PHILLIES JOURNAL 2010
PHILLIES JOURNAL 2010
by Max Blue
PHILS THUMP HOUSTON
The top of Phils lineup is hot,
the ‘Stros to their sorrow are not.
Team raps sixteen hits, scores eight runs,
While Happ and pen muffle ‘Stros guns,
Philly fans smiling a lot.
Friday, April 9, 2010. Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas.
Philadelphia – 8, Houston – 0.
WP – J.A. Happ (1-0), LP – Bud Norris (0-1)
HR – Utley (1), 4th.
Phillies’ fans are smiling because in the first four games of the 2010 season, (1) Jimmy Rollins has walked five times, and is hitting .467 with 3 doubles and a triple, (2) Placido Polanco, after today’s 4 hit game, is hitting 579 with 8 RBIs including a Grand Slam homerun, (3) Chase Utley, after hitting his first homerun today, is hitting .438 with 4 RBIs, (4) Ryan Howard is hitting line drives to all fields, has struck out only one time, has two homeruns, 7 RBIs, and a .400 batting average. .
PHILLIES JOURNAL 2010
NO SWEEP IN NATS TOWN
by Max Blue
Phils came that close to a sweep,
but for Kendrick’s and Ibañez’ deep sleep.
Team clawed back for a fifth inning tie,
then lost on a walk and a bloop, my o my.
Year’s first loss no reason to weep.
Thursday, April 8, 2010. Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
Washington – 6, Philadelphia – 5.
WP – Tyler Clippard (1-0), LP – Nelson Figueroa (0-1)
H – Sean Burnett (1), Brian Bruney (1)
BS – Clippard (1). S – Matt Capps (1)
HR – Willie Harris (1), 4th, 1 on.
After a stellar Spring Training, and a media hype about how much he had learned from
Roy Hallady, Kyle Kendrick, in the rotation because Joe Blanton pulled an abdominal muscle, took the mound against the bottom feeding Washington Nats and saw his second pitch to leadoff man Nyjer Morgan scorched into the right-center gap for a triple. It only got worse after that. In four innings he threw 55 pitches, gave up six hits and five runs including a 2-run homer to little man Willie Harris.
.
Raul Ibañez was 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position including a weak pop up with the tying run on third and one out in the 9th. Raool is hitting .095 after going
1 for 11 in the 3-game series.
PHILLIES JOURNAL 2010
H-BOMBS, HAM GROANS
Cole Hamels was not at his best;
the five-inning grind was a test.
Ryan Howard came through,
with homerun number two,
with this guy the Phillies are blessed.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
Philadelphia – 8, Washington – 4.
WP – Hamels (1-0), LP – Marquis (0-1).
H- Durbin (1), Bastardo (1).
S – Madson (1)
HR – Desmond (1), 3rd.
Howard (2), 5th, 1 on.
PHILLIES JOURNAL 2010
PHILLIES JOURNAL 2010
by Max Blue
OPENING DAY, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010. It’s a bright sunny and warm day in the Nations’ Capitol,
and the honorable Barack Obama, sports fan, and incidentally, President of the United States, toes the rubber with his left foot and rocks into a herky-jerkey motion. The pres wears a red satin Washington Nationals jacket and on his head, a wrinkled Chicago White Sox cap to show the crowd where his baseball allegiance rests. The good natured crowd handed him the first Bronx cheer of the day when he whipped out the cap on his way to the mound. The TV announcers note that Obama’s pitch marks the 100th anniversary of the day in 1910 when William Howard Taft became the first U.S. President to throw out the first pitch of the baseball season (never mind that made-for-TV Yankees-Red Sox game last night).
The pitch is high and away, nowhere near the strike zone, a fitting reminder of where the 2010 Washington Nationals are likely to end the season. The star-spangled Phillies’ lineup takes a couple of innings to get the kinks out, then goes to work on John Lannan, the hapless Nats’ lefty to the tune of a five-run fourth inning keyed by Ryan Howard’s two-run blast over the right field bullpen. Placido Polanco ices the cake with the first Grand Slam of the season in the 7th inning. Meanwhile, Doc Halladay fans nine Nats in seven innings on the way to an 11-1 win. Phillies’ fans are pleased by the near-perfect outcome, but nervous at the thought that the successful 2006, 07, 08, and 09 seasons all began with an opening day loss. Whatever. We will do what we have to do.
DOC HALLADAY’S FIRST DAY
Welcome to Philly, new friend,
let’s hope that this win starts a trend
to a big winning season
we’ll all find most pleasin’
with a World’s Series crown at the end.
Monday, April 5, 2010. Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
Philadelphia – 11, Washington – 1.
WP – Halladay (1-0), LP – Lannan (0-1)
HR – Howard (1), 4th, 1 on; Polanco (1), GRAND SLAM, 7th.
.
Brown in Town
To Philly town came Domonic Brown, an outfield job to find. The kid had all five tools, and longballs on his mind. But mostly what he sought was a Champion’s cap for his crown. The 22-year-old lefty didn’t hurt his cause on this sun-splashed west-Florida day. In the second-inning, with Detroit-ace Justin Verlander buzzing his heat, the kid turned on an inside pitch and launched it over the rightfield seats for a 1-0 Phillies lead. Two innings later, hitting against lefty Steve Coke, the phenom was at it again with a two-run blast to center, and then in the fifth he bounced a bases-loaded infield hit to complete his three for three, four RBI day. After the game, Domonic Brown packed his bags and headed for the Phillies’ minor league camp. Say what? If the Phillies were a bad team and destined for a somnolent summer, Dom Brown would no doubt still be polishing his major league credentials, but when you are three-straight NL East Division Champions, and have all-stars at all three outfield positions, Brown has to go down to the farm and wait his turn. He will do that, and so will Phillies’ fans – thank you, Ruben, Junior, for not trading what might be the next Phillies superstar. The folks in Reading are smiling. More good news: Cole Hamels pitched five innings, yielding one unearned run, and Ryan Howard hit his first Spring Training homerun. Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Brighthouse Field, Clearwater, Florida. Philadelphia – 6, Detroit – 1. WP – Hamels (1-0), LP – Verlander (1-2). HR – Brown -2 (2), 2nd; 4th, 1 on. Howard (1), 4th.
GAME FIVE – CLIFF AND CHASE SET THE PACE – II
GAME FIVE – CLIFF AND CHASE SET THE PACE -II
by Max Blue
Champs with their backs to the wall,
One more slip to a messy Fall fall.
“Not tonight,” whispered Cliff and Chase,
eyeing tape at the end of the race.
Two more wins, Champs again standing tall.
Monday, November 2, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia – 8, New York Yankees – 6.
WP – Cliff Lee (2-0), LP – A.J. Burnett (1-1).
S- Madson (1).
HR – Utley – 2 (5), 1st, 2 on, 7th. Ibañez (1), 7th.
Charlie Manuel dug deep into his praise bag in a post-game commentary, trying to explain what kind of a ballplayer Chase Utley was. The words, “Best ever,” came out, and Charlies’ exclamation point, “I’m just glad he plays for me.” So are we, Charlie.
Utley’s first inning three-run homer off A.J. Burnett, who had stifled the Champs three days earlier at Yankee Stadium, brought countless cries of joy to Phillies’ fans near and far, who couldn’t help thinking: “A two-run lead for Cliff Lee? Bag it, baby.” But Lee ran out of gas in the eighth inning after Utley and Raoool tacked on two with 7th inning homers. Utley’s fifth World’s Series homerun tied him with Yankee Reggie Jackson for the most all time.
Credit the Yankees with their own brand of grit. Trailing 8-2 in the eighth, they got to Lee for three, and in the ninth, down three, they struck at the Champs soft closer underbelly, and came within one swing of tying the game. But Teixeira, the 2009 American League homerun leader, ended the drama with a lunging swing and miss at Madson’s disappearing changeup.
The Champs need two more wins to repeat. They’ll have to do it in Yankee Stadium.
Game Four – Yankees!
GAME FOUR – YANKEES!
by Max Blue
Lidge in the 9th sought to reprise past glory.
The result was a loss, almost gory.
It hardly seems fair
To remove all the air
From a highly inflated Phil’s story.
Sunday, November 1, 2009. Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
New York Yankees – 7, Philadelphia – 4.
WP – Chamberlain (1-0), LP – Lidge (0-1)
H – Marte (1). BS – Chamberlain (1) S – Rivera (2).
HR – Utley (3), 7th; Feliz (1), 8th.
It sure looked like another bracing comeback when Pedro Feliz caught a 95 mph Joba Chamberlain fast ball on the fat part of the bat and sent it soaring into the left field Bank vault to tie the game at four with two out in the eighth inning. Charlie Manuel was thinking 2008 all over again when he sent Brad Lidge to the mound in the 9th. Charlie was one pitch away, but it was a pitch too far when Lidge, after retiring Godzilla Matsui and the peerless Captain Jeter, had his hand on the light switch facing Johnny Damon. He could not flip the switch. Damon served a single to left after fouling away an endless string of Lidge fastballs and sliders. With Teixeira batting from the left side, the Phillies infield went into an exaggerated shift that found third baseman Feliz stationed close to second base. Damon then stole second and third on the same pitch, outrunning Feliz to the uncovered third base when Lidge became a spectator. The game and possibly the Championship in the balance, Lidge folded. He hit Teixeira with a pitch, then yielded a stinging double to A-Rod, and a two-run single to Posada.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over, but the outlook isn’t brilliant. The Champs need three straight wins to repeat.
Game 3- Yankees
GAME THREE – YANKEES
Young King Cole
Was a dismal old soul
And a dismal old soul was he.
He called for his curve
And he called for his nerve.
What he got was a loss in game three.
Saturday, October 31, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
New York Yankees – 8, Philadelphia – 5.
WP – Pettitte ( 1-0), LP – Hamels (0-1)
H – Chamberlain (1)
HR – Alex Rodriguez (1), 4th, 1 on; Swisher (1), 6th; Matsui (2), 8th.
Werth – 2 (2), 2nd; 6th; Ruiz (1), 9th.
The Champs let it get away in the second inning. Andy Pettitte was on the ropes after Jason Werth’s leadoff homerun and a one out bases loaded walk to J-Roll gave them a 2-0 lead. Victorino, thinking grand slam, lunged at two pitches in the dirt before hitting a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead. Yo, Flyin’, another bases loaded walk would have been better. But it probably wouldn’t have mattered the way Utley and Howard were flailing helplessly at Pettitte’s sweeping curve – five K’s between them for the night, Howard three for the second straight game, and eight for the series. Come on, H-Bomb, you’re better than that.
Hamels breezed into the fourth with the three-run lead, then, on a 3-2 count walked Teixeira on a pitch he thought was strike three. Instant replay would have confirmed it, but that piece of 21st century technology was saved for the next batter, the enigmatic A-Rod, who, up to this point was like Howard, a series whiff machine. Hamels, still stewing over the blown strike three, fed the money-drenched Yankee third baseman, and likely future Hall of Famer with his nearing six hundred career homeruns, a pitch up in the strike zone that A-Rod hit 330 shrimpy feet down the right field line into the lens of the Fox network TV camera hanging over the railing some six feet in fair territory. The Umpires called it a double but changed it to a homerun when they ducked into the TV room under the grandstand for an instant replay review that left the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig shaking their heads is frank amazement. Prolipsis, the Pennsylvania baseball god was seen in the mist above center field giggling and gesturing jubilantly to some of her pals. Yo, Prolipsis, this is the Bank, you’re supposed to be on our side.
Whatever. Hamels became totally undone in the next inning, hanging a curve to the limp Nick Swisher, and a game-tying single to Pettitte, the first World’s Series hit by a Yankee pitcher in almost 50 years. Enough already, Prolipsis. The next five Yankee runs are too painful to talk about.
But take heart, Phillies’ fans, tomorrow we get a crack at C.C. Sabathia, pitching on three day rest. Remember the last time he tried that at the Bank?
Game One – Cliff and Chase Set the Pace
GAME ONE – CLIFF AND CHASE SET THE PACE
by Max Blue
For those who had doubts,
Note C-Lee’s arm and C-Ut’s clouts.
The mystique of Yankee Stadium,
Lost in Phil’s radioactive radium,
And just enough,”Let’s go Phillies!” shouts
Sabathia and Lee duked it out,
The difference: Utley hit two out.
Lee in command all the way,
A ten K, no walks day.
Any doubt what this game’s all about?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009. Yankee Stadium, the Bronz, New York.
Philadelphia – 6, New York Yankees – 1.
WP – Cliff Lee (3-0), LP – CC Sabathia (3-1).
HR – Utley – 2 (31), 3rd, 6th.
Cliff Lee, the Phillies’ gold-plated, ice-water veined, lefthander dismissed a Yankee team that led the majors in wins, homers, and runs, with cool disdain, fanning 10, including the ballyhooed Alex Rodriguez, the fearsome A-Rod, three times. Lee was machine-like in command of at least four pitches – 4-seam fastball, 2-seam fastball, spiked curve ball, cutter, and changeup. Did I say four? The Yankees’ run came in the 9th inning on an error by Jimmy Rollins that Lee shrugged off with K’s of A-Rod and Posada to end it.
CC Sabathia, the mountainous Yankee lefty, was almost as good but for two fastballs that Chase Utley hit into the rightfield bleachers.
Next up: Game two. Pedro Martinez for Philadelphia, A.J. Burnett for New York. In a pre-first- game press conference, Pedro announced to the New York writers, and the world, that he, Pedro Martinez, might be the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. Any questions?
NL LCS GAME THREE – CLIFF LEE DAZZLES DODGERS
GAME THREE – CLIFF LEE DAZZLES DODGERS
by Max Blue
On a cool October night at the Bank,
Champs have Cliff Lee and their lumber to thank
For putting Dodgers under
With fastballs and thunder,
LA is walking the plank to the tank.
Sunday, October 18, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia – 11, Los Angeles Dodgers – 0.
WP – Lee (1-0), LP – Kuroda (0-1)
HR – Werth (1) [36], 1st, 1 on; Victorino (1) [10].8th, 2 on.
Phillies played the way champions are supposed to play: score lots of runs and shut out the opposition. They jumped all over Hiroki Kuroda, the only Dodger pitcher to beat them in the 2008, LCS. Ryan Howard’s two-run triple began the run parade in the first inning, followed shortly thereafter by Jason Werth’s missile off the ivy climbing the brick wall beyond the centerfield fence. Cliif Lee took it from there: eight innings, three singles, no walks, no runs, 10 strikeouts, tieing him with Steve Carlton and Curt Schilling for most Ks in a post-season game. Howard’s first inning RBIs set a major league record of RBIs in seven consecutive post-season games in the same year.
Lookin’ good, Champs.
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