Results tagged ‘ Joe Blanton ’
DOG SEALS DEAL
DOG SEALS DEAL
by Max Blue
Mad Dog Madson burned the gun with high heat,
Gave Champs and their fandom a treat.
When you throw 98,
There’s a chance you’ll be great,
And send your pale foes to defeat.
Sunday, September 27, 2009, Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Philadelphia – 6, Milwaukee – 5.
WP – Blanton (12-7), LP – Bush (5-9)
H – Escalona (2), Durbin (8).
S- Madson (9).
HR – Cameron (23, 2nd; Gamel (5), 5th, 2 on.
Rollins (21), 1st.
Florida loses to Mets and is eliminated. Mets and their fans take satisfaction in returning the favor of the past two years when the Marlins eliminated the Mets on their home ground.
Braves sweep Nats but they are running out of games. Champion Phillies lead by five with seven to play – magic number at three. Braves also trail Colorado Rockies by two in loss column in tight battle for Wild Card spot.
With Madson’s performance in Milwaukee, Phils hope closer problem is solved. Hopes. High hopes.
MIAMI SPLIT
MIAMI SPLIT
by Max Blue
Game one:
BLANTON BLANKS
It was Blanton again stepping up
to drink from the Champion’s cup.
He put down the Fish,
who only could wish
they could shake like a wet-dog pup.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009. Land Shark Stadium, Miami, Florida.
Philadelphia – 9, Florida – 3.
WP – Blanton (11-7), LP – Josh Johnson (15-5).
HR – Ibañez (32), 8th.
Champs fanned 15 times but scored nine runs. Go figure.
Game two:
SANCHEZ BLANKS
The bats must have felt like lead,
how else this guy gets in Champs’ head?
Phils got only two hits,
Moyer his usual grits.
I think I’ll just go back to bed.
Florida – 3, Philadelphia – 0
WP – Anibal Sanchez (3-7), LP – Moyer (12-10)
S – Nuñez (24).
HR – Uggla (30), 2nd; Ross (23), 4th.
HEROES GALORE
HEROES GALORE
by Max Blue
Start with a homerun from Chase,
and see team heroes all over the place.
Blanton pitched like a star,
Ruiz, Feliz, Rollins, Lidge, even Eyre from afar.
Champs maintain pace in the race.
Sunday, August 30, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia – 3, Atlanta – 2.
WP – Blanton (9-6), LP – Jurrgens (10-9).
H- Eyre (13). S – Lidge (27).
HR – Prado (9), 1st.
Utley (29), 4th.
It was tense in the eighth when lefty Scott Eyre hitched up his pants, then his shoulders in his signature twitch. Champs nursing a 3-2 lead forged by a two-run Carlos Ruiz double in the seventh. Braves on first and second , nobody out and the dangerous Brian McCann at the plate. Eyre delivered a pair of sharp-biting sliders that had left hand hitter McCann back on his heels. The third slider was lined to the right of second base where Utley handled the short hop and quickly got the ball to Rollins coming across the bag. It looked like an easy 6-4-3 double play. But then an odd thing happened: Instead of firing to first, J-Roll pivoted and threw to Feliz at third who ran down Martin Prado for the second out, then fired to first for an inning-ending triple play. Not. McCann dove back an instant before Howard put the tag on him. No matter. Eyre retired Garrett Anderson to end the eighth, and Lidge was Lidge in a 1-2-3 ninth.
The 2008 Champions of Baseball went 16-11 in August and enter September with 34 games to play and an 8-game (9 in the loss column) NL East lead over Florida and Atlanta.
BLANTON BLANKED
Champion Phils score most runs in the league…
so what’s up with these shutouts? Fatigue ?
Sure, we know Lincecum’s good,
but don’t let him mess with your wood…
With two strikes he pulls string—where’s the intrigue ?
Saturday, Augusst 1, 2009, AT&T Park, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco 2 Philadelphia 0
WP Lincecum 2-3 LP Blanton 7-5
S Brian Wilson 27
Max Blue
2 x 2 x 2 x 2 + Joe
Citizens Bank Park July 26, 2009
Phillies 9 Cards 2
The runs kept coming, 2 by 2…
J Roll, Chase, Ryan and Raul too…
Old Joe just kept mowin’ ‘em down…
“P” of red is the talk of the town…
2 run taters by the abovementioned 4
plus a great 8 by Blanton
~jaybird~ C’mon back Max !!!
BLANTON BREEZES, LIDGE SQUEEZES
BLANTON BREEZES, LIDGE SQUEEZES
by Max Blue
http://maxblue3.tripod.com
Joe Blanton another good outing,
All-Star Werth the big hit for the shouting.
Lights-Out Lidge once again made it close,
as he gave us a Mitch Williams dose,
but we won, so for now we’re not pouting
Friday, July 10, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia – 3, Pittsburgh – 2
WP – Blanton (6-4), LP – Duke (8-8)
H – Romero (5). S – Lidge (18)
HR – G. Jones (3), 1st; B. Moss (3), 9th.
Charlie Manuel picks Jason Werth to replace injured Carlos Beltran on All-Star team.
Chris Coste placed on waivers and claimed by Houston Astros (Ed Wade knows talent).
Raul Ibañez activated from disabled list.
BIG BROOM
July 6, 2009
Sweep, sweep, sweep
And the Mets fans weep…
Hitting was fair…
But the pitching was better…
Phils win 3 with a flair…
Phils win 2-0 Blanton, et al
Phils get 3 hits, Mets 4
…
Catching up
by Max Blue
CHAMPS POUND SANTANA, LOSE
Johan Santana, baseball’s best pitcher, they say;
touched for four Phillies’ homers this day.
But wait! The guy can also field and hit,
plus a fearsome demeanor, and no quit.
Mets win as Phil’s pen fades away.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009. Citi Field, New York, New York.
New York Mets – 6, Philadelphia -5.
HR –
Wright (4), 2nd; Beltran (8), 3rd, 1 on; Church (2), 7th.
Howard (18), 4th; Ibañez (20), 4th; Rollins (4), 6th, 1 on; Utley (13), 8th.
Phils trailed Santana 3-0, but came back to take the lead onJ-roll’s two-run homerun in the 6th. Condrey coughed up a game-tying double to Santana after he failed to get down a sacrifice bunt.
Brad Lidge placed on 15-day disabled list with sore knee. Catcher Paul Bako called up from Reading. Ryan Madson designated closer.
UTLEY BOOKENDS METS
Chase the Mace homered early and late,
Thus sealing New York Mets’ fate.
Cole Hamels not King on this night,
down 4-1 after five he took flight,
Champs fought back, and the bullpen was great.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Citi Field, New York, New York.
Philadelphia – 5, New York Mets – 4 (11 innings).
WP – Park (2-1), LP – Parnell 2-1)
BS – Green (2), S – Madson (3).
HR – Utley – 2 (14,15), 4th, 11th.
SOMETHING EXTRA – IBAÑEZ
A three-run, 10th inning blast!
How long can this feeling last?
The Phillies are best,
they’ve passed every test,
with Ra-oool leading the all-star cast.
Thursday, June 11, 2009. Citi Field, New York, New York.
Philadelphia – 6, New York Mets – 3 (10 innings).
WP – Eyre (1-1), LP – Parnell (2-2).
S – Madson (4).
HR – Ibañez (21), 10th, 2 on.
World Champion Phillies coming home after a dominating 10-game road trip (now 23-9 on the road), to begina 15-game inter-league stretch beginning with AL East leading Boston Red Sox, and their failed former Phillies manager, Terry Francona.
The good news: Eyre was a winner after retiring a single batter.
The bad news: Eyre on DL when he strained a calf muscle running in from the bullpen.
WHIFF
When the World Champs whiff 20 times,
It’s hard to come up with good rhymes.
Kyle Kendrick came back,
and took a bad whack
adding to team home-loss crimes.
Joe Blanton and Jon Lester duked it out.
tied at two on H-bomb’s 9th inning clout.
In the 13th, KK caved in,
And the Phils took a shot to the chin.
Hard to not sit down and pout.
Friday, June 12, 2008. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Boston – 5, Philadelphia – 2 (13 innings)
WP – Saito (2-0), LP – Kendrick (0-1).
H – Okajima (11). BS – Ramirez (1). S- Bard (1).
HR – Youkilis (11), 4th; Drew (9). 5th.
Howard
BLANTON’S FEET
BLANTON’S FEET
by Max Blue
On a cold rainy night in late May,
Joe Blanton at last had his say.
Something about feet;
whatever; result sweet,
we’ll take shutout pitching any day.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia – 5, Florida – 3.
WP – Blanton (3-3), LP – Miller (1-2).
S – Lidge (9).
Blanton threw 114 pitches in seven innings. He struck out a career high 11 batters, mostly with a late-breaking slider, and lowered his ERA to 6.14. About those feet – he claimed his previous problems were because, with men on base, his feet were too close together when he went into his stretch. Or was it because they were too far apart? Whatever. Lidge got into the game when the Phils teetered on blowing a ninth inning 5-0 lead. The near-grief, and nail-biting ending concluded with the tying run in scoring position when Lidge got Wes Helms to do what he always seemed to do in his year with the Phillies back in ’07 – to lunge at an out-of-the-strike-zone slider. The ugly inning was set up when Ryan Howard, after more than 300 errorless and sometimes spectacular plays, reverted to one of his old, and we had hoped corrected, flaws – the dreaded throw to shortstop. With one out and the bases loaded in a 5-0 game, Howard fielded a potential game-ending double-play ball and fired it somewhere into the night in the direction of the left field foul pole, so far from Rollins that J-roll could only watch aghast as the ball rolled towards the leftfield ballgirl and two runs scored.
Lidge, after putting the potential game-tying run on with a walk, got his 9th save and lowered hia ERA to 8.85. In 2008, when Lidge was Lights Out, he gave up 15 earned runs all year. This year, it’s not yet June, and he has already allowed 20 earned runs. Maybe he needs to look at how apart his feet are when he goes into the stretch.
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