Game 139 - Wednesday Night, September 7th in Philadelphia
One Sentence Summary: The Phillies completed their sweep of the Braves with a walk-off win in the ninth, courtesy of Ross Gload's pinch-hit RBI-single.
What It Means: The Phillies are 91-48 with a 10 1/2 game lead in the division. Their magic number to clinch the pennant is 12.
What Went Right: Starter Roy Oswalt took a no-hitter into the sixth before allowing a lead-off double to Michael Bourn. He didn't factor in the decision, but it was great to see some life on his fastball as he pitched seven solid innings while striking out seven.
Raul Ibanez remained hot, hitting a solo home run in the second. The Phils tied it up in the eighth on a Placido Polanco RBI single. That set up Gload's heroics in the ninth. Ibanez reached on walk and went to second on Carlos Ruiz' single. Gload, who is hitting .132 since July 1st, lined a Peter Moylan slider just off the first base bag and into right. Ibanez came around to score the winning run and complete the sweep.
One other item to note - Chase Utley left the game with a possible concussion after being drilled in the helmet with an Eric O'Flaherty pitch in the sixth inning. Hopefully, Utley just has a bad headache and he's cleared to fly with the team to Milwaukee.
Featured Card: Gload has battled a bad hip all year which has severely limited his playing time. Coming into tonight's game, Gload had appeared in 77 games this year - 1 as a DH, 3 in right field, 3 at first base and 70 as a pinch-hitter. He played in 94 games last year with the Phillies, appearing in the field in just 25 of those games. So it's tough to blame Topps for not giving the guy a Phillies baseball card yet. Gload's last mainstream baseball card came in the 2009 Topps Heritage Update set when he was featured with the Marlins. This is his card from the Phillies team-issued set (Series 2) available at the ballpark.
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