Meeting The Bull (Again)

Phillies 4, Mets 3
Game 157 - Tuesday Night, September 29th in Philadelphia
Record - 60-97, 5th Place, 29 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  Darin Ruf's three-run home run in the first along with excellent relief pitching gave the Phillies the 4-3 win.

What It Means:  The Phillies will need to go 3-2 the rest of the way to avoid 100 losses.

What Happened:  Ruf's home run was key but it turned out the Phillies also needed the insurance run delivered with an Aaron Altherr RBI single in the seventh.  Adam Loewen retired the final batter of the fifth inning which made him the pitcher of record.  He recorded his first win since 2007 and also recorded his first hit since 2011 when he was an outfielder for the Blue Jays.

Featured Card/Field Report:  The paid attendance was 15,227, but I'd estimate there were much fewer than half of that actually at the game.  Doug and I were at this game, along with a few thousand of our closest friends and a lot of empty blue seats.  We got a little wet from a steady rain in the later innings, but overall we had a good time.

The sparse crowd gave us just about all of Section 315 to ourselves and allowed us to leisurely browse the concourse and the various merchandise stores and kiosks prior to and during the game. The Phillies are now an improbable 8-6 this season in games I've attended.  A few other observations:

• Greg Luzinski was perched in his usual seat by Bull's BBQ and Doug had brought along a 1972 Ticketron Phillies card for The Bull to sign.  Luzinski obliged with an autograph and a picture, although he did seem a little cranky.  I guess sitting through 70+ Phillies home games this season will do that to a guy.
• Darnell Sweeney has an official giant line-up card, but Brian Bogusevic does not.
• I bought a $3 second series photo card set solely to confirm there were no new cards added to the set.  Suspicion confirmed.

Memory Lane

Bull Meeting #1 - April 2010

Bull Meeting #2 - August 2013