WOW! What a roller coaster ride of a baseball game! After leading 2-1 for a good part of the game, the Colorado Rockies rallied in the bottom of the 8th inning to take a 2-run lead and at that point, my heart just sunk. For if a Game 5 is forced, we lose Hamels for the start of the potential NLCS series, thus making our Game 1 starter of that series either Happ or Blanton or Pedro and Hamels would not be able to go until much later in the series. Oh, and yeah, if Colorado hangs on, they have all of the momentum coming back to Philly. And with a sinker ball pitcher in Aaron Cook on the mound, a style of pitching that the Phillies have struggled with this year, there is no way we win that game.But then, the Phillies staged a rally that will be remembered for a long time in Philadelphia and perhaps an even longer time in Denver. With 2 outs and 2 strikes on him, Chase Utley did a masterful job of working the walk to join Shane Victorino on base. Then Howard came up, and faced with a 1-2 count, this happened.
That double evened things up! But wait, the Phillies were not done yet. Jayson Werth was at the plate and then the even more improable happened. Jayson Werth singled to score Ryan Howard from 2nd to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead
Into the bottom of the 9th, instead of relying on their closer, Manual got smart and did what the Rockies did not do and play the match-ups (if the Rockies were playing match-ups, they would have never let Huston Street pitch against Howard)), instead they brought in Scott Eyre to face the lefty-laden line-up of the Rockies that was due up. Only once they got to Tulo, did Brad Lidge come in and despite the fact that there were runners on base, Brad Lidge struck out Troy Tulowitzki to end the inning, game, and NLDS series.
Simply an amazing comeback. It may just be the NLDS and the Phillies may have much higher expectations than surviving a series with the Rockies, but anytime you get a playoff win like that, it is going to excite the city and excite the town and give the Phillies all of the momentum they could ask for heading into the a re-match of the 2008 NLCS in the 2009 NLCS.
The series starts on this Thursday. I will have the full and complete LCS schedule up for you all tomorrow.
For all videos at MLB.com where they are in high quality, including the Werth single that I can't find at the moment, click here.
I completely agree with you that Manuel did a fantastic job of managing the late innings of that game, starting with putting Ben Francisco in LF to make that great catch in the 8th inning. So, I take back all of the trash I was talking about him earlier in last night's game.
ReplyDeleteIt's okay.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, half of that win last night can be attributed to the managing job that Charlie Manual did. He gave Tracy a complete and utter schooling on how to properly manage a National League game.
Tracy went with a tired, worn, closer when the match-up dictated he shouldn't and when the Phillies have been getting hits off of him all series. Manual played match-ups and aside from a few questionable decisions in Game 2, used the right pitchers at the right times.