2010 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #14 Cody Ransom

Phillies 3, Diamondbacks 2 (11 Innings)

Game 102 - Thursday Night, July 29th in Philadelphia

On the day the Phillies acquired Roy Oswalt for the Postseason run (and beyond!), the team swept the last-place Diamondbacks out of town. It took a few extra innings, but Cody Ransom scored the winning run in the 11th thanks to an RBI-single from Wilson Valdez. It was Valdez' third hit of the night and he also dazzled in the field, turning two crucial inning-ending double plays. Unfortunately for Valdez, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs opted to omit him from their team set, so Ransom's IronPig baseball card gets featured instead. (Sorry, Wilson.)

Carlos Ruiz and Placido Polanco both enjoyed multi-hit games and the hot-hitting Raul Ibañez contributed a solo home run in the 6th. Kyle Kendrick pitched into the 7th, allowing just a run on 4 hits, but Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero combined to blow the team's 1-run lead in the 9th, erasing Kendrick's win. Brad Lidge pitched a perfect 10th - making the decision not to use him in the 9th a little curious.

The Phils could have easy phoned it in during this in-between game, as it came the day after the thrilling Domonic Brown debut and the day before Roy Story 2 is set to begin in Washington tomorrow night. But they pulled out the win, their 8th in a row and their 11th straight win at home. I have a good feeling about this.

2010 Chachi #42 Cody Ransom

Phillies 9, Reds 7 (10 Innings)
Game 85 - Friday Night, July 9th in Philadelphia

Unbelievable! This post was going to be about how lifeless the Phils look (again), and I had been debating if I should feature a Miguel Cairo baseball card (3 for 5 last night) or a Cliff Lee baseball card (traded to the Rangers yesterday) in the game summary. The Phillies sleepwalked through the first 8 innings of this game, finding themselves down 7-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th. They were getting completely out-played by the 1st place Cincinnati Reds. Joe Blanton was awful. He lasted into the 6th inning, allowing 6 runs on 12 hits. His ERA is now at 6.41, which is not very good.

And then the improbable happened. I didn't get too excited when Shane Victorino started the bottom of the 9th with a double, and then came around to score on a Ryan Howard single. 7-2 Reds. And I'll actually admit I called Greg Dobbs a ding-dong before his 3-run home run to make it 7-5 Reds. (That's right. I called him a ding-dong. Out loud.) But then pinch hitter Ben Francisco walked with 2 outs, and I was mildly interested. Up stepped pinch hitter Cody Ransom, who is on the roster solely due to the spate of injuries to the team. Ransom launched an 0-1 Francisco Cordero fastball into the first row of the right field seats for a 2-run home run and we were suddenly tied up with the Reds, 7-all.

All of that set up Howard's 2-run walk-off home run in the 10th, as the Phils won 9-7. It was the second walk-off home run in extra innings in as many days. Howard had the dramatic winning blast, but it was all made possible by Ransom's improbable pinch-hit home run in the 9th. Ransom is card #42 in this year's Chachi set.

Phillies debut: July 3, 2010
Major League debut: September 5, 2001
How acquired: Signed as a minor league free agent formerly with the New York Yankees, December 14, 2009.
Others wearing #12 in the 2000s: Mickey Morandini 2000, Brian L. Hunter 2001, Eric Valent 2002-2003, Anderson Machado 2003-2004, Ryan Howard 2004, Ramon Martinez 2005, Randall Simon 2006, Tadahito Iguchi 2007, T.J. Bohn 2008, Matt Stairs 2008-2009
2009 Postseason: Ransom finished the 2009 season with AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and didn't appear on the Yankees' Postseason roster.
Pictured: It's hard to track down a good picture of Ransom in a Phillies uniform. This shot was scanned from the Phillies 2010 Yearbook.