Game 42 - Tuesday Night, May 20th in Miami
Record - 20-22, 4th Place, 4 games behind the Braves
One Sentence Summary: Jimmy Rollins and A.J. Burnett led the way in a 6-5 win over the Marlins in Miami.
What It Means: This game marked the first in a long stretch of 54 games in 56 days for the Phillies, leading up to the All-Star break. They started the stretch off right, winning their third game in a row. Amazingly enough, they’re only four games behind the first place Braves at this point.
What Happened: Burnett pitched five solid innings, allowing three runs on three hits on the way to his 150th career victory. He also had a key double in the fifth that set up Rollins' two-run home run a batter later. John Mayberry, Jr. contributed a pinch, two-run single in the sixth to give the Phils a little more breathing room. Center fielder Tony Gwynn, Jr. went hitless but made an impressive running catch in the fourth with his back completely to the plate.
Featured Card: Well look at what we have here! It's another Burnett Phillies card, featuring, in my opinion, the best card design of 2014. Don't believe me? Check out the full gallery over at The Shlabotnik Report and tell me whether or not you'd rather buy a blaster of these cards (in a wax wrapper!) or a blaster of 2014 Topps.
Burnett's performance wasn't fantastic, but he kept the team in the game and it's not every day that a pitcher wins his 150th game. For those reasons, he’s earned the featured (virtual) card.
Transactions: Before the game, the Phillies (and their fans) received the bad news that Cliff Lee was disabled list bound with an elbow strain. His rotation spot hasn't been claimed yet, but Darin Ruf was recalled from Lehigh Valley to take his spot on the roster. In less depressing DL-related news, pitcher Ethan Martin was activated from the disabled list over the weekend and sent to the IronPigs.
3 comments:
Those Shlabotnik Report cards _are_ the best design this year. The graphics for the team names are just fantastic.
I hadn't really thought about this before, but...since 2009, Topps has shown either the team's official logo or (in 2010) the team name in its official font on the front of the card every year. It got me wondering what years they had done that before. It looks like they did so in 1952-55, 1958-60, 1965, 1985, 1987, 1996-97, 2000-02 and 2005. So through 2008, team logos only appeared on the front of the card about 30% of the time. Now it is 6 years running.
I'm ready for them to take a year or two off and use the Shlabotnik Report design instead!
Aw, jeez, guys... You're making me blush!
I second Steve's recommendation.
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