Sunday, September 4, 2016

IronPigs Win! BlueClaws Win! (Phillies Lose.)

2016 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #5
2016 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #21
Braves 8Phillies 4
Game 134 - Friday Night, September 2nd in Philadelphia
Record - 60-74, 4th place, 19 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Braves scored eight unanswered runs, including four in the ninth off Jeanmar Gomez, stunning the Phillies with an 8-4 win.

What It Means:  It's almost the offseason . . .

What Happened:  Jeremy Hellickson was spotted a four-run lead he couldn't hold.  Gomez was handed a 4-4 tie in the ninth inning and he left the game without retiring a batter.

A.J. Ellis hit a three-run home run in the second inning.

Featured Cards:  While the big club was finding ways to lose their ballgame against the last place Braves, two of their farm clubs were clinching spots in their respective minor league playoffs.  The triple-A IronPigs, led by pitcher Ben Lively, clinched their second playoff spot in franchise history with a 7-1 win over the Red Wings.  Lively pitched six hitless innings, improving his Triple-A numbers to 11-5 with a 3.06 ERA.  He's 18-5 with a 2.69 ERA overall between the IronPigs and Double-A Reading this season.

The Lakewood BlueClaws also clinched their division and a playoff spot with a 10-4 win on Friday night.  Jose Pujols led the offense with an RBI-double and for the season Pujols leads the team with 24 home runs and 82 RBIs.

Transaction:  With rosters expanding to 40, the Phillies made their first round of September additions by calling up Darin Ruf, Colton Murray and left-handed reliever Patrick Schuster.  Andres Blanco was also activated from the disabled list.

As discussed in this post, I'm taking a poll on how collectors track baseball card collections. 

Please vote in the poll on the sidebar if you haven't already.  Thanks!

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