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Hey, the Phillies are going to win 100 games, didn’t you hear Jimmy Rollins before the season? Last night, the local baseball nine managed only one hit against the Nationals’ Tim Redding, Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch, also known as Walter Johnson, Cy Young and Grover Cleveland Alexander. The Phils lost, 1-0, in a game that lasted just 2 hours and 15 minutes. Nobody was happy. ARAMARK had to stop selling beer by around 8:30.
The fans also threw “debris” on the field after the game, because it was a college night. Shane Victorino just said it showed a “lack of respect for the players, lack of respect for the sport, lack of respect for the stadium.” Oh, yes, let us show some respect for the prefabricated brick palace!
Jamie Moyer pitches for the Phillies today. The former teammate of Connie Mack goes up against Jason Bergmann wearing the new alternate uniform! I’ll be liveblogging after the jump; the game starts a little after 1.
Pregame
The Phillies lost 11-6 in their home opener. Mike’s Baseball Rants notes the last team to give up 11 runs in its home opener and make the playoffs was the Philadelphia Athletics… in 1906. Whoo! Let’s make history!
Top first
Ahh, Jamie Moyer gave up a leadoff double on his second pitch of the game, then Ryan Howard dropped a putout (on a bad throw from Jimmy Rollins) on the second batter. First and second, nobody out!
Top first, still
Hey, you know how the Phillies never seem to play well in alternate jerseys? Whoops! It’s 4-0 with one out in the top of the first.
Mid first
The Nationals are up 5-0 after one half inning. You know what’s coming up next: 1-2-3 inning for the Fightins. For the third straight season, the Phillies are looking to open it by dropping the first three games at home.
Top second
1-2-3. I was thinking about how it’s only 19 innings into the season, and how I shouldn’t be so negative, but… being negative about the Phillies is one of the most fun things in my life. On the plus side, only three of those five first-inning runs were earned for Jamie Moyer!
Top second, still
Still 5-0. The bases are loaded with nobody out. With runners at first and third, Jamie Moyer knocked down a line drive, looked the runner back to third, then couldn’t pick up the ball in time. The Phils now have three errors in 1+ innings.
Mid third
Hey, look at that, the half-innings here just blew on by. Suddenly we’re headed into the bottom of the third… and it’s still 5-0, Nationals.
Bottom third
WHO BUT CHRIS COSTE? First pitch of the season and Coste drills it into left field to make it 5-1. Whoo, start the parade down Broad Street, baby!
Top third
I’d like to point out — as part of my Complaining about the Phillies series — that this is the first season Chris Coste started in the major leagues, despite having a .309 career average in over 300 plate appearances.
In other news, Pedro Feliz has joined the Error Club, as he picks up the fourth of the game for the Fightins.
Mid fourth
Jamie Moyer finally departed after giving up a 6th run and tossing 73 pitches. 6-1, Nats!
Bottom fourth
Ryan Howard just tried to bunt his way on against the infield shift. He missed and eventually struck out.
Mid fifth
Chad Durbin is in against the Neo-Murderer’s Row lineup of the Washington Nationals and got a double play to end the inning. Durbin was touted as the long reliever this season, so naturally he pitched in short roles in the first two games before coming in for a third straight one today. Things like this are why I am feeling pretty confident in my surprise pick of Charlie Manuel being the first manager fired this year.
Top sixth
Whoo! We are now in the all-important Tom McCarthy/Chris Wheeler-announced inning, which is by far my favorite of all the innings. (On an unrelated note, I’m into pain.) The Phillies are stinking up the joint so far, are down 6-1, and the crowd is too disappointed even to boo all that loudly. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Phillies baseball.
Top sixth, still
Hey, highlight of the game: Geoff Jenkins makes a nice diving catch in the outfield — on a ball hit by Nats pitcher Jason Bergmann, naturally — and somehow his belt comes unbuckled during it. Guh-wha?
Chris Wheeler says the Nationals are winning this series because they have a certain aura about them right now. The Nationals are currently leading the league in amount of aura per game; they’re on a near-record aAPPG (adjusted aura percentage per game) pace, though, so the aura will certainly go down eventually.
Mid sixth
New pitcher Rudy Seanez made it a 1-2-3 inning for his Phillies debut. Seanez was also on the 1989 Cleveland Indians, if you’re wondering.
Bottom sixth
It’s now 6-2, Washington, after a Pat Burrell RBI single. If the Phillies can just get 1 in the sixth, and 1 in the seventh, and 1 in the eighth, and 1 in the ninth… well, okay, they’ll lose 6-5.
Bottom sixth, still
Five consecutive singles — Utley, Howard, Burrell, Jenkins, Feliz — and now it’s 6-5 right in the sixth inning! This is more like it.
Bottom sixth, still
Tie game! Chris Coste singles (he’s still batting 1.000!) and Greg Dobbs gets a pinch-hit single to tie the game. Ray King coming in to give up a three-run homer to Jimmy Rollins next. Well, hopefully.
Top seventh
Shane Victorino singles after Jimmy Rollins gets hit and the Phillies go ahead, 7-6. Chase Utley then grounds into a double play to end the inning, but the Phils are ahead for the first time since… since early Monday!
Bottom seventh
1-2-3 for Phillies reliever Ryan “Opening Day Home Run” Madson. Ryan Howard singles, and some pitcher named “Joel Hanrahan” gives up a double to Pat Burrell. Steve Smith held Howard at third for some reason, and now Adam Eaton is running for Pat Burrell at second. Hey, they finally found something for Adam Eaton to do!
Bottom seventh, still
Adam Eaton just gave up 2 runs while standing on second.
Top eighth
The Phils don’t add on any insurance runs, and Ryan Madson walks the first batter he faces for good measure! It’s time for another fun game of “wait for the Phillies bullpen to blow it”, a Philadelphia tradition ever since the 70s or so.
Mid eighth
And we’re tied! Jimmy Rollins can’t keep a ball in the infield — about his 10th bad defensive play of the season, I believe. J.C. Romero had come in to relieve Madson. Pedro Feliz then made another bad defensive play. 7-all. Thanks, Phillies bullpen, for not making us wait long for failure at least.
Bottom eighth
Eric Bruntlett leads the inning off with a pinch single, and ends up at 2nd base with two outs. Now the Nationals are intentionally walking Chase Utley to get to… uh… Ryan Howard. Wait, what?
Top ninth
The Phils eventually leave the bases loaded after Ryan Howard gets intentionally walked, too. Tie game going into the ninth, Tom Gordon coming in (it seems). Hmm, when has this happened before?
Top ninth, still
After opening with a strikeout, Nick Johnson singled off Chase Utley’s glove. The announcers are being about as nice as they possibly can to Flash, but he does have his pitches working today. That hasn’t stopped him from walking Ronnie Belliard, making it first and second with 1 out.
Mid ninth
Hey! After walking the bases loaded, Flash gets a 3-1 grounder to end the inning. The Phils head to the bottom of the ninth, where a run will let them win it without having to play extras.
Top 10th
Geoff Jenkins doubles, Pedro Feliz pops out, Chris Coste walks and Carlos Ruiz hits into a double play. (Obviously.) We’re in extra innings, something that every single one of you saw coming.
Mid 10th
For various reasons, my buddy Rob — one of the many incredibly cool people I’ve somehow managed to meet through this blog — has been rooting for the Phillies as his “NL team,” the team you’re allowed to root for in the other league. (This is more complicated than it needs to be — there are rules — but it’s generally acceptable.)
Anyway, Rob IMed me after the ninth inning ended: “HOW DO YOU LIVE LIKE THIS?” This is how things are. Last year the Phils won the division and everything was all puppydogs and gumdrops and wife-beating closers. But this is how things usually are. I am not sure there is such a thing as clutch hitting, but I am 100 percent positive there is such a thing as anti-clutch, and it infects whoever is at the plate for the Phillies.
Clay Condrey got the first two batters easily then had a ridiculously nice strikeout of Ryan Zimmerman. Team MVP!
Bottom 10th
After a Jimmy Rollins single, Shane Victorino has such a nice bunt Rollins moves all the way to third on it! Chase Utley and Ryan Howard will be intentionally walked back-to-back again, and if Jayson Werth can drive the ball the Phillies will win.
Final: Phillies 8, Nationals 7
Jayson Werth walks on four pitches. Way to keep that bat on the shoulders, Jay! Somebody throw a pie in his face.
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I’m pretty sure what Victorino and his mates were doing was more disrespectful to the sport and the stadium than anything the fans threw onto the field.
Four innings, four errors. Good thing it’s just spring training, and these games don’t actually count.
Needs more exclamation points.
Did I just read gamecast right? Adam Eaton ran for Pat Burrell? Perhaps they should try that switch for pitching too…
You linked to a blog called Walkoff Walk and then the Phillies won on a walkoff walk. COINCIDENCE?
Maybe you should link to a blog called Adam Eaton Learns to Pitch dot com.