2016 Chachi #71 Leading Firemen - Gomez, Neris, Mariot

Perhaps the hardest thing to watch during the latter part of the Phillies season was the complete implosion of Jeanmar Gomez as the team's closer.  Unofficially removed from the closer's roll during the final weeks of September, Gomez tallied a 19.13 ERA (17 earned runs in 8 innings) over his final 12 games.  The emergence (and dominance) of Hector Neris as an extremely effective late inning reliever means that he's probably one of the few pitchers guaranteed a spot in the team's 2017 bullpen.

Memory Lane - Chachi Leading Firemen Cards
2005 - Billy Wagner, 38
2006 - Tom Gordon, 34
2007 - Brett Myers, 21
2008 - Brad Lidge, 41
2009 - Brad Lidge, 31
2010 - Brad Lidge, 27
2011 - Ryan Madson, 32
2012 - Jonathan Papelbon, 38
2013 - Jonathan Papelbon, 29
2014 - Jonathan Papelbon, 39
2015 - Jonathan Papelbon, 17 (no card created)
2016 - Jeanmar Gomez, 37

2005 Chachi #59

2006 Chachi #68

2007 Chachi #66

2008 Chachi #62

2006 Upper Deck #740 Arthur Rhodes

Reds 4, Phillies 3
Game 76 - Wednesday Afternoon, June 30th in Cincinnati

June went out with a whimper and a series loss in Cincinnati.  If not for Jay Bruce's 2-run home run in the 8th inning this afternoon, you'd be looking at a splendid 2010 Chachi card of back-up catcher Dane Sardinha right now.  Sardinha provided the Phillies' only offense today, hitting a 3-run home run in the 4th.  Busy at work, I turned my attention away from the game at the end of the 6th inning with the Phils holding a 3-1 lead.  By the time I had a chance to check the score again, it was 4-3 Reds and the game was all but over.

Roy Halladay pitched another complete game (why?) but he was the victim of low run support and two home runs to Bruce in the 8th and Joey Votto in the 6th.  He struck out 10 and threw an amazing 89 strikes out of 119 pitches.  But you can't win ballgames when Wilson Valdez (2 more hits) and Dane Sardinha are your offensive stars.  The middle of the line-up was AWOL again, going 2 for 16 with 7 strikeouts.  Former Phillie Arthur Rhodes picked up the win in relief for the Reds.

2010 Chachi Set:  Speaking of Chachi cards . . . the 2010 Chachi set now stands at 41 cards with the addition of Brian Bocock to the roster yesterday.  I have fronts and backs finished for all but 2 of the cards in the set.  (I need to wrap up the backs of the team card and Charlie Manuel's card.)  I had been holding these cards back just in case Nelson Figueroa or David Herndon or Paul Hoover did something astounding to earn star of the game status and thus have their Chachi card featured in a game summary post.  I've come to realize the chance of that happening is slim (sorry guys), so look for these cards to start popping up between now and the All-Star break.

2006 Chachi #24 Arthur Rhodes

Why couldn't he have had the surgery a few years earlier?

2006 Phillies - 0-5 with a 5.32 ERA and 3 very, very painful blown saves over 55 appearances

2007 Mariners - Missed the entire season following Tommy John surgery

2008 Mariners & Marlins - 4-1 with a 2.04 ERA in 61 games, no home runs allowed

2009 Reds (through Sunday) - 0-0 with a 0.75 ERA through 16 games

Here's hoping Raul and Ryan help Arthur have a few flashbacks to '06.