Results tagged “milwaukeebrewers”

I was eight years old when my dad woke me up in the middle of the night to watch Mitch Williams strike out Bill Pecota and send the Phillies to the 1993 World Series. The following week in school, I taught myself to draw the Phillies’ logo for the construction-paper pennants we hung in the windows. To this day, it’s the only thing I can still successfully draw aside from a rather pathetic looking Dachshund.

You gotta give Derek Lowe some credit for taking it like a man. After his sinkerball silenced the Phillies’ bats for five innings, he hung a few up in the zone and suddenly the Dodgers were trailing the game. Even though those homers were just over the wall, he didn’t blame the ballpark. Even though Shane Victorino only got on base in the sixth because of a botched play by Rafael Furcal, Lowe didn’t fume and call out his players like John Lackey did in the Angels-Red Sox series.

What else is there to say after the Phillies ousted the Milwaukee Brewers and are now heading to the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers? What else is there to say after Pat Burrell lifted the team on his back to become the hero we all knew he could be? What else is there to say now that excitement has reached a fever pitch in Philadelphia with a Pennant win in sight?

Showtime continues as the Phillies put a little mustard on their mustard last night and sent CC Sabathia packing in the 4th.

This Phillyist spent most of yesterday soaked to the bone and freezing.

So the Phillies made two trades. Whoopee. Did they get who they wanted for two first class major leaguers? No. Not by far.

Friday: Cole Hamels makes his major league debut with 4 2/3 scoreless innings to help the Phillies win 8-4 over the Cincinnati Reds.

When you take a closer look at the Phillies' starting lineup from Sunday afternoon’s game against first-place Washington, and you compare it to the Nationals' starting gang, you might get the crazy feeling that the teams are not that different from each other. On paper there are many similarities: a talented, all-star caliber middle infielder (Jimmy Rollins and Jose Vidro), a power-hitting, speedy outfielder (Bobby Abreu and Jose Guillen), and a solid hitting but prone to slumping outfielder (Pat Burrell and Brad Wilkerson). After that, even a lot of gap-fillers and journeymen seem to have a lot in common, including 2 former teammates now at the tail-end of their careers, yet still playing well (Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga), 2 pinch-hitters who were swapped for each other in May (Endy Chavez and Marlon Byrd) 2 catchers who were once traded for each other in 2001 (Todd Pratt and Gary Bennett), and two starting pitchers who each lost a game to Boston in last year’s ALCS (Esteban Loaiza and Jon Leiber). The Phillies, on the field, have in no way resembled the Nationals this season until this past weekend. The Phillies borrowed a little bit of the Washington magic and pulled out a win in their second straight one-run game. Prior to this series, the Nationals had been nearly unbeatable in one-run games. Winning close, late games means you have to have timely hitting but more importantly, a solid bullpen. Yesterday, at Citizens Bank, over six innings of relief, four Phillies relievers gave up only one run. Jon Lieber, who pitched well striking out six, gave up three runs in his six innings. To take 2 out of 3 from the first place Nationals would have been exciting enough, but 2 Washington-style wins, with the added treat of seeing Ryan Howard carry the offense with 3 RBIs and a line drive to the shrubs in dead center field, makes the victories that much sweeter for the Phils. They also borrowed another Nationals trope: heroics by players you may not believe are in the major leagues (i.e. Matt Cepicky and Gary Majewski). The Phils pulled it out on a 12th inning pinch hit by veteran role player Ramon Martinez. No, not that Ramon Martinez, not Pedro’s brother who used to pitch for the Dodgers. This Ramon Martinez, a shortstop with no relation to the Martinez brothers, chopped a ground ball into left field in the bottom of the 12th inning to score David Bell, who had driven in the winning run on Saturday. This marks the first series victory for the Phillies since June 10th-12th against the Milwaukee Brewers. In a season that has made Phillies fans feel like they are in the middle of a traffic jam on I-95, with every team in the NL East bumper to bumper, at or above .500 at the All-Star Break, the Phillies will try to stay close enough to the Nationals so that Washington is still in sight when the Phillies match up with them on September 30th through October 2nd, the last series of the 2005 season.