Game 23 - Thursday Afternoon, April 25th in Philadelphia
Record - 9-14, 4th Place, 7 games behind the Braves
One Sentence Summary: For the second game in a row, the bullpen couldn't contain the Pirates, and the Phillies lost, 6-4.
What It Means: The Pirates took three out of four from the punchless Phillies and the homestand ended with a disappointing 3-5 record. The team now heads to Flushing for three games with the Mets.
What Went Wrong: The bullpen just couldn't get the job done again and the offense continues to plop along. Cliff Lee cruised through the first five innings before allowing the first Pirates run in the sixth, and two more runs in the seventh. In total, he scattered 10 hits over seven innings while striking out seven.
Phillippe Aumont came on in the eighth, and departed after allowing three hits and a hit batter in a third of an inning. The big blow was Garrett Jones' double to right that scored two and gave the Pirates the lead.
Featured Card: Even though they just took three out of four from the Phils, I still think it's a shame that the Pirates only visit town once a year. Back in the day, the Phillies-Pirates rivalry was huge and The Vet would be packed for each of their several visits throughout the spring and summer. Unless these two teams meet up in postseason play, we won't see the Buccos and their third base coach Nick Leyva again until 2014.
I have this whole 1989 team set in an uncut sheet _autographed_ except for Tom Nieto and, IIRC, Mark Ryal. Not likely to be autograph show guests, unfortunately. (I wish it were Schmidt and Bowa that were missing.) Don't give me any credit, though. I picked it up on eBay for about $25 or $50 around a decade ago. Schmidt signed his in red sharpie, but everyone else is in black. I'd love to know the back story of who got this signed and how. I figure it was probably an auction item at an ALS carnival or somewhere, as I can't imagine someone carrying this around to get it signed at the stadium or at shows. If it were a better team, I'd get it framed, but, alas, it just sits rolled up in a tube among my collection.
ReplyDeleteStill - that's a great find. Too bad it wasn't an uncut, autographed sheet of the 1993 team!
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