{"id":596,"date":"2009-05-18T08:57:34","date_gmt":"2009-05-18T13:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=596"},"modified":"2009-05-18T08:57:34","modified_gmt":"2009-05-18T13:57:34","slug":"bring-out-the-brooms-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=596","title":{"rendered":"Bring out the BROOMS BABY!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an unsightly series that could end no other way. The final decisive runs in the Philadelphia Phillies\u2019 four-game sweep of the pitching-poor, error-prone Washington Nationals scored on a bunt play that went mysteriously awry.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>With the Phillies trailing by one in the eighth inning and nobody out, Pedro Feliz(notes) attempted a routine sacrifice. Pitcher Jesus Colome(notes) fielded the ball and threw accurately to first, but second baseman Anderson Hernandez(notes)\u2014who was covering the bag\u2014inexplicably moved out of the way at the last second and let the ball go into right field.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u201cI didn\u2019t see the ball. What I can do? I don\u2019t see it,\u201d said Hernandez, who clearly did not want to discuss the matter afterward. \u201cI cannot even catch it if I can\u2019t see it.\u201d<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>Two runs scored, and Colome was given a hard-luck, two-base error. The Phillies added another run in the inning and won 8-6, capping a series that included 55 runs, 42 walks and enough long innings to make any fan restless.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u201cWe played a lot of baseball and we come out 4-0,\u201d Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose team had lost three straight series coming into Washington, said with his typical shrug. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sergio Escalona(notes) (1-0), called up overnight from Double-A Reading, got the win in his major league debut by throwing one scoreless inning of relief, practically a standout performance among the only two National League clubs with team ERAs over 5.00.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>The 24-year-old left-hander from Venezuela therefore had a right to be jubilant, and he most certainly was\u2014pumping his fists repeatedly as he recalled his feelings when he saw the Nationals mess up the bunt and make him the pitcher of record.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u201cYes! Yes! And thank God! I was just waiting for the score to hold, and I got the ball right there,\u201d said Escalona, pointing to the souvenir in his locker. \u201cI never forget this day!\u201d<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>Neither will the Nationals. The bunt play is just the sort of thing that happens to the worst team in baseball.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u201cIt seems like we can do some stuff right now that other people can\u2019t,\u201d said Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman(notes).<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>Both teams tallied at least five runs in every game of the series, which included the rain-shortened nightcap of Saturday\u2019s day-night doubleheader. The Phillies, already the NL\u2019s top scoring road team, finished with 33 runs in 35 innings.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>The pitchers\u2014and there were a combined 11 of them Sunday\u2014became so unpredictable that the plate umpire warned both dugouts in the fifth inning after Josh Willingham(notes) became the third hit batter of the game.<\/em>
\n<\/em>The first inning lasted 37 minutes and ended in a 3-3 draw. Phillies starter Chan Ho Park(notes) was done after 1 1-3 innings, having walked four and thrown two wild pitches to go with his five runs allowed. Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann(notes) settled down after the first and made it through five innings, allowing five runs before turning the game over to his dicey bullpen.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>Julian Tavarez(notes) (0-3) took the loss without retiring a batter. Brad Lidge(notes) got the final two outs in the ninth for his seventh save, his second consecutive scoreless outing after six straight in which he had allowed at least one run.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>The Nationals actually misplayed two bunts. Zimmermann said he should have turned a hard bunt by Park into a double play in the third, even though catcher Wil Nieves(notes) was calling for the ball to go to first.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>The Phillies went on to score two runs in the inning.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u201cWe turned two bunts,\u201d Washington manager Manny Acta said, \u201cinto four runs.\u201d -yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n

What a great series for us. \u00a0To battle back and win all four. \u00a0This seires had a bit of everything in it. \u00a0Highs and Lows thats for sure. \u00a0While it was nice to see Brad Lidge’s fast ball look good that last game he still looks shakey to me. \u00a0Our pitching did not do TERRIBLE which is something to look and smile about, while our bats were FLYING. \u00a0I thought that Jason Werth would get Phillie of the month this month but I’m going to have to say it is most likely going to end up being RAUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLL again. \u00a0This boy is on fire.<\/p>\n

Now we have 2 hard series upcoming and one series that will be tricky for us. \u00a0Reds are up first with a 3 game away trip in Cinci, then we travel to NY to face those Yanks who were struggling but have managed to win 3 straight games in the 9th, NY teams always give us trouble. \u00a0Then we battle the Marlins at home for 3 games following that is another series with the team we just swept the Nats. \u00a0Lets hope this 4 game win streak here is the spark that we needed to get ahead of those Mets again. \u00a0Right now as it stands we are 0.5 behind them and hopefully we can leapfrog ahead of them tonight with a loss from them. \u00a0Tonight the Mets face the Dodgers again with Wolf pitching meanwhile the Mets are trying out a newbie in Redding. \u00a0Let hope he does bad. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was an unsightly series that could end no other way. The final decisive runs in the Philadelphia Phillies\u2019 four-game sweep of the pitching-poor, error-prone Washington Nationals… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philadelphia_phillies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}