Saturday, June 2, 2012

2012 Topps Museum Collection #95 Hunter Pence

Phillies 6, Marlins 4
Game 53 - Friday Night, June 1st in Philadelphia
Record - 28-25, 5th Place, 2 1/2 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  Jonathan Papelbon converted a five-out save to preserve Kyle Kendrick's victory as the Phils defeated the Marlins, 6-4.

What It Means:  The Phillies were a season high three games over .500 following this game, and while they remained in last place, they were only 2 1/2 games behind the Nationals.

What Went Right:  The offense had another nice night as Placido Polanco, Hunter Pence and Carlos Ruiz all enjoyed three-hit nights.  The big blows were Pence's two-run home run in the fifth and a two-run single from Hector Luna to start the scoring for the Phils.  Luna added an RBI-double in the seventh.

Papelbon was called into action early mainly as a result of a devastating arm injury to reliever Jose Contreras who left the game in the seventh clutching his damaged arm.  The closer recorded his 15th save aided by a circus catch in center from John Mayberry, Jr. to end the ballgame.

Kendrick pitched into the sixth and allowed two runs on eight hits.

Featured Card:  My Phillies baseball card collection is still Luna-less, so here's another recent card of slugger Pence.  I've mentioned before that I steer clear of high-end releases like Topps Museum Collection, but I actually like the base card design from this set.  It's a nice clean design on a thick, sturdy card.  If it had been up to me, Topps would have made these Museum Collection cards a little thinner and used the spare cardboard to produce sturdier cards for its Archives release.

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