in-law to Vince, world reknown WWE superstar Triple H, NOT the Triple H, I am refering too.
Halladay, Hamels, Happ and why not….
Halladay, since Ricciardi made it known he would trade his best pitcher the rumours have been filled with Philadelphia being the front runner, everybody and their 
dog has come out of the woodwork to make predictions on who should be traded to get Halladay in a Phillies uniform, most importantly the majority of them are throwing Happ into the mix of players to get this guy. Is he really that good, well he won yesterday for the first time in over a month, okay so he’s been injured. I’ll agree he can help win games, but at the moment so is Happ, so why trade one winning pitcher for another, doesn’t that just give you the same outcome, 1 win every 5 days.
I would love to see Halladay but for pitching prospects not one of our current starters that is winning, and at this point is an excellent candidate for ‘rookie of the year’. Halladay pitched well yesterday a complete game against the RedSox, which is some peoples minds this upped the value of this player, in other peoples minds it just showed that the groin injury is very possibly in the past now. Other reports say that Beeston, the Jays interim President stated that the Jays would need to be “overwhelmed” for them to trade Halladay, so what’s this the Jays front office are playing the, good guy, bad guy routine to get more for Halladay. I say don’t give away what we want just to get Halladay, afterall he only pitches every 5th day and we need more than 1 pitcher on the team.
If we do deal for Halladay it would definately put the Phillies in a strong position, but it depends who we deal to get him.
Hamels has obviously been in a bit of a pitchers slump, but I think he could very well be out of
that and on the way to finishing strong. Before the rain delay in Forida, he was definately starting to look like Hamels should look on the mound, he is still the Phillies Ace, this years numbers may not say that, but he’s earned it.
Happ, anybody willing to give this guy up in a trade is not thinking clearly, they are being blinded by what they appear to be getting and not seeing what they have. I’ve heard it all, Happ is going to come down to earth, he’s in above his head, he’s been really lucky, he’s going to fall like Kendrick did, well I say this, if he was on another team and we had the chance to get him, you’d want him. He’s a rookie he has no past to go on other than the minors and we all know how that is so much diferent, back in 2002 people were saying the same things about Halladay, and again in 2004 and now, time speaks for itself and as they
always say “Hinde Sight is 20-20” those same people calling to give up Happ, in 5 years will be same ones saying what a terrible trade that was, we gave up a top pitcher for a guy that stuck with us for 1 year. Well you can’t have it both ways and noone has the magic crystal ball, so before anyone knocks Happ he deserves the benifit of the doubt, he deserves to be looked at as possibly a good long term Philly pitcher and not be judged on those that came before him. One more thing with Happ that seems to be overlooked he can swing the bat, no his batting average isn’t up there, but he makes contact, he puts the ball in play and that is a major plus with an NL pitcher.
Summary:
Get Halladay with prospects, keep Happ, Hamels is coming around you end up with a good rotation
Halladay, Hamels, Happ, Moyer, Blanton
Phillies Sweep Fish in Florida…..
Posted: July 19, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Fish, Florida, Happ, Ibanez, Marlins, Miller, NL East, Philadelphia, phillies, Rollins, sweep 1 CommentThe Phillies are starting to take a firm hold of the eastern division, with the series in Florida shortened by 1 game the Phillies completed another series sweep with a 5-0 win today. Philadelphia has won the last 4 series, 3 by sweeps, 2 of those sweeps are eastern division rivals, with a tough home stand starting tomorrow the Phillies have now won 12 of the last 13 games, which includes 8 straight.
After Friday’s delay and yesterday’s postponement due to rain, the anticipation of getting through a game in Florida without rain intervention was almost as much as could Happ pitch more scoreless innings. With the threat of rain and a few sprinkles early in the game Happ won out the day, going 7 scoreless innings, giving up just 5 hits and 1 walk. Happ has given up just 1 run in his last 14 innings.
The Phillies offence went straight to work in the 1st inning, when it seemed like they were going to make it very hard for Florida to contemplate a win even before they came to bat, some how, the Phillies managed to get themselves out and leave the bases loaded. The 2nd inning, Florida were not so lucky, as the Phillies jumped on Miller for 3 runs and added a 4th in the 3rd inning, this sent Miller scurrying to the dugout and the Phillies facing the Marlins bullpen.
The Marlins bullpen played very well holding the Phillies hitless and scoreless till the 9th inning, when they gave up the 5th and final run.
Rollins was a homerun away from the cycle during another outstanding performancethat gave him 3 hits, 1 run and 1 RBI, Ibanez continued to do what the fans have come to expect, deliver when we need it, 1 hit, 2 RBI’s and 2 BB’s.
Phillies Outside Archive Vault 