Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Game 54 - Phils Limp Out of May, 4 Games Under .500

2006 SP Legendary Cuts
When It Was a Game #WG-JK
Reds 11
, Phillies 1
Game 54 - Monday Afternoon, May 31st in Cincinnati
Record - 25-29, Tied for 3rd Place, 5 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  For a Phillies fan, this game was miserable, as the team couldn't do anything right in an 11-1 loss to the Reds.

What It Means:  We entered the long holiday weekend looking forward to our son's first travel baseball tournament of the year.  When those games were all rained out, we pivoted to looking forward to a relaxing weekend with three Phillies afternoon games on the schedule.  The Phillies and the weather didn't cooperate, but at least there was plenty of relaxing which is somewhat unusual for us for a Memorial Day weekend.  When this game got out of hand early, our youngest son Ben and I retreated to the nearby park's tennis courts to spend a little time in the sun.

What Happened:  Vince Velasquez pitched like pre-2021 Vince Velasquez, getting knocked out after allowing six runs over three innings.  Phillies relievers Chase Anderson (3 innings, 2 runs) and David Hale (1 2/3 innings, 3 runs) couldn't stop the bleeding.  The offense went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.  In postgame press conferences the common theme from manager Joe Girardi's and first baseman Rhys Hoskins' comments was that the team just needed to weather the storm.  A few trades at this point probably wouldn't hurt either.

Featured Card:  Riding back from the tennis courts towards the end of this game, radio announcer Scott Franzke hoped the Phillies weekend play hadn't ruined too many fan's weekends.  In talking about this game and the weekend, television analyst John Kruk said, "I'm just trying not to swear."

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