When good teams play lousy baseball sometimes it is fun to watch. Where to start? Well, how about former Jay Jayson Werth on second base, none out in a tie game in the 8th inning and he gets picked off?? How stupid can you be?
Well how about in the bottom of the 9th, still tied, J.P. Howell hits the leadoff batter, Eric Bruntlett. Then with Victorino trying to bunt Grant Balfour throws a wild pitch. Man, if a batter wants to make an out, THROW HIM A STRIKE! I think Dioner Navarro should have blocked the pitch, but then when it bounced off the backstop right back to Navarro, Navarro rushed the throw to second and threw it into the outfield instead. So none out and winning run at third. So a couple of intentional walks later and a swinging bunt, Phillies win. Oh I missed the 5 minute meeting on the mound. I'm not sure the umpires should allow that long a meeting, but it was an important moment so, ok.
The Ray's tying run in the 7th was scored on a infield single, 2 stolen bases and a catcher throwing error on the second steal.
Not there wasn't some good ball. Former ancient Mariner Jamie Moyer pitched 6.1 of 6 hit ball giving up 3 earned runs.....not bad for a guy that's roughly 76 years old. He also got got robbed on a call at 1st base, after making a great play. Jay killer, Matt Garza, pitched 6 innings giving up 6 hits and striking out 7 but 3 of those hits were home runs, producing 4 runs.
Former Jays in the game? Gabe Gross went 0 for 3 but drove in 2 for the Rays. Werth had the previously mentioned idiot moment and went 1 for 2 with 2 walks, no runs or RBI. Matt Stairs was on the on deck circle when the winning run scores.
Phillies of the Day: Bruntlett (.193 WPA), Carlo Ruiz (.184), J.C. Romero (.169) and Moyer (.145). A special Suckage Philly award to Werth. Rays of the Day: BJ Upton (.302), Howell (.168) and Carl Crawford (.093). Suckage Rays: Balfour (-.284, sort of unfair...), Carlos Pena (-.145), Evan Longoria (.132), Iwamura (-.125), Graza (-.118) and Gabe Gross (-.113).
So Phillies are up 2 games to 1. Tomorrow night Andy Sonnanstine starts for the Rays against Joe Blanton. Should be a good, I'm around to watch it tomorrow so we'll have a game thread in case anyone wants to chat while watching.
Someone named Taylor Swift sang (read mangled) the American National Anthem, playing perhaps the ugliest guitar I've ever seen in a very amateur manner. I know I focus too much on this, it isn't even my national anthem, but after 3 games, 2 of the times the national anthem has been just terribly done. How hard would it be to get someone that could do a decent job each night? Do we really need to have the local flavor of the month or, in the case of game 1, the flavor of the month from several years back, sing it? Or could they just find someone that can do the job?
