Four Series, A Not-Going-To-Happen Road Trip, and the All-Star Game

Phillies@Cinncinati: They lost the first game 7-3 and won the second one 9-6 in 10 innings after Brad Lidge blew the save in the 9th (still love you!). The third game should have been theirs easily with Roy Halladay starting and facing Aaron Harang. Dane Sardinha hit a 3-run homer in the 4th inning but that would be all the scoring they would do. Roy Halladay was bending but not breaking up and til the 8th inning when Jay Bruce hit a 2-run homerun off of Halladay to give the Reds a 4-3 lead and series win as the Phillies went down relatively quiet in the 9th. YUCK.

Phillies@Pittsburgh: They just do not play well at PNC Park. It's the mystery of life or maybe just frustrating. Well they lost the first two games of the series and won the third easily behind Kyle Kendrick's first major league complete start (final score: 12-4). In the finale, which was also the 4th of July, Joe Blanton started to waver in the bottom of the 7th, which began with a 5-2 Phils lead. He allowed a homerun to start the inning, and then a single, followed by a double, then a strikeout, and finally a bullpen implosion. The inning began with a 5-2 lead and ended with a 5-8 deficit. It was another awful series that saw them go 2-5 on the entire road trip.

Phillies vs. Atlanta: The homestand began with a series against the division-leading Braves. That sounded gross just to type out. Anyway, they started out 5 games out heading into a 3-game series. Roy Halladay allowed a solo homerun to Chipper Jones in the 1st but shut them down for the rest of the game (CG) on just 93 pitches. The big hit offensively came in the 6th when Greg Dobbs hit a 2-run homerun to put them ahead for good. I *swoon* for Roy. The second and third games were winnable but it just didn't happen. A loss in extra innings and a 6th inning collapse from Jamie Moyer saw the Phillies fall to 6 games back instead of a possible 2 or 4. It started out so promising, too.

Phillies vs. Cincinnati: A 4-game series and the last one before the All-Star break. The 1st game went into extra innings after a blown save by Brad Lidge. Brian Schneider hit a solo/walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 12th to salvage the game. There was also an incident with Jayson Werth and a fan. A foul ball was hit in the air and a fan caught it. What he probably didn't know was that Jayson Werth likely had a play on it and it would have ended the inning. Well Jayson wasn't too happy and yelled at the guy and started throwing f-bombs even as he was walking away. I won't make this into a big crusade, but I think Werth is the wrong. The guy didn't reach out to catch the ball and his first instinct was probably to catch the ball coming towards him. Jayson sort of apologized the next day, but not really. He's only upset that there was backlash. That play also wasn't too big of a deal since the batter at the plate grounded out on the next pitch. Hindsight is 20/20, I know, but being a "big-time" player gives Jayson Werth no right to be an asshole to the fans paying to see him and the rest of the team play. Even worse was that the guy had his son with him and he looked terrified.

The second game was awesome. I feel ashamed for saying this, but after seeing the Phils fall behind 7-1 after 8 1/2 innings I left my room. I was in the kitchen talking to my hos and checked my phone after a bit to check the final score. It was the best feeling to see the score flash 7-7! A comeback of epic proportions that I didn't get to see. I did however see Ryan Howard's walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 10th after a Raul Ibanez double.

The third game was horrendous and quite gratifying as well. Roy Halladay was awesome yet again. He went 9 innings allowing 5 hits, striking out 9, walking 1, and allowing no runs. Unfortunately for Roy, the Phillies were being perfect-gamed by some guy named Travis Wood that was only making his third career start. Well also unfortunately for him, we have a guy named Chooch. He returned from the DL after the concussion and led off the 9th with a double. He broke up the perfect game, the no-hitter, but not the shutout and was left stranded at third. They eventually won it in the 11th when Chooch doubled and Jimmy Rollins singled him in for a 1-0 win. The Phils had, I think 2 walk-off wins this year before this series and now they have 3 in this series alone.

The final game saw Cole Hamels be the dominant pitcher we all saw in 2008. He went 7 2/3 innings, allowing no runs, and striking out 3. The lone run for the Phillies came in the 3rd inning on wait for it...a Ruiz double and a Jimmy Rollins single. JC Romero started the 9th inning and after getting the first out, Charlie signaled for Brad Lidge. I heard boos from the crowd and so did Brad Lidge and Charlie. Well, Brad struck out the first batter he faced and then got Miguel Cairo to pop out to 1st base on the first pitch.

I'll let Charlie do the talking on this one:

I hear the boos. They don't bother me. I have no problem with that. ... If I'm not mistaken, I heard them all cheering there at the end. I might not be too smart, but my ears are still good.

Brad Lidge's turn:

These fans have been great for me. If they weren't thrilled today, well, we'll give them something to be thrilled about in the second half.

I hope so.

The All-star game started with the homerun derby that sucked. The All-star itself was great, even if Roy Halladay and Ryan Howard didn't really have an impact one way or the other on the game. The NL had dominate pitching and the only run that the American League scored was unearned. Brian McCann hit a bases loaded double that cleared the bases and gave the NL the lead for good. He won MVP and gave the Phillies homefield advantage in the World Series. Thanks, Brian!

Last thing, I wanted to talk about is my road trip to St. Louis that just isn't going to happen. I was planning on leaving tomorrow (Sunday), arriving Monday, staying for games 2 and 3 and leaving Thursday morning. I talked to my Mom and Dad and they basically shut me down. I also wasn't going by myself, I was going with my sister. St. Louis is a little less than 1000 miles from where I live, and yes it may be dangerous, but I want to go! A lot of things are dangerous, doesn't mean you shouldn't do them. They would have let me go if I flew there, but that's also $400 that I don't have. Boo. Instead of St, Louis (which I will try to do next year) I've decided to go to the series against Washington at the end of the month. This sucks.

Golden Girls Quote:
Sophia: What's with Satan's Secretary?
Blanche: Sophia, I believe Phil would have liked this dress.
Sophia: Liked it? He would've looked great in it. Dorothy, I never understood why your brother liked to wear women's clothes, unless he was queer.
Blanche: Sophia, people don't say "Queer" anymore, they say "Gay."
Sophia: They say "Gay" if a guy can sing the entire score of Gigi. But a six-foot-three, 200-pound married man with kids who likes to dress up like Dorothy Lamour, I think you have to go with "Queer."