Game 53 - 1974 Topps #632 George Culver

Rays 6, Phillies 2
Game 53 - Sunday Afternoon, May 30th in St. Petersburg
Record - 25-28, 3rd Place, 4 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  Defensive miscues, lack of clutch hitting again doomed the Phillies in this 6-2 loss to the Rays.

What It Means:  Whether it was Alec Bohm at third completely missing a catchable foul pop up or Brad Miller in right field airmailing a throw way over the head of the cut-off man, the Phillies continued to play poor defense in their latest loss.  They're 4-10 in their last 14 games.  The team stinks.

What Happened:  Zach Eflin lasted 4 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits.  The Phillies crept closer with two runs in the sixth to make it 4-2, on a J.T. Realmuto sacrifice fly and a ground-rule double from Miller.  But the two Rays runs that scored in the seventh after Miller's throwing error sealed this loss.

Featured Card:  For most of the Memorial Day weekend it rained where we live, washing out our oldest son's baseball tournament and confining us to the house during the heavier downpours.  I was grateful the Phillies were playing day games both Saturday and Sunday . . . until the actual games began and I was again reminded the Phillies just aren't that good right now.  I muted the latter innings of both Saturday and Sunday's games and during the debacle of this game I crafted several posts for my 1965 Topps blog.  It was a welcome distraction.  I compose these posts in advance and then schedule their publishing for a date in the future.  One of the cards I wrote about today, for a post scheduled for early July, was the Indians Rookie Stars card featuring George Culver and Tommie Agee, card #166 in the set.

And because the current day Phillies gave me little to no reason to use any of their current roster for this post's featured card, here's the final Topps flagship card appearance for Culver from the 1974 Topps set. Culver briefly pitched with the Phillies in 1973 and 1974.  He'd rejoin the team in 1981, serving as a roving minor league instructor and for the next decade-plus spending time as a coach or manager for the team's Double-A team in Reading or their Triple-A teams in Portland, Maine and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Transaction:  Roman Quinn (of) was placed on the 60-day injured list with his Achilles injury, effectively ending his season.  Travis Jankowski (of) had his contract purchased from Lehigh Valley.

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