Friday, September 21, 2012

2012 Topps Archives #161 Chase Utley

Phillies 16, Mets 1
Game 150 - Thursday Night, September 20th in Flushing
Record - 76-74, 3rd Place, 15 1/2 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies scored eight times in the first inning and rode that and Tyler Cloyd's fine pitching performance to the eventual blow-out win.

What It Means:  The Phils swept the Mets, maintaining a four game deficit in the second Wild Card standings.

What Went Right:  The first six Phillies batters of the game singled, the seventh batter walked and the eighth batter was plunked.  After a double play ground out by Cloyd, the Phils added three more singles and ended the inning with eight runs on nine hits.  They'd eventually slug 21 hits on the night, led by Chase Utley's four-hit night and Juan Pierre's five singles.  It was easily the most fun I've had watching an inning of Phillies baseball all year, and I borrowed this graphic from the TV broadcast to put the historic inning into perspective:


Ryan Howard hit a grand slam in the ninth to put an exclamation point on the evening's festivities.

Cloyd allowed just three hits and one run in his eight innings of work, with his one blemish being a solo home run allowed to Mike Baxter.

Featured Card:  I could have gone with Cloyd or Pierre, but Utley's first four-hit night since 2008 gave him the final edge for this game's featured card.  This is his 1984 Topps-style card from this year's Topps Archives set.

No comments: