2015 Topps '52 Tribute Gold #294 Ryan Howard

Marlins 4, Phillies 3
Game 24 - Friday Night, May 1st in Miami
Record - 8-16, 5th Place, 8 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  The Marlins came from behind to walk-off with a 4-3 win.

What It Means:  The Phillies start the month of May with a loss and only the Brewers (5-18) have a worse winning percentage than the Phils.

What Happened:  It really looked as if this was going to be the Phillies night after Chase Utley's three-run home run in the third.  But that was the only offense produced by the Phillies and the Marlins hung around long enough for the win.

Giancarlo Stanton scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth, coming around on Marcell Ozuna's double off Ken Giles.

2010 Hero Decks

Featured Cards:  Ryan Howard played in his 1,299th game at first base for the Phillies, bumping Fred Luderus from the top spot of games played at the position in franchise history.  Luderus had held the record since his final game on June 23, 1920.

I recently purchased the gold '52 Tribute team set from the Topps website, which features 10 oversized (5 x 7) Phillies cards numbered to just 49 sets.  (It's 11 cards if you count the unnumbered header card.)  The regular version of this set is numbered to 99, while the gold version is numbered to 49 and contains a bonus "legend" card.  In the Phillies case, the "legend" is Mike Schmidt.  There's more about this set in a recent blog post over at 14,000 Phillies.

I also wanted to pay tribute to Luderus who is now second all-time in games played at first base for the Phillies.  The only card of his in my collection is from the 2010 Hero Decks set.  Team Phungo wrote more about Luderus in a January post.