Monday, August 22, 2011

1983 Fleer #160 Bo Diaz

Nationals 8, Phillies 4
Game 123 - Friday Night, August 19th in Washington

One Sentence Summary:  Ryan Madson imploded in spectacular fashion, allowing six runs (including a grand slam) as the Nationals walked off with the 8-4 victory.

What It Means:  As I catch up from a weekend away, I'm going to keep these posts short and sweet.  Nothing to see here, please move along.  The Phillies were 80-43 after this game.

What Went Wrong:  The Phillies scored four times in the third, aided by an RBI-triple from John Mayberry, Jr. and an RBI-double from Chase Utley, and then they stopped scoring.

Following a two hour and twenty-two minute rain delay in the top of the first, Kyle Kendrick came in and pitched six strong innings, allowing just two runs while striking out four.  Madson (3-2) entered the ninth holding on to a 4-2 lead and then things went horribly wrong.  The Nationals managed to tie things up at 4-4 before Ryan Zimmerman ended it with the slam.

Featured Card:  Baseball Almanac has a cool page featuring players who have hit "super" walk-off grand slams.  A "super" grand slam occurs when a player from the home team wins the ballgame on a walk-off grand slam when his team is down by three runs at the time of the slam.  (Zimmerman's unfortunate slam does not qualify.)  Two Phillies are on the list - Tony Taylor who accomplished the feat on August 2, 1970, and Bo Diaz, who did it on April 13, 1983, with two outs.

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