Results tagged ‘ Shane Victorino ’
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.
GAME FOUR – CHAMPS ADVANCE TO LCS
GAME FOUR – CHAMPS ADVANCE TO LCS
by Max Blue
Colorado did not go down easy,
Their three-run 8th made us queasy.
But Phils saved the best for the last,
Keyed by R-How’s clutch two base blast.
On to LA, land of Dopey and Sneezy.
Monday, October 12, 2009. Coors Field,Denver, Colorado.
Philadelphia – 5, Colorado – 4.
WP – Madson (1-0) [5-5]. LP – Street (0-2) [4-1].
H – Eyre (2) [13].
BS – Street (1) [2].
S- Lidge (2) [31]
HR – Victorino (1) [10], 1st.; Werth (2) [36], 6th.
It was a warm and snuggly night in Denver, a cool 47 degrees at game time. Cliff Lee took the mound in the first inning with a one-run lead thanks to Shane Victorino’s first inning homerun off Rockies’ ace, Ubaldo Jiminez. Program note: two years ago, here at Coors Field in the 7th inning of the Game 3 LDS, Victorino homered off Jiminez to tie the game at 1-1 though the Phillies lost it 3-1. Lee pitched into the 8th with a 2-1 lead then turned it over to Mad Dog Madson following a bizarre acrobatic leap by Dexter Fowler over Chase Utley fielding Todd Helton’s weak grounder in the basepath. . Utley’s flip to Rollins was dropped leaving two on and cleanup hitter Troy Tulowitzki due to hit. Madson retired Tulow but yielded a game-tying single to pinch-hitter Jason Giambi and a two-run double to catcher Yorvit Torrealba who nearly dislocated his jaw screaming his pleasure. Not so fast, Yorvit, these are the World’s Champions, and they showed it by posting a three-spot of their own in the 9th. With two out and two on, Charlie Manuel’s “Big Piece”, R-How, himself, nailed a Huston Street pitch for a breathtaking shot off the base of the rightfield wall to score Victorino and Utley. Jason Werth followed with a well-placed dunk to rightcenter plating Howard with the game and series-ending hit, when Brad Lidge fanned Tulowitzki with two on to end it.
Bring on the LA Dodgers.
NO FISHING
NO FISHING
by Max Blue
http://maxblue3.tripod.com
Somebody hung out a sign:
NO FISHING, or you’ll pay a fine.
Phils backed away and let Fish swim,
but hey, those guys’ chances still slim.
Watch now and see Champs shine.
Sunday, August 9, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Florida – 12, Philadelphia – 3.
WP – Johnson (11-2), LP – Moyer (10-9).
HR – Helms (2), 9th, 1 on.
Feliz ( 8), 7th, 1 on.
Moyer was Moyer – 5 innings, 2 earned runs – into the 5th he had a 1-0 lead. That ain’t bad, sports fans, against a team desperate to close a yawning gap in the lost column with the season on the downhill side of the schedule. Josh Johnson is a fine pitcher – big fastball and killer changeup – Phils just inches of putting him away in the first inning – Rollins and Victorino on base when Utley and Howard both backed Fish outfielders to the wall for loud outs. Fish manager Fredi Gonzalez pulled out all the stops in the 5th. With 1 out, Bako muffed a Bonifacio bunt in front of the plate, Ramirez singled and the two tried a double steal, twice. The first time, Cantu fowled the pitch, the second time he singled to left for the 1-1 tie. Handle-hit singles by Helms and Ross gave the Fish a 3-1 lead before Moyer ended it with a strikeout and a fly out. The seventh saw Rodrigo Lopes flame out in a 6-run Florida feast.
The high point for more than 45,000 fans was a rare, maybe unprecedented, ejection of a centerfielder from his spot 350 feet away from homeplate. It was strike three, Victorino way out there, with his long-range vision in perfect focus, saw it clearly. When umpire Ed Rapuano called it a ball, Victorino couldn’t restrain himself; he jumped up and down and waved his arms. Then he did it again. Next it was Rapuano who couldn’t restrain himself – he almost threw his back out of joint with a major-league “you’re out of here, buster,” fling of his right arm into the air just short of the pitchers’ mound where he had sprinted to get closer to his centerfield tormentor. Then Victorino went into a sprint – he came at full gallop to the infield, flung catcher Bako out of his way, and would have put violent hands on the blind ump but for a major-league bearhug from Ryan Howard.
It was great theater and the fans loved it – never mind that the Champs were close to being swept on their home turf by their nearest competition. For the next three innings Philadelphia baseball fans had a glorious chance to unlimber the major-league boos they had been marshalling – somebody thought they ought to be booing Ryan Howard for taking a called third strike with tying runs on base, but how could they do that? And how could they boo Jamie Moyer, bless his creaky left arm? So they booed and booed, then booed some more as the afternoon slipped away under a 19-hit Fish assault that left the team, bruised and abused, limping out of town still looking at a five-game lost column lead over these pesky minnows masquerading as Fish.
SIX IN SEVENTH SINKS SOX
SIX IN SEVENTH SINKS SOX
by Max Blue
Another comeback win for the Champs,
helped by well-known Francona brain cramps.
J-Roll homered in seventh to break tie,
five runs followed, my-oh-my.
Park and Mad Dog then turned out Sox lamps.
Sunday, June 14, 2009. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia – 11, Boston – 6.
WP – Chan Ho Park (3-1), LP – Beckett (7-3).
HR – Baldelli (3), 2nd; Green (3), 2nd; Beckett (1), 6th.
Rollins (5), 7th.
Cramp one: Fifth inning, Josh Beckett dominating Phillies with 95 mph heat and knee-buckling curve ball, cruising with 4-1 lead. Shane Victorino, bless his Flyin’ Hawaiian heart, lines a clutch two-out single to right to cut the lead to 4-3, and Chase Utley dribbles one to third where Mike Lowell tries the bare-hand pickup, off balance throw that major league third baseman seem to feel is the mark of their trade, but more often than not fails miserably. Like now. Victorino is on third and Utley on second after Lowell‘s throw gets past Youkilis at first. Beckett is cool; he takes the ball and glares at Ryan Howard digging in.
Red Sox fans attention! Phillies fans have seen this before, here is a question for all arm-chair managers. Let’s take a poll. With first base open, tying run at third, go-ahead run at second, do you pitch to the guy who over the past four years has more runs batted in than anyone in baseball, or do you put him on and take your chances with a right handed hitter batting somewhere around .260?
For Terry Francona it’s a no-brainer.
The first pitch to H-bomb was fine,
and he hammered it tight to the line.
A double to right,
what a beautiful sight;
making Red Sox lead die on the vine.
Cramp two: Seventh inning. Josh Beckett is a warrior, but he’s not superhuman. His answer to Howard’s go-ahead double – he drills J. Happ’s first pitch in the top of the sixth over the 370 foot sign in left center field for a game-tying homerun. It was the first homerun by a Red Sox pitcher in three years. The last was in May, 2006 off Brett Myers at Citizens Bank Park by – drum roll, please – Josh Beckett. Yo, Tito: Is that why you left him in to start the 7th, even though he had already thrown over a hundred pitches? What about all those big arms in your bullpen, Tito?
Jimmy Rollins in season-long slump,
all efforts to break out, a failed jump.
Do we dare to take hope
from his game-breaking rope,
that at last he is over the hump?
A final note about those Red Sox fans, calling themselves a Nation, that made so much noise at the Bank yesterday. They were easy to spot with their jerseys, caps and such. And easily approachable, friendly, and not at all confrontational. But what does it say about Red Sox fans in general, when a random sampling reveals they didn’t know that Babe Ruth started as a Red Sox pitcher, and that the Red Sox won the 1915 World’s Series with a game five win just a few blocks up Broad Street from Citizens Bank Park here in Philadelphia?
PHILS PLAY LIKE PILLS
PHILS PLAY LIKE PILLS
by Max Blue
Tony B. hit a bump in the road,
and the Red Sox were quick to unload.
A first inning nightmare,
but wait, is it fair
to dismiss the kid as a toad?
Saturday, June 13, 2008. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Boston – 10, Philadelphia – 6.
WP – Okajima (3-0), LP – Bastardo (2-1).
HR – Bay (17), 1st, 1 on; Ellsbury (2), 9th.
Ibañez (22), 4th; Feliz (3), 4th, 1 on; Werth (9), 7th.
The Red Sox scored five first-inning runs in the ugliest inning the Phillies have played, maybe ever.
The Champs came into the game with only 19 errors in 59 games, by far the best fielding record in either major league. As a mid-June rain poured down in mind-numbing cascades, Bastardo’s pitches were off by just inches (no help from the home plate umpire this night), the defense collapsed (three errors), and the wet outfield kept Victorino from catching up with a sinking liner that would have ended the inning but instead bounced past him to the fence, for a base-clearing hit giving the Sox a five-run lead. It was ugly. You wanted to call for a mulligan.
After an hour-and-a-half rain delay, Chad Durbin pitched three scoreless innings, and the Champs began their comeback. This is what they do. They closed to 5-4 in the fourth on homeruns by Ibañez and Feliz. So. Here we are, five innings to play, down by one, and the Red Sox ready to send up their heavy right-hand-hitting artillery – Youkilis, Bay, and Lowell. Charlie looks at his options. He needs a right-handed pitcher. He has Condrey, Park, and Madson, his closer. From the left he has Taschner, Romero, and Escalona, called up before the game to replace Kendrick. Who can hold the fort? Not Taschner, the manager’s choice. The muscular Sox hammer the hapless lefty for three runs, and are denied three more when, with two out and the bases loaded, Victorino makes a spectacular back-to-the-plate, full extension grab just a few feet from where Aaron Rowand’s nose is forever embedded in the center field fence.
Francona has bullets in his bullpen and uses them to hold off the Champs for the final four innings. Red Sox fans, here by the thousands, celebrate, as they should. But here’s news, just in from Ipolipsis, the baseball god of superstition, hanging out on Mount Pocono in up-state Pennsylvania: “Relax, Phillies’ fans, you have the best team, in the end you will win, and Tony B. will win 10, maybe 12.”
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