A day after the Nats hit four in a row.
The D’Backs hit three in a row, to lead off the game.
Continue reading “Game 139 // First Inning // D’Back to Back to Back”
A day after the Nats hit four in a row.
The D’Backs hit three in a row, to lead off the game.
Continue reading “Game 139 // First Inning // D’Back to Back to Back”
We’ve come a long, long way together. Through the hard times and the good.
I have to celebrate you, Jason.
I have to praise you like I should.
Continue reading “Game 131 // Ninth Inning // Praise You, Jason Heyward”
BOTTOM OF THE SECOND: BREWERS 8 (0) – 2 PHILLIES
First game back after the All-Star break.
The Brewers up five games in the NL Central. Their best season since 2011.
Second inning, down two runs, Domingo Santana up to bat—the beginnings of one of those “But Wait There’s More” innings. Continue reading “Game 105 // Second Inning // Snowman in Milwaukee”
BOTTOM OF THE FIRST: PHILLIES 12 (0) – 0 NATIONALS
It’ll happen to them all someday. The knees creak, the vision dims. The fastball speed drops below 90, the run to first base slows down. The baseball death knell marks the end of a career.
But not like this. On his birthday?
Baseball death on April 8th, 2017. Goodbye, Mr. Jeremy Guthrie.
TOP OF THE EIGHTH: METS 5 (3) – 1 PHILLIES
Coming back from commercial break, the furry green Philly Phanatic is dancing atop the dugout with “Franklin The Dog” of the 76ers, with a baggy gelatinous midsection bouncing down to his ankles and back up to his chest, grabbing it, ruffling it, a man inside a suit handling and shaking the suit’s own ass and blue tail, the fans in front unsure when they’ll be permitted to stop smiling. Its long green snout juts out in front of two plastic eyes, with Continue reading “Game 87 // Eighth Inning // Lost in the Wind”
TOP OF THE ELEVENTH: METS 6 – (6) 8 PHILLIES
It was that week of nationwide baseball migrations.
Continue reading “Game 83 // Eleventh Inning // The Asdrubal Game”
TOP OF THE SEVENTH: DODGERS 13 (5) – 2 PHILLIES
Chase Utley of the L.A. Dodgers has returned to Philadelphia, to a giant salad of superfan worship at Citizens Bank Park, a red sea of admiring, cheering, bowing nostalgics, holding up big hand-written posterboards to show their forever approval.
“Welcome home Chase, I miss you!”
“CHASE UTLEY: A PHILLIE FOREVER”
“The man! #26” Continue reading “Game 76 // Seventh Inning // Chase Utley’s Big Return”
TOP OF THE EIGHTH: PHILLIES 9 (5) – 3 BRAVES
The plate appearance statlines for the Phillies, in tonight’s 8th inning in Atlanta:
0-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1.
Four runs came across with that. And a lead bumped up to 9-3. They batted around (or nearly around), without a single hit. No slugging. A team average lower than it had been. But four runs. And the strangest, least skilled, most lucky, peculiar, pathetic, goofy, slow, inane big inning of the year. Continue reading “Game 70 // Eighth Inning // The No-Hit Bat Around”
BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH: PHILLIES 8 (3) – 0 BREWERS
The walls. The walls.
Will there ever be this kind of a coincidence again?
Continue reading “Game 51 // Fifth Inning // The Drummer Boy”