Game 6 - Thursday Night, April 12th in Philadelphia
Record - 3-3, 3rd Place in N.L. East, 1 1/2 games behind the Nationals
One Sentence Summary: The Phillies rode a strong pitching performance from Joe Blanton and solo home runs from Shane Victorino and Ty Wigginton to a 3-1 win over the Marlins.
What It Means: The Phillies won their first series of the season, and they're back up to .500.
What Went Right: Blanton pitched a great ballgame, scattering three hits over his seven innings of work. He performance was backed up with stellar defense from Freddy Galvis, Victorino and Wigginton. Victorino and Wigginton also hit their first home runs of the season. Hunter Pence added two more hits to raise his average to .391 and he also made a nice diving grab in right.
Jonathan Papelbon allowed a few runners to reach in the ninth before retiring the Marlins and earning his second save.
Featured Card: Jenna and I attended our first game of the season last night. I picked up a new Media Guide and the team issued post card set which includes this Blanton card. I like the design of this year's cards with the wood-grain border across the bottom. The "2012 First Edition" below the player's name is a very good indication that the team will continue its recent tradition of issuing a mid- or late-season update series.
Here's a break-down of the 38-card set:
Players on the opening day 25-man roster - 23
Players currently on the disabled list - 4
Coaching staff and manager - 7
Phillie Phanatic card - 1
Players starting the season at Triple-A - 3
Field Report: The Phillies are off to a 1-0 start in games I've attended this season. The extra large baseball cards featuring the day's starting line-up are still in place, and the 2011 Topps design is still in use. I snapped this picture of the 2011 Topps Freddy Galvis card that never was. We were happy to find a new nachos stand behind Section 122, and I'd highly recommend the BBQ chicken nachos the next time you're at Citizens Bank Park.
Dammit, how'd I forget about the lineup cards. never got a shot of them on Monday - could have had a shot of Pierre for the CTNW series....I guess I need Spring Training b4 the season starts as well.
ReplyDeleteIt would be awesome if the Phillies could somehow reach an agreement with Topps to issue standard-sized versions of the lineup cards. By the way, that Blanton card didn't exist either. His regular Topps card used a different photo.
ReplyDeleteI literally just received the my Phillies Team Issue set in the mail. I love the "2012 First Edition" inclusion -- I hope that this means the team will continue with similar such notations on its other sets later this year.
ReplyDeleteI expect the Phillies will use a different design for the second edition for the third straight year. But watch for a "version 1.1" and "version 2.1" later. Last year the set sold on Opening Day was 2 cards short of the set sold later in the spring (before the second version came out). Somewhere I have the names of those two--Pete Orr may have been one of them.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, the second version was changed, although you needed both versions "2.0" and "2.1" to have everything. Version 2.0 didn't include Hunter Pence. Version 2.1 did but it cut out about 4 players. So you needed versions 1.1, 2.0 and 2.1 to get all of the cards issued. And maybe more, but that's what I noticed.
Since they did that last year, I will now be a freak and buy a second set in a month or two, and then the second version when it comes out and then again on Fan Appreciation Day or in the postseason. Good thing they're only $5!
I didn't realize they added a few more cards to the original set last year. Makes me wonder if they're already inserting Orr and Savery cards into the set in preparation for the next homestand.
ReplyDeleteOnly one way to find out.... Actually, last year the two added cards were inserted in the middle of the pack but a different direction. I only found out they were added by accident. IIRC, I bought a second set to get autographed at the ALS Carnival (what else are you going to have for guys like Baez, Sardinha, Gload, etc.) and noticed that two were facing the other way. When I got home I realized they were new.
ReplyDeleteFor the second one, it was similar. I bought it and, to be honest, didn't notice Pence wasn't in it. Late in the season I got two more in the vain hope this might be a World Champion team, and only a month or two ago did I notice that the set I had put in a binder didn't include Pence while the ones I had sealed did. Then I went through card by card and saw that he was the only new one but several were dropped (e.g., Romero and Baez, and maybe a few more).
So, as I mentioned, this year I will probably pick up a second set of each version around June and then at the end of the season just to be sure I have them all.