Thursday, March 7, 2013

2013 Topps Chasing History #CH-1 Roy Halladay

Phillies 6, Nationals 3
Spring Training Game 12 - Wednesday Afternoon, March 6th in Clearwater
Record - 6-5-1

One Sentence Summary:  Roy Halladay threw four scoreless innings against the N.L. East favorite Nationals as the Phils won, 6-3.

What It Means:  The Phillies are above .500 for the first time in what seems like forever.  Sure, it's only Spring Training, but I'll take it.

What Went Right:  Catching prospect Tommy Joseph looked fantastic in this game, going 3 for 4, catching a couple of tough pop-ups in windy conditions and throwing out a baserunner.  Domonic Brown continued his good spring with two more hits.

Featured Card:  Halladay pitched a good game, but the thing everyone was talking about after the game was his pitch that sailed behind the back of Nationals DH Tyler Moore.  The innning before Moore's at-bat, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg drilled Chase Utley in the leg with a pitch.  After the game, Halladay clarified that the ball he threw behind Moore's back had slipped, but then he went on to mention, "As a staff, we need to do a good job of protecting [our hitters].  Spring training you're not necessarily trying to do it.  But it wouldn't have been the worst thing had it got him after hitting one of our good guys."  It's stuff like this that makes me think the '13 Phils have a little bit of chip on their collective shoulders, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Our closest Target had Topps Heritage in stock yesterday (more on that soon), but I wasn't lucky enough to pull Halladay's short-printed card from the set.  The card featured here is one of the Chasing History insert cards found within packs of Topps Series One.

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