Now THAT Was a Basball Game

It started off just like any other game. Cole Hamels was cruising past the Nationals in front of a sell out crowd and the Phillies offense had done enough to give him a comfortable 4-2 lead. Or so it seemed. Ryan Madson pitched a scoreless 8th. Then, after a couple position changes that brought Abraham Nunez and Michael Bourn into the game, "closer" Antonio Alfonseca came in to pitch the ninth.

While Alfonseca was warming up on the mound announcer Chris Wheeler was explaining that Nunez would hit in the 9th spot in the order due to a double switch, while Alfonseca would hit in the 6 hole. Harry Kallas cut him off, saying "they aren't going to bat Wheels". I chuckled, hoping Harry was right. Oops.

Bat they did, because Alfonseca couldn't get th job done and the Phils entered the 9th trailing 5-4. It was During the top of the 9th that I decided to watch Little Miss Sunshine. (By the way, if you have yet to see this movie, do yourself a favor and watch it. Fantastic film. It's on HBO On Demand right now. Go. Do it. Stop reading this.) Anyway, after watching this fine film, I exit On Demand to the same channel that was on when I turned the movie on - i.e. CSN. Well, to my surprise, the Phillies were still on.

It was the bottom of the 13th. Rollins had apparently hit a triple (his 12th) in the 9th inning and scored on a throwing error on the same play. With two outs. Gotta love playing the Nationals. Anyway, Greg "The Natural" Dobbs led off the bottom of the 13th with a single. Rollins hit into a fielder's choice and then Victorino popped out. With Utley up, Rollins was thrown out trying to steal 2nd. Wonderful.

So anyway, Clay Condrey pitched his third scoreless inning in a row, with Ryan Zimmerman popping out to Ryan Howard for the third out. As Howard caught the ball and the camera was on him, I said out loud "End the game", thinking he was due up first in the bottom half of the inning. Shortly thereafter I realized Utley was up due to the base running faux pas. He drew yet another walk (his 3rd of the game) to give the Phillies a leadoff base runner for the 5th straight extra inning. Wheels pointed this out, saying the Phils had gotten the leadoff man on in the 4 previous innings and failed to score, something he called "hard to do". Um, how fucking long have you been covering the Phillies Wheels? They do that shit all the time. After 125 years of ineptitude, believe me, this stuff comes easily.

Meanwhile, Ryan Howard must have heard me, because he mashed the shit out of a 2-2 fastball sending it into the upper deck in right field, game over. (He's leading the NL in RBIs now, by the way.) During his post game interview, Harry Kallas asked him if he felt as good as he did last year. His response? "I'm getting there." Oh, you aren't there yet? Every pitcher in the National League just went "well shit".

Atta boy Ryan, atta boy.