Game 124 - Monday Night, August 23rd in Philadelphia
Let's get this one out of the way before turning our attention to the 16-inning debacle that went down in South Philly last night.
Under overcast skies and in a steady drizzle, the Phils played down to the middling Astros on Monday night, losing to former teammates Brett Myers and Michael Bourn. Radio broadcaster Larry Andersen called Joe Blanton's effort his best start of the year, as Blanton pitched 7 strong innings while allowing just 1 Astros' run and striking out 9. Blanton turned the game over to Ryan Madson in the 8th and that's when things fell apart.
Jason Michaels singled to start the inning and then Bourn reached on a dribbler up the 1st base line. Except he was out. Twice. He was out the first time when Ryan Howard tagged him, and he was out the second time when he left the base path. First base umpire Greg Gibson and Charlie Manuel disagreed on this point and Manuel found himself ejected from the ballgame. A few batters later, with 2 out and runners now on 2nd and 3rd, the Phillies opted to pitch to Carlos Lee with 1st base open. Lee promptly lined a single to left to score the two former Phillies and that was pretty much the ballgame.
The Phils blew a chance to score in the 6th thanks to Jayson Werth picking a bad time to daydream on the base paths. Following a 1-out double, Werth was somehow picked off 2nd by catcher Humberto Quintero following the 4th ball of an intentional walk. (Let me rephrase that: Myers had just finished intentionally walking Carlos Ruiz when the catcher threw down to 2nd base to pick off Werth.) Werth later revealed he had been distracted by Myers making funny faces, including a Gene Simmons impression. Seriously.
If the Phils fall short of the Postseaon this year, it will be games like this (and the soon be discussed Tuesday night 16-inning affair) that will stick out as games that had to be won.
Can He Still Pitch?: Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter has been named to the Phillies' minor league staff as a roving pitching consultant. His main objective is to teach pitcher Scott Mathieson the split-fingered fastball. Cool.
I was at the game last night... ugly. As Han would say of Lando, I have no love for the umpires (Empire) but the bottom line is, the Phillies put themselves in that spot by not scoring. They haven't scored in 5 of the last 6 games, and that could cost them the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteI wrote most of last night's game summary post during and right after the game last night, and I decided to refrain from posting it right away since I thought it may seem whiney in the light of day. I was right. I agree with you though - the umpires were horrible, but 2 runs isn't enough in 16 innnings to win ballgames.
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