{"id":165,"date":"2008-07-23T13:03:36","date_gmt":"2008-07-23T18:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=165"},"modified":"2008-09-15T13:13:46","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T18:13:46","slug":"the-big-inning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=165","title":{"rendered":"The Big Inning"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an old adage about the role of momentum in a long baseball season that says:\u00a0 “Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.”\u00a0 Granted, there is some wisdom in this and there is definitely something to be said for the best teams’ abilities to not get too high and not get too low throughout the 162-game season.\u00a0 However, I do not think that it is quite that simple.\u00a0 I believe that there are certainly some times throughout a season that can turn the tide, so to speak, and set the tone for a winning streak or a big run.<\/p>\n

For example, if you talk to any of the 1993 Phillies about “season momentum,” they will probably all mention things like the miracle comeback against the Giants, the Mariano Duncan grand slam off of Lee Arthur Smith on Memorial Day, the Milt Thompson catch in San Diego, and the infamous Mitch Williams game-winning hit at 4:41 in the morning.\u00a0 And, all of these things will be mentioned in the context of spurring on the team, building character, and setting the table for the wonderful season that was ahead of them.\u00a0 Well, 15 years later, if this Phillies team is going to provide magical memories for today’s 14-year olds like the 1993 team did for me at 14, a reference to last night’s game against the Mets might just appear on a Phillies blog\u00a0in 2023.<\/p>\n

Down 5-2 in the ninth, and staring at second place for the first time in close to two months, the Phillies rallied for 6 runs in the top of the 9th to beat the hated Mets.\u00a0 It seemed as if the Phightins missed their chance in the 8th, as Utley, Burrell, and Howard went quietly,\u00a0leaving the 5-6-7 hitters due up in the 9th.\u00a0 But, just as the gloom started to fall in on Jayson Werth and his 0-2 count, he battled back to rope a leadoff single to center.\u00a0 The next batter was Greg Dobbs, who was intelligently in there as a pinch-hitter for the struggling Pedro Feliz, also fell behind 0-2, but then roped another single, bringing the tying run to the plate with nobody out.\u00a0 Shane Victorino also singled and the bases were loaded.\u00a0 Then the memories were made with the next three hitters, starting with the signature play of the whole comeback.\u00a0 With the bases loaded and nobody out, down by 3, Carlos Ruiz hit a high chopper over the mound, where Jose Reyes barehanded it and tried to run to the bag for the force at second.\u00a0 However, Reyes must have misjudged just who was running from first, as Victorino, one of the fastest players in all of baseball (and who always <\/em>gets a great jump and runs hard) beat Reyes to the bag–safe all-around.\u00a0 Still down two, however, the Phillies went to light-hitting reserve outfielder, So Taguchi with the game on the line.\u00a0 Taguchi fought off several nasty two-strike pitches before delivering the big hit–a game-tying double over the head of Endy Chavez in rightfield (which also got new Phillie starter, Joe Blanton, off the hook for the loss).\u00a0 Jimmy Rollins delivered the third consecutive memory of the inning, as he laced a double down the line, giving the Phillies a 7-5 lead (adding another on a botched double-play back to the mound), which would be more than enough for Brad Lidge to nail it down.<\/p>\n

Will this amazing come-from-behind win (led by guys not named Utley or Howard) be a catapult to a second straight NL East championship?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Maybe not.\u00a0 But, if the Phillies do go on to, say, sweep this series and never look back, this game–this inning<\/em>–will probably be remembered for years to come as a defining moment in the 2008 Phillies season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an old adage about the role of momentum in a long baseball season that says:\u00a0 “Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.”\u00a0 Granted, there is some wisdom in this and there is definitely something to be said for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[68,16],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-mets","tag-phillies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}