1985 Donruss #570 Larry Andersen

Red Sox 9, Phillies 3
Game 51 - Monday Night, May 27th in Boston
Record - 24-27, 3rd Place, 7 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Tyler Cloyd and the Phillies were rudely welcomed in Boston as the Red Sox dismantled the Phillies, 9-3.

What It Means:  The Phillies are now 13-22 against teams not named the Mets or the Marlins and they are 12-20 against teams with winning records.  That's not good.

What Went Wrong:  Cloyd allowed six runs on nine hits in his 2 1/3 innings of work.  The offense went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, leaving ten runners on base.  Red Sox emergency starter Alfredo Aceves held the Phils to one run in his six innings of work, despite entering the game with a 8.20 ERA.  Michael Young went 0 for 5 and is now mired in an 0 for 22 slump.

Featured Card:  About the only enjoyable aspect of last night's game was listening to radio announcers Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen recount (for the third or fourth or fifth time) Andersen's trade to the Red Sox from the Astros back in late August 1990.  The Red Sox were in a pennant race and in need of a right-handed reliever for the stretch run.  They acquired Andersen, who pitched fairly well for Boston - a save and a 1.23 ERA in 15 games.  The Red Sox were swept in the A.L.C.S. by the A's, and Andersen signed with the Padres in the offseason.

That would be the end of the story, except the player the Red Sox gave up for Andersen was Jeff Bagwell.  In 15 seasons with the Astros, Bagwell put up Hall of Fame worthy numbers, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 1991 and the N.L. MVP in 1994.  Upon every Phillies visit to Boston, Andersen good-naturedly puts up with the repeated interview requests to discuss his participation in what has since been acknowledged as one of the worst trades of all time.

By the sixth inning of last night's game, Franzke and Andersen were having a pleasant conversation about this trade and other aspect's of Andersen's career with the actual game as background noise.  Such is the status of the 2013 Phillies season right now - background noise.