1989 Donruss #40 Ron Jones

White Sox 5, Phillies 4 (Game 1 - 11 Innings)
Game 94 - Saturday Afternoon, July 13th in Philadelphia
Record - 46-48

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies squandered several late inning scoring opportunities, eventually losing in ugly fashion in 11 innings to the White Sox, 5-4.

What It Means:  The Phils endured the heat, came from behind to tie the game, waited out a rain delay . . . and gift wrapped a win for the White Sox.  Hopefully they fare better in game two of the double header tonight.

What Went Wrong:  The Phillies had runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth with nobody out, and couldn't score.  They had runners on first and third in the bottom of the tenth with one out, and they couldn't score.  Particularly painful to watch was pinch-hitter Laynce Nix's strike out in the ninth and Delmon Young's follow-up strike out in tenth.

2004 Topps Retired
Signature #76

The White Sox plated two in the 11th off J.C. Ramirez as a result of a triple from Alejandro De Aza, a double from Alexi Ramirez and a booted ground ball from Jimmy Rollins.  If not for the error from Rollins, the Phillies would have tied up the game in the bottom of the 11th on Humberto Quintero's pinch-hit RBI single.

Featured Cards:  I would have loved to have featured a card of whichever Phillie provided the walk-off hit, but it wasn't to be.  It was Darin Ruf's solo home run in the seventh that tied the game up at 3-3.  After his home run, CSN's Reuben Frank provided this fantastic fact:  "Darin Ruf is the first Phillie with 5 home runs in his first 20 career games since Ron Jones in 1988."  Frank went on to add that joining Ruf and Jones in that group are also Buzz Arlett (1931) and Dick Allen (1964).

Sadly, my current baseball card collection does not include any Buzz Arlett cards.