Saturday, June 1, 2013

1989 Score #222 Don Carman

Brewers 8, Phillies 5
Game 55 - Friday Night, May 31st in Philadelphia
Record - 26-29, 3rd Place, 6 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The strange and troubling season for Cole Hamels continued as the last place Brewers easily defeated the Phillies, 8-5.

What It Means:  What's wrong with Hamels?  Is he hurt?  Is it in his head?  Is it just a case of really, really bad luck?  Unbelievably, Hamels record now stands at 1-9.

What Went Wrong:  Hamels was spotted a three-run lead in the first thanks to the white hot Domonic Brown's three-run home run.  But he gave up two runs in the second and another four runs in the third. Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy did the most damage on the night, going 5 for 5 with two home runs and four RBIs.

Brown drove in four of the Phillies five runs with two home runs.  His 15 home runs for the year now give him the National League lead in that category.

1971 Topps Coins #3
Featured Card/Coin:  Hamels became the first Phillies pitcher to lose nine games before June 1st since Kid Gleason did it back in 1891.  Gleason would later manage the 1919 Chicago Black Sox.  More recently, only two other Phillies pitchers have lost at least eight games before June 1st since 1970 - Jim Bunning in 1971 and Don Carman in 1989.  The silver lining for Hamels is that Carman (5.48) and Bunning (5.43) had much higher ERAs than his current 4.86.

Field Report:  We were there last night.  It was hot, and other than Brown's performance, there wasn't much to get excited about . . . until Jenna decided she needed funnel cake in the 8th inning.  I'm now 1-3 at Phillies games this year.  A few other random observations:

- Cesar Hernandez doesn't have a giant 2011 Topps-style card yet for the starting line-up in Ashburn Alley.  He received a generic card showing Citizens Bank Park.

- My son Doug has decided he wants to start a Phillies baseball card collection.  I'm trying to take baby steps with this, as I don't want to overwhelm the kid with my pure, unimaginable joy at this decision.  I bought him a Phillies team-issued set last night for $5, and I can report back that the set is unchanged from the one I bought back in March.

- Did I mention it was hot at the ballpark last night?

5 comments:

Dan said...

if cole hamels turns into don carman, then i'm going to turn into bruce ruffin

Jim said...

Lately I've been feeling more and more like Pat Combs.

Steve F. said...

My 5-year-old son and I are putting together a 2013 sticker collection. Every night we open a pack out of a box I bought on eBay after buying the first 10 packs at Target. He was psyched to get the Phanatic in about his third pack. Unfortunately, due to the fact that there are two pages of Giants stickers (one regular and one a puzzle of the on-field WS celebration), he seems to be fixating on them. Noooooo--wrong team!

But anyway, it's still a blast, and he is getting to know the logos and a few players. (He also knows the logos from one of those packs of mini pennants that he got as a souvenir at a game a couple years ago.) And I like how the sticker set has an all-time great for a number of the teams, so I can edu-ma-cate him on those players--so far Mays, Ruth and Koufax. Since (unlike his sisters at this age, but that's the difference between girls and boys) he can't read yet, he's matching up the stickers from the numbers on the back. And he already took it to show and tell on his last day of preschool. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed this is the start of him being a card collector!

Congrats on getting Ben into Phillies cards--may it be a long and rewarding first step!

Jim said...

Steve - This is awesome and enjoy every minute of it!

Steve F. said...

Thanks.

We went to the game last night and he wanted to buy a pack of stickers. $2 there versus $40 for the box of 50 we have at home! I bribed him with a cotton candy instead, plus he has a nice new Bobblehead on his shelf. So does the younger of my daughters. My older daughter asked me how much I thought she could get for hers on eBay!