Game 146 - Saturday Night, September 15th in Houston
Record - 73-73, 3rd Place, 16 1/2 games behind the Nationals
One Sentence Summary: The lifeless Phillies lost to the miserable Astros, as the second Wild Card still somehow remains within reach.
What It Means: Before jumping with both feet back on the Phillies play-off bandwagon, I was hoping for a sweep in Houston. The best the Phils can hope for this afternoon is a series split. Clearly, this is not a good sign when the Phillies can't easily overcome a team mostly comprised of Triple-A players and one loss away from their 100th of the season. With the Cardinals also losing last night, the Phils are still three games back for the second Wild Card.
What Went Wrong: The offense looked out of whack all night. They managed to have someone on base in every inning of the game, yet they went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position, leaving 12 base runners stranded. Astros starter Dallas Keuchel gave up five hits, four walks and hit a batter in his 5 1/3 innings - yet somehow escaped completely unscathed. This was an unacceptable loss for a team with the slimmest of play-off hopes.
Kyle Kendrick pitched like first-half Kyle Kendrick, allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings in the losing effort.
Featured Card: Former Phillies player and manager Larry Bowa was in town yesterday to interview for the Astros managerial opening. Bowa's appearance in Houston gives me good excuse to post his stamp from the 1974 Topps Stamps set. I recently picked up a complete 1974 Topps Stamps Phillies team set, although I'm still looking for the Phillies stamp album that collectors could have used to display their 10 Phillies stamps back in the day.
Which also reminds me . . . My 1970-1974 Phillies Want List has been updated. (Have to keep myself busy somehow while the Phillies are breaking my heart.)
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