Results tagged “nationals”

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on.

What long, strange game it was at RFK last night. What matters most is the results: after 14 innings, the Phillies topped the Washington Nationals, 8-7 in 14 innings.

Another not so hot night for the Phils. They failed to capitalize on those little things called “base runners,” and fell to the Washington Nationals, 4-3.

It was like a tennis match: Astros up, Phillies up, Astros up, Phillies up. But when the innings ran out, the Astros held onto the lead to beat the Phils, 5-4, dropping the Phils into a first place tie with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Phillyist paid another visit to the nation's capital on Tuesday, and took in the first game of the Phillies-Nationals series along with a humidity-drenched crowd of 25,735 that yet again included a significant number of Phillies fans. While much has been made of the fact that Phillies don't play any games against teams over .500 for the rest of the season, the Nationals boast two quite good players in leadoff slugger Alfonso Soriano and possible Rookie of the Year Ryan Zimmerman.

As we feared would happen, Philadelphia-based Comcast's proposed merger with Adelphia Communications won approval Thursday from the Federal Communications Commission without forcing Comcast to make CN8 and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia channels available to customers of satellite TV and non-Comcast cable systems.

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Not that we needed it, but this weekend was yet more proof of how being a Phillies fan is by far the most aggravating occupation known to mankind. After interviewing Dawn Staley on Tuesday, Phillyist stuck around in D.C. for the Phils' four-game series against the Nationals. We now realize that, as usual, our optimism of Thursday afternoon was a big mistake.

The Philadelphia Phillies entered their weekend series needing a sweep of the Washington Nationals to keep hope alive in their Wild Card chase. They got their sweep, but unfortunately, they needed something else: the Cubs to take three of four from the Houston Astros in Texas. While the Cubs were able to take the first two games from the Astros, they dropped the last two games, sending the Phillies home for the winter.

The Philadelphia Phillies will start their final series of the regular series tonight when Corey Lidle takes the mound against the Washington Nationals. The Phillies must sweep the series if they have any hope of making the playoffs. Even if they do that, the Phillies need some help: the Astros have three games remaining at home against the Cubs. If the Phils sweep, the Astros need to lose two of their next three in order for the Phillies to tie. The Astros lost to the Cubs last night, 3-2, pulling the Phillies to within 2 games of the Wild Card leaders.

The Philadelphia Phillies lost to the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park last night, 3 - 2. While the Phillies are not mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt, their chances are now very slim. They sit 2.5 games back of the Wild Card leading Houston Astros, who beat the St. Louis Cardinals last night, 3 - 1.

The Houston Astros lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates last night, 7 - 0 at PNC Park. No no, this isn't suddenly Pittsburghist. We're interested in this game because the Astros were sitting a game and a half ahead of the Phillies heading into last night's action. After the loss, the Astros find themselves only one game ahead of the Phillies, sure to make the eventual Phillies collapse that much more heartbreaking.

Phils fans were happy - jubilant, even - for just a little while last night. It started with a two-run Bobby Abreu homer that tied the game at 5. The ball was smashed to center field and many fans probably imagined that the clutch eighth inning homer was drilled right down the through of Howard Eskin. The throat of Howard Eskin being A.J. Finch's catching mitt, obviously.

Much maligned Phillies third baseman has been able to stave off the critics a bit this week. The other night, Bell's two-RBI single helped the Phillies to a much-needed win over the Mets. Last night, Bell stepped up with the bases loaded and two out and hit a grand slam, launching the Phils to a 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals. The win left the Phillies four games behind the NL East leading Atlanta Braves. The Phillies sit one-half game over the Houston Astros in the National League Wild Card chase.

Chris Mustazza and Phil Sandick, our resident Phillies writers, return this week with talk of one-game wonder Eude Brito, Jim Thome and the Phils' playoff chances heading into September.

While the Phillies were busy losing game two of a day-night doubleheader to the Washington Nationals, Michael Marcavage, the face of Repent America, was busy pissing off fans in the 300 level of Citizens Bank Park. Marcavage was on-hand to protest Gay Day, the third annual night for gays to celebrate in groups at a Phillies game. The game has always been a center of controversy, including when the homophobic Todd Jones made his debut as a Phillie the day after making homophobic remarks in the Phils' locker room.

The Phillies swept the San Diego Padres this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. The weekend got off to a great start on Friday night when Chase Utley, struggling through an 0-for-5 evening, stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the eleventh inning and made everyone forget about his previous at-bats by slamming a game-winning homerun towards the bullpens in right-center field. The win came after another strong Vicente Padilla start.

The Texas Leaguer. The Mendoza Line. The Can of Corn. All of these time-tested baseball-isms have their own charm, but the one that has stood as my favorite is: the golden sombrero (sometimes also referred to as the silver sombrero). 4 strike outs in one game. If Ryan Howard hadn’t homered to centerfield, above the Lukoil sign, and instead swung and missed at three straight strikes, the Phillies could have easily followed up with a David Bell pop-up, a Mike Lieberthal fly-out, inning over, game over, and I would have been talking about Ryan Howard’s failure to produce in the clutch, his shiny golden sombrero. That’s a lot of pressure that Ryan Howard was going up against but he handled it with cool assurance. After Howard smacked Yhency Brazoban’s second pitch to the seats, Howard walked slower to first base than if he had struck out. He knew it was gone, as did the Philly faithful, who exploded at the park, but also in front of their TV’s, satellite radios, in their cars or on their headphones.

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.

In their usual inconsistent style, the Phillies showed us a glimpse of promise as they shutout the Nationals last night. Usually, it would not be wise to count on the Phils winning a tight game against the first-place Nats, but they were able come out on top. If they could only play like that every night, they would be the ones in first place. The game was a stalemate until the bottom of the ninth inning, when David Bell came up with the game-winning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded. Bobby Abreu came in to score the go-ahead run. Cory Lidle had a great game with seven strikeouts and only one walk in eight innings. Lidle has been playing very well lately and is on of the key parts of the Phils’ starting rotation. We also have an update on Geoff Geary, the Phils’ relief pitcher who was hit in the eye two games ago with a foul ball. Geary will miss the rest of this series with the Nationals, but should return after. We believe that the Phillies deserve a lot of credit for winning this game. The Phils usually struggle in close games, whereas Washington has won 24 of their games by a margin of one. In a tight game like this, the Phils were clearly at a disadvantage, but they manged to stay cool under pressure and pull out the win. Congratulations, Phillies – we still want a new manager, though.

Sometimes there is a dramatic difference between a first and a last place team - just look what happened when the Phillies played the Red Sox. Other times, there are subtle differences that differentiate the two. Last night’s game was a perfect illustration of the latter. The game was not a blowout, but the Washington Nationals displayed the well-tuned playing style that keeps them in first place. The Phils showed the sloppy playing style that holds them in last. The Phils’ usually-competent rookie starter Robinson Tejeda had a very rough outing. He lasted only 3 1/3 innings and gave up 5 earned runs. This was clearly his worst start as a major leaguer. It seemed that Washington knew exactly how to play him: they saw that he was getting frustrated and just kept taking pitches, forcing Tejeda to get behind in the count. The thing that lost this game for the Phils was a series of small mistakes that stacked into a mountain. Their catching deficiencies were once again obvious as they blew a play-at-the-plate – a mistake they make routinely – that cost them a run, a run that would be the difference in the ballgame. In addition to player errors, there were also management mistakes that cost them big. For example, the Phillies waved Pat Burrell around third toward home plate where he would get gunned down by a perfect throw. Everyone knows that Burrell is not a fast runner, yet they sent him anyway. The Phils also got David Bell caught in a run down between third and home when they used the contact play - the contact play is when the runners are told to run as soon as the bat makes contact with the ball, regardless of where the ball goes; it's usually used in 2-out situations - on an infield grounder. Washington, on the other hand, did what they do best: close games. They brought out their all-start closer Chad Cordero and shut the Phillies down. There was a brief moment in the ninth when it looked like Ryan Howard had hit the game-tying homer, but it was caught at the fence by Brad Wilkerson. Howard (and just about everyone watching) thought that the ball was going to leave the park. Wilkerson later joked, "Probably in our ballpark it would have been 20 or 30 feet short," which is a jab at Philadelphia's hitters paradise, Citizens Bank Park. On a side note, relief pitcher Geoff Geary fouled a ball off home plate that bounced up and struck him in the eye. Geary left the game and was taken to Wills’ Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. We will try to get a follow-up on Geary’s condition. The Phillies should look at the Nationals as a model of what they could be (or even be better than) if they tuned their game. If any of the Phils’ aforementioned mistakes were avoided, they could have won this game. Instead, the errors – mostly the management errors - grew into a large handicap that cost Philadelphia this game. Can we please have a new manger now?

Look at the box score of this game; just look at it. How can you have 9 hits and just one run? In last night’s game versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Phillies could not find their way if home they Mapquested it. The story of the night was “stranded runners.” Even with their ace pitcher, Brett Myers, on the mound, the Phils could not pull out the win. Brett Myers pitched a very good game, but it was not enough to overcome Pittsburgh's rookie sensation, Zach Duke, who pitched seven shutout innings. The game was won by a fourth-inning, two-run homer by Humberto Cota. Myers said of his performance, “I made one mistake and I lost the game.'' We can be very rough on our home team, but we give credit where it is due. Brett Myers is an excellent pitcher and we, in no way, fault him for losing this game. It’s true that he gave up the homerun that put the Pirates over the top, but 2 runs should not be an insurmountable lead in Major League Baseball. The Phillies’ bats were just cold when it mattered. The Phillies did manage to find home in one way, though: they found their way home to the basement of the NL East. The Phils are back, once again, to .500 and a half game behind the Mets. They will try to temporarily climb out of the basement tonight, as Robinson Tejeda takes on the first-place Nationals’ Ryan Drese at 7:05pm.

I’ve always been a person of extremes. I believe you should jump in head-first or don’t even bother putting on your bathing suit – and by that I mean, “Don’t swim,” not “Swim naked.” And that is why it’s infuriating to me to see the Phillies be a perpetually mediocre team. If they win a game, they lose the next. I wish that they would either win or just concede the season and become the worst team in baseball. Then, at least they would have some distinction. Last night’s game was a perfect illustration of my point: the Phils decimated the Pirates in the first game of the series and then went on to get shutout last night. What will it take to get a little consistency? Last night started off downhill when, in the first inning, starting pitcher Jon Lieber was struck by a line drive ball on the same elbow where he received Tommy John surgery – a ligament reconstruction procedure – earlier in his career. Later, X-Rays would show no fracture. Lieber will be further examined to determine whether he will make his scheduled start against the Nationals on Sunday. This game should have been titled “The Kip Wells Show,” because that’s exactly what it was. Struggling Pittsburgh pitcher, Kip Wells, was determined to prove himself last night, and came up big. Wells struck out 12 and allowed only 4 hits. He even contributed to the scoring with an opposite field double, from which he would later score. It just seems incomprehensible that this is the same Phillies team that won the game before this one by a score of 12-1. This sort of inconsistency has been present all season. For example, in early June the Phils swept the (at the time) first place Texas Rangers. Shortly after, they went on to lose series against the horrible Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s. The Phils will battle mediocrity again tonight, as the sure-to-lose Vicente Padilla takes on the Pirates’ Mark Redman. I’ll start writing about the loss now.