Results tagged “wildcard”

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

Less than twenty-four hours after Tony Romo committed one of the most embarrassing, costly blunders in football history, not much else will be talked about after the Eagles defended Lincoln Financial Field in a 23-20 Wild Card Weekend triumph. The final 137 yards of Tiki Barber’s career—now overshadowed. Brian Westbrook’s leadership, not to mention his forty-nine-yard touchdown dash despite stomach cramps—no longer headline making. Jeff Garcia continuing to lead the Eagles to an improbable six-game winning streak—already an old story.

How did they do it? Go from holding a blow out Fire Sale to being tied for the wild card? A lot of good pitching, a home run champion and a good dose of luck.

After last night's loss to Houston, we no longer care what Will Bunch (Ryan Howard doesn't pitch) or ESPN's Alan Schwarz (and his interestingly anonymous Phillies fan reader) say. We're ready to say that the Phillies are out of the Wild Card race, and we're so sure of it that we're writing this post before San Diego inevitably beats Colorado and takes a three-game lead over the Phillies.

Dear Will,

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.

Rainy Sundays aren't usually good for much. The malls and movie theaters are jammed, the parks in Center City are, shall we say, outdoors, and you can't play baseball.

You might have noticed that until today, there haven't been that many sports posts lately. There are a few good reasons for that. The first is that we don't put too much stock in preseason football. There's so much noise out there already that we don't have anything new or worthwhile to say.

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.

A 2+ hour rain delay didn't deter many fans at last nights Phillies/Mets game at Citizens Bank Park. It didn't deter Jimmy Rollins, either. The red-hot shortstop extended his hitting streak to 31 games - tying the Phillies' all-time record - with a first pitch lead-off homerun. The hit put the Phillies in the lead, which they'd hold until the eighth inning when Ugueth Urbina gave up four runs - three of them earned - en route to a crushing 6 - 5 loss to the New York Mets.

Every local sports columnist and TV anchor tried to remind us heading into the weekend that the Cincinatti Reds put an end to the Phillies' playoff hopes these past two years. They all seemed dead-on Friday night as the Phillies blew a 6 - 1 lead to fall behind the Reds, 10 - 6. The Phillies, it seems, had blown it again.

It's happened a few times this season: Charlie Manuel makes a bad move. Bill Dancy makes an even worse move. An Ed Wade acquisition, like David Bell or Michael Tucker (better yet, David Bell AND Michael Tucker), hits into a key double play.

Jimmy Rollins extended his league-leading hit streak last night against the Atlanta Braves, but that was about the only thing that went right for the Phillies. The Fightin's lost 4 - 1 against the Braves last night in Atlanta, leaving them two games behind the Houston Astros, who beat up on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Both teams have 11 games left this season. The Marlins, sitting in third place in the Wild Card race, lost to the New York Mets in 12 innings and now find themselves three games back of the Astros.

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.

The Phillies entered their weekend series against the Marlins hoping to take one game from the Marlins. Two games seemed to be asking a lot since the Phillies faced the two Marlins aces, Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett, on Saturday and Sunday.

There's nothing better than kicking back at a Phillies game and making a nice Tomas Perez pie joke, or really any joke about any of the Phillies bench players. Except maybe Shane Victorino. Maybe. But Ramon Martinez was able to fire a shot back last night in the form of a grand slam that helped the suddenly surging Phillies defeat the Atlanta Braves last night, 12-4.

The Phillies played in front of the smallest crowd in Citizens Bank Park history last night, but the lack of attention suited them just fine: the Phils, behind winless rookie pitcher Eude Brito, topped the Braves and ace starter Tim Hudson 4-1.

Even though the Eagles are starting their season tonight, we're going to annoy you for a moment with some Phillies news. After some heartbreaking losses to the Astros, the Phillies came roaring back by taking 2 games out of 3 from the Florida Marlins over the weekend. The wins pulled the Phils to a game and a half behind the wild card leading Astros and a game behind the second place Marlins.

Chris and Phil return this week in the wake of a terrible sweep at the hands of the Wild Card leading Houston Astros. Today, Mustazza and Sandick tackle Billy Wagner's recent troubles, what the Phils' bullpen should look like next season, and how the Phillies have to play over these last 22 games in order to win the Wild Card.

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.

The Phillies capped off a terrible Labor Day weekend with a heartbreaking loss to the Houston Astros last night, 4-3. The game seemed to get out of hand immediately as an error, as well as two Brett Myers walks, led to four first-inning runs for the Astros. Last week, we agreed with disputed lanky columnist Phil Sheridan that Myers was beginning to look like the team's ace. We started to doubt ourselves after the first inning last night, but Myers came through afterwards, shutting down the Houston bats for the next six innings. Meanwhile, Sheridan don't gotta believe.

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.

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.

Chris and Phil are back again this week to talk about Citizens Bank Park, Jim Thome, and Ugueth Urbina, among other things. This will be Phil's last post for a while, as he's on something he likes to call "vacation." Personally, we just think he doesn't like staying up late for the Phils' west coast swing.

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.