Game 37 - Friday Night, May 13th in Atlanta
One Sentence Summary: The bullpen came through tonight as the Phillies gutted out a victory in Atlanta, 5-4.
What It Means: The Phillies have the best record in baseball at 25-12 and they maintain a three game lead over the Marlins in the East.
What Went Right: There were clutch RBIs in the seventh from Shane Victorino and in the eighth from Raul Ibanez, but it would have been for naught if not for the stellar job by the Phillies young bullpen core tonight. In the seventh, J.C. Romero entered the game with things tied up 4-4. He promptly loaded the bases, which he seems to do on a fairly regular basis. Charlie Manuel went with rookie Michael Stutes who struck out Dan Uggla swinging for the second out of the inning. Antonio Bastardo was the next pitcher in from the 'pen, and he struck out Freddie Freeman swinging to end the inning and the Braves threat. (Bastardo had spotted Freeman a 3-0 count before coming back to strike him out.)
Rookie Vance Worley got the job done in the eighth before yielding to Ryan Madson who retired the Braves in the ninth and recorded his sixth save.
Ryan Howard hit a three-run home run in the first to start the scoring for the Phils. Starter Cole Hamels lasted six innings, giving up all four Braves runs on eight hits while striking out seven.
What Went Wrong: I am not a fan of Romero.
Featured Card: To date, not including minor league sets or Chachi cards, rookie reliever Stutes has appeared on one baseball card - this 2009 Bowman Prospects insert. However, there are twenty parallels available of this card, including versions with color borders, different color refractors and several one of one printing plates. For me personally, this non-shiny, standard black border card is enough. (Although I do have the Chrome version in my collection as well, but Chrome cards scan weird.)
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