{"id":396,"date":"2009-10-12T11:21:30","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T15:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=396"},"modified":"2009-10-12T13:58:04","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T17:58:04","slug":"one-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=396","title":{"rendered":"One To Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"werthBeing a fan of a baseball team that’s still playing October is still a fairly new experience for me, and I’m starting to understand that certain games in a post-season run will be the ones that you remember and that stay with you.\u00a0 Last year, there was Game 2 of the NLDS against the Brewers, with the Victorino grand slam and the epic Brett Myers walk against CC Sabathia.\u00a0 There was also Game 1 of the NLCS, which I watched at Bry’s rehearsal dinner in North Carolina, and, of course, the Matt Stairs Homerun Game later that series.<\/p>\n

Last night will probably be one of those games for 2009, whether or not the Phils win it all again.\u00a0 It stinks that the game was played at 10PM, ending after 2AM, and that so many fans couldn’t get to see it.\u00a0 That being said, years from now, I’ll be talking to one of the people I watched it with and we’ll be saying, “Remember that game against the Rockies in ’09, when it was like 20 degrees in Denver and the game ended at quarter after 2 in the morning?”\u00a0 Neither the weather nor the game time were ideal, but it was unique and the game was a great one.<\/p>\n

Charlie Manuel had to make a\u00a0ton of decisions in the game, here’s what\u00a0me and the people\u00a0I was watching the game with were thinking\u00a0during key spots in the game:<\/p>\n

-As soon as\u00a0J.A. Happ walked the Rockie pitcher in the 2nd, I would’ve had Joe Blanton \"manuelwarming\u00a0up.\u00a0 Happ\u00a0had given up 2 runs in the first, it was clear he just didn’t have his command, and now the top of the Rockie order was coming up.\u00a0 In a playoff game, you need to have\u00a0a quick hook when your starter clearly doesn’t have it.<\/p>\n

-Charlie should’ve hit for Blanton in the 6th inning, with 2 on and a 5-4 lead.\u00a0 Blanton couldn’t get a sacrifice bunt down, then was taken out before he finished the next inning. That move was basically Charlie saying, “I don’t have any trust in my relievers.”\u00a0 They had a fully rested pen, you have to think they could give you\u00a0the four innings you needed at that point.<\/p>\n

-When Eyre went down\u00a0with the injury, I thought the right call was\u00a0bringing in Antonio Bastardo to face\u00a0Todd Helton with runners on 1st and 3rd and no outs.\u00a0 Charlie went with Ryan Madson, and I think he made the right call.\u00a0 Madson gave up the tying run on a sac fly, but his\u00a0strike out of Helton was maybe the\u00a0key out of the game\u00a0for the Phils.\u00a0 In a spot like that, you want the best\u00a0guy you have, and that’s Madson.\u00a0 Nice call by Charlie.<\/p>\n

-And, of course, there’s Brad Lidge.\u00a0 Given what they had available going into that 9th inning, I guess Lidge was the right\u00a0call.\u00a0 I’ve rooted for some shaky closers in my day, but I’ve\u00a0never been more scared going into the bottom of the 9th\u00a0than I was last night.\u00a0 Lidge was the right\u00a0guy in that spot, but I hope Charlie realizes that Madson is, by far, the best reliever he has right now, and he should use him accordingly.<\/p>\n

There were maybe 7 Phillies that could be considered Player of the Game last night:<\/p>\n

–Carlos Ruiz<\/strong>: 2\u00a0HUGE RBI singles, one in the 4th and one in the 6th, both giving the Phils a one-run lead at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"utley\"–Chase Utley<\/strong>: 3-4 with a big 1st inning homer and the heads-up play in the 9th, where he busted it out of the box to beat out an infield single, even though the ball hit him in the box and probably should’ve been called foul.<\/p>\n

–Ryan Howard<\/strong>: An RBI single in the 4th and the game-winning RBI on a sac fly in the 9th.\u00a0 Howard looks like he’s seeing the ball well, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him put one over the wall in Coors Field tonight.<\/p>\n

–Raul Ibanez<\/strong>: He was hitless, but walked three times, including an amazing at-bat to draw a bases-loaded walk in the 4th.\u00a0 And he made a great running catch on a Garrett Atkins drive in the 6th.<\/p>\n

–Joe Blanton<\/strong>: He gave up the Carlos Gonzalez homer, but he settled things down after Happ was all over the place.\u00a0 Blanton ended up going 2.2 solid innings.<\/p>\n

–Ryan Madson<\/strong>: The aforementioned huge K of Helton that helped him put out\u00a0a fire in the 7th.<\/p>\n

–Chad Durbin<\/strong>: 3 up and 3 down in the 8th inning.\u00a0 Granted, Atkins, Spilborghs, and Barmes are not a Murderers’ Row of hitters, but it was the ONLY 1-2-3 inning by a Phillies pitcher all night, and it came at a great time.<\/p>\n

Now, can someone please remind Carlos Gonzalez that he’s not Ted Williams?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a fan of a baseball team that’s still playing October is still a fairly new experience for me, and I’m starting to understand that certain games in a post-season run will be the ones that you remember and that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[628,23,757,377,359,104,382,30,758,606,308,386,16,360,408,746,218,213,755,756],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-antonio-bastardo","tag-brad-lidge","tag-carlos-gonzalez","tag-carlos-ruiz","tag-cc-sabathia","tag-chad-durbin","tag-charlie-manuel","tag-chase-utley","tag-garrett-atkins","tag-ja-happ","tag-joe-blanton","tag-matt-stairs","tag-phillies","tag-playoffs","tag-raul-ibanez","tag-rockies","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ryan-madson","tag-scott-eyre","tag-todd-helton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}