13-14

For some reason, I am completely incapable of writing anything insightful or even coherent about recent Phillies games. I’ve tried a few techniques in the early going of this site and nothing seems to work. It seems ridiculous to ignore the actual games that the Phillies play on a website devoted to the Phillies, but that is kind of what I plan to do. Big games will get more in-depth recaps as will games that I happen to take extra good notes on, but for the most part the game recaps will be short and sweet – content on the site will be devoted to pretty much everything else related to the Phillies and baseball…it’ll be the stuff I want to write about for the most part. So that’s where things stand as of now, I just wanted to get it all out in the open. As far as last night’s game…

In what was easily the best game of the young season, Aaron Rowand and the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves by a score of 5-4 in front of 26,443 fans in South Philly last night. Games against the Braves always seem to mean a little bit more and last night was no exception – the back and forth nature of the contest made the affair feel like October baseball. There was a great pitching matchup between Brett Myers and John Smoltz, controversial late inning strategy, and a dramatic eight inning full of tension. Chase Utley, Aaron Rowand, Ryan Howard, and Mike Lieberthal all had two hits apiece, Tom Gordon worked another unbelievably easy 1-2-3 ninth inning (with 2 strikeouts, on 9 total pitches, 7 of them being strikes), and the Phillies did it all without a single walk (is this the first time this has happened all year?).

Phillies go for win number five in a row tonight with the newly controversial Cory Lidle on the mound. As the Phillies shoot for that elusive .500 record tonight (14-14) there are some interesting subplots to keep on eye on…what in the world will the lineup look like? How will the Phillies handle a potential late lead with no Tom Gordon (I’m assuming) to close it out? And will the Phils be fortunate enough to get another crack at Mike Remlinger?