Category: Baseball

Just kidding, but it’s pretty amazing what Myers has done with the bat—he’s hitting .800 this postseason and his three-hit, three-RBI performance tonight was a big key to the Phillies victory. On top of that he pitched well enough to win in spite of likely being worn out from all the base running he did. There were many other heroes tonight as well. Victorino continues to get it done at the plate and in the field: his catch in center field may have been even bigger than the four runs he knocked in tonight.

The rest of the offense is finally showing signs of life, too, after being mostly dormant in the Milwaukee series. They batted around in two consecutive innings and scored eight runs without needing a home run to do so. Now they will never be accused of playing small ball to manufacture runs, but they have shown an impressive ability this postseason to get key hits with two outs–and those are the types of things that win in the playoffs. Howard, however, continues to struggle mightily in the postseason. If he ever gets going, look out.

The first game was vintage Hamels. For a while it looked like he might get his typical run support but he kept them in the game long enough for the offense to finally break through in the 6th. The bullpen has been stellar, with Lidge closing the door on consecutive nights, and the Phillies find themselves heading to LA just two wins away from the World Series. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played, and I’m trying to temper my excitement, but as infrequently as the Phillies have been in this position in their history, I’m going to enjoy the run as far as the Phils can take us. I’ll save my apprehension for the Eagles 🙂

On a more sour note, I have to give a wag of my finger (to borrow a phrase from Stephen Colbert) to Flyers’ owner Ed Snider for having Sarah Palin drop the first puck in the team’s home opener. He’s free to support whoever he wants, but by inviting her to the opening day ceremonies in the middle of an election, he’s blatantly injecting his personal politics into sports . . . where it doesn’t belong. It’s in poor taste and I’ve lost a lot of respect for Snider as a result. He’s not doing Palin any favors, either. Has he forgotten that Philly is a blue city? The fans will boo her mercilessly.

I never thought I’d say this during football season, but thank God for the Phillies. They saved what could have been an utterly dismal Sunday in Philly after the Eagles’ pathetic performance (more on them later). The Phils rebounded nicely from a poor effort last night to close out the series. Blanton delivered a stellar pitching performance and the offense (courtesy of Burrell and Rollins) finally showed signs of life. The Dodgers will be tough, but if the Phillies continue to get the pitching they got in this series, they will have a great shot. The offense still needs to pick it up more, though. Going into this game they had scored in just 3 of their 25 at-bats. Today they scored in three innings, so hopefully that is a sign of better things to come, though we still need to see more out of Utley and Howard if the Phillies hope to go deep. But today is a day of celebration. Tomorrow we can start thinking about the NLCS. Go Phils!!!

On to the Eagles. Obviously, they are not as good as I thought they were. They were looking good after jumping out to a 14-0 lead, but then they just fell apart. The great run defense suddenly imploded—of course it doesn’t help when the inept offense is keeping you on the field all game—but 203 yards rushing is just abysmal. Reid looks lost on the sidelines. Case in point: as if hearing the complaints from last week’s failure to throw the red flag, today he decided to blow a timeout on a useless challenge that wasn’t even close. On top of that, pass-happy-Reid has suddenly become Mr. Smashmouth at the goal line, as the Eagles were once again stymied from in close on consecutive running plays. Has Reid lost all confidence in McNabb’s ability to make something happen? Besides taking it out of his hands at the goal line, he almost never went downfield today against a vulnerable Washington secondary. Everything was in close: screens, quick hitters, etc.

One more thing, to the Redskins: it must be nice to have a reliable kicker. I remember when the Eagles used to have one. Obviously, 50 yards is no chip shot, but Akers has only hit one field goal outside of 40 yards all year. It’s looking eerily similar to last year when he went 2 for 10 on field goals longer than 40 yards. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming Akers for this loss, everyone deserves a share of the credit, but his output over the last two years is unacceptable.

At this rate it’s beginning to look like another long season: they are two games behind the third place team in the division, they’re 0-2 in the division, and 1-3 in the conference. It would take a huge winning streak to even get back into this thing, and I just don’t know if they have it in them. They should at worst be 4-1, but dumb mistakes and missed opportunities have cost them dearly. However, we can talk woulda, coulda, shoulda all we want, but at some point, you are what you are, and right now: the Eagles are a mediocre football team, and their record reflects it.

After vanquishing the mighty CC Sabathia last night the Phillies have taken control of the series. The obvious heroes are Victorino, who hit the dramatic two-strike, two-out grand slam in the second on his way to a three-hit game, and Myers, who settled down nicely after surviving a first-inning, bases-loaded scare, to hold the Brewers to just two runs over seven innings. His biggest contribution, however, was at the plate. In the second inning, the light-hitting (and that’s generous) pitcher worked a two-out walk in a nine-pitch at-bat as the crowd roared with every fouled pitch and taken ball, appearing to rattle Sabathia in the process, and setting the stage for Victorino’s slam that blew the game wide open. Then Myers did it again in the 4th, flying out after a 10-pitch at-bat . . . Sabathia would not survive the inning. Later in the game Myers added a single for good measure.

The offense continued its feast or famine output, though, scoring all of its runs in just one inning, but it’s hard to complain about that when your team tags Sabathia for five runs. To win a game against arguably the best pitcher in baseball while your 3-4-5 hitters go 0-for-10 is pretty amazing. To do it on the backs of a little outfielder not known for his power and a pitcher not known for his hitting is the stuff of legend.

Well, the Phillies made it much more interesting than they had to, thanks to Manuel’s decision to not let Hamels finish the game. He had a manageable pitch count and was pitching lights out, while Lidge has been struggling recently. As much as the team is going to need Lidge in the playoffs, this might have been a good game to let him rest while Hamels finished what he started. Hamels said the right things after the game, but I’m sure he would like to have pitched the complete game. On the other hand, I can see the argument for not overworking your ace in the first game of the playoffs, and that is what Lidge gets paid for. In the end, after a few frayed nerves, it worked out, so no worries. Let’s just hope Lidge’s high pitch count yesterday won’t have an impact on the rest of the series.

Anyway, what can you say about Hamels? He’s a bonafide stud that would have been a 20-game-winning Cy Young contender if the Phillies had given him any run support this year. He didn’t get much support again in this game, but this time it didn’t matter; nobody was scoring on him. We haven’t seen a playoff pitching performance in this town like that since Curt Schilling in ’93 (not that there have been many playoff games in the years since). The offense needs to pick it up, though, if the Phillies are going to advance. One error-filled inning of scoring isn’t going to cut it on most days. Today will be tough with Sabathia, but hopefully the Phils can make it a short series so we only have to see him once. And let’s hope the right Brett Myers shows up today.

Go Phils!