Game 66 - Sunday Afternoon, June 12th in Philadelphia
One Sentence Summary: Ryan Howard's two-run single in the seventh gave the Phils the come-from-behind victory, 4-3.
What It Means: It means the Phillies head into tomorrow's off-day having taken three out of four from the Cubs. They're 40-26 with a two game lead over the Braves in the division. On Tuesday, they'll open a four-game in three-day series with the Marlins, who have fallen to seven back after losing nine of their last ten.
What Went Right: The Phillies had a few opportunities to blow this thing wide open against Doug Davis and the Cubs, but they had to wait for a late rally to secure the win. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Howard's single scored Shane Victorino and Chase Utley with the tying and go-ahead runs. The hit gave Howard three RBIs on the day, as he had doubled in the first to bring home Victorino.
Roy Oswalt (4-4) dug an early hole, allowing three first inning runs. Fortunately, that was the only scoring from the Cubs today and Oswalt bounced back to pitch scoreless ball through the seventh. Michael Stutes and Ryan Madson shut down the Cubs in the eighth and ninth. With two outs in the ninth, Carlos Pena scared the crap out of me (and Madson) when he hit a ball out of the ballpark that was just foul. On the next pitch, he popped out to Utley, who made a running, over the shoulder catch, for the last out of the game.
Featured Card: I was fairly surprised last year when the Phillies released a "2nd series" for their team-issued postcard-sized baseball card set. So I was even more surprised when I recently found a new 2011 team set for sale at the ballpark and we're not even through June.
The new 40-card set features pictures from 2011 game action as opposed to the Spring Training photos found in the original 36-card set. This is Ryan Howard's card from the new set, and I like the design much better than the first series. The player selection between the two sets differs as follows:
Who's out - Domonic Brown (surprisingly), Delwyn Young
Who's in - Dane Sardinha, Pete Orr, Michael Stutes, Vance Worley, David Herndon, Mike Zagurski
Does this open the door for a third series late in the season?
3 comments:
You've got to be kidding me -- a different set already? It's hard enough for me to get these sets down in VA. I'm sure this does open up the possibility of a third set in August.
On the other hand, it does make sure that a few more players -- most notably Pete Orr and Dane Sardinha -- do get Phillies cards this year.
I was really sad to see the Phillies pull that one out. Nothing personal. But, when the Red Sox won, the Phillies were losing. If they had lost, the Sox would have officially gone from 2-10 to the best record in baseball. Then, all the media could stuff it. But, the Phillies won to keep their 1/2 game lead. Oh well. Guess I can wait a couple weeks until they play each other for the Sox to pass them.
Storage becomes an issue with these sets too. My 2011 Phillies binder is already filling up with these cards.
Ron - Trust me, I'm looking forward to the Phils-Sox series just as much as you are. I hope it's a preview of October when we'll finally have our revenge for 1915.
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