Game 100 - Sunday Afternoon, July 26th in Chicago
Record - 37-63, 5th Place, 16 1/2 games behind the Nationals
One Sentence Summary: The offense continued to rake against Cubs pitching and Aaron Nola pitched a solid ballgame to secure his first big league win.
What It Means: The Phillies are now 8-1 since the All-Star break, which is their best post All-Star break start since the 1970 Phillies went 9-1. This was their first three-game sweep in Chicago since August 2009 when Scott Eyre, Pedro Martinez and Cliff Lee were the team's winning pitchers. The game won by new Hall of Famer Martinez happened to be his Phillies debut.
The Phillies are off today and they'll open a quick two-game series in Toronto tomorrow night.
What Happened: Nola lasted 7 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits (two home runs) and striking out six. Odubel Herrera and Domonic Brown both had three hits, with Brown and Maikel Franco each driving in three runs. Franco (11) and Ryan Howard (18) homered in the win.
Featured Card: I expect Nola to be all over the 2016 Topps releases, but for now the only 2015 Topps cards I have of his in my collection are from the Bowman and Bowman Inception sets and this Topps Pro Debut card showing him with the High-A Clearwater Threshers.
File this one under "annoying." There is a variation of that card that looks like it was taken by the same photographer on maybe the next pitch, after moving ten steps to his right and zooming in slightly, and it goes for about $30 on eBay. At least they could have done a different pose. Anyway, Nola looks pretty good in his first two starts. Let's keep it going!
ReplyDeleteI'd gladly add the variation card to my collection, but definitely not at $30. I'm preparing myself for the glut of Nola and Crawford cards that will be in the 2016 baseball card releases. (And that's a good thing.)
ReplyDelete