A CITIZEN'S BLOG

Remarkably I actually got to see a Phillies game this weekend. Typically I don’t because I live in Pittsburgh so I get the Pirates, and ESPN is obsessed with giving me the Astros and Cardinals and Reds, rather than the Phils. This weekend I was visiting my parents in Chester County (the reason I haven't been posting) and I actually caught the final two innings of the Red Sox and Phils. I always love listening to Harry Kalas’ voice on the TV. I can’t imagine baseball without him giving us the play-by-play. Nobody calls a game better. It was a joy to actually see the Phils in live action, but I’m sure anyone else who watched it was as unimpressed as I was at both the quality of the Phils play and the result.

The pitching staff got hammered badly, and the Phils choked with runners in scoring position: Burrell’s strike out in the seventh (I think) stands out in my mind, because he was swinging the bat to launch the ball into the outfield, not to make contact. June is shaping up like a grim replay of the ’03 season, when Abreu and Thome had to carry the team with very little help.

I’m sure all sabremetrics enthusiasts stood up and screamed bloody murder in the fifth when Polanco was caught stealing second and then Abreu doubled. Had Polanco been sitting on first he might have scored, or at the very least the Phils would have had runners at third and second with just one out, so Thome’s strike-out would have still left them with a chance to score. It was devastating: the Phils ran themselves out of a big inning by trying to manufacture runs. Bad idea, Larry. Bad idea.