Tuesday, July 26, 2011

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Hometown Heroes #HH5 Chase Utley

Phillies 7, Giants 2
Game 102 - Tuesday Night, July 26th in Philadelphia

One Sentence Summary:  Vance Worley (quickly) pitched his first career complete game and the Phillies bats came to life for a night, as they defeated the Giants, 7-2.

What It Means:  The Phils improve their record to 65-37.  They can take a seven game lead in the East if the Pirates can defeat the Braves in extra innings tonight.

What Went Right:  Just about everything went right for the Phillies tonight, in a game that took only a little over two hours to play.  Tim Lincecum was scrapped from his start just prior to game time and Barry Zito was bumped up a night to take his place.  The Phils quickly jumped on Zito with four runs in the first, including Raul Ibanez' three-run home run to right.  (Ibanez added a great leaping catch in the ninth against the wall in left.)  In the fourth, they added another run when John Mayberry, Jr. hit a solo home run and Ryan Howard added his 20th home run in the eighth.

No offense to Ibanez, Mayberry or Howard, but probably the most exciting home run of the night came in the sixth when Chase Utley circled the bases with an inside-the-park home run.

Worley (7-1, 2.02 ERA) allowed just two runs on three hits while striking out five and walking one.  I join a growing number of Phillies fans who sincerely hope Worley isn't traded to the Astros this week as part of a package to land Hunter Pence.

Featured Card:  I've run out of Worley's baseball cards to post, so instead I'll go with Utley's Hometown Heroes card from this year's Allen & Ginter's release.

4 comments:

night owl said...

GO Phillies!!!!!!!!

Very enjoyable game to watch.

Jenna said...

I feel bad for the Pirates! 19 innings and a disputed call at the plate.

Section 36 said...

Bring out replay!

Jim said...

Last night's Phillies game was indeed very enjoyable to watch. Tonight - not so much.

I still can't believe how the Pirates lost last night. Somebody on the Pirates said, "It's just sad," which sums it up perfectly.