A handful of quick-hitting one-liners:
♦ Domonic Brown hit a home run Thursday night, his first of the season and his first at Citizens Bank Park in over a calendar year (July 25, 2015).
♦ It was Brown's 50th career home run,which is exactly how many Mike Schmidt hit ... in Wrigley Field.
♦ It is also the same number that Schmidt hit in Daily News Home Run Payoff innings. Three of those were grand slams (which paid $5,000 back then, $10,000 now). With other bonuses we had through the years, with those 50 Payoff homers, Schmidt put $81,875 into the coifers of Daily News readers.
♦ From Aug. 12 to Oct. 29, 2008, Cole Hamels had 14 starts, went 10-2 with a 2.16 ERA and held opponents to a .224 batting average. We will always remember his being the MVP of the NLCS and World Series that year, but remember, they were in a dogfight just most of September to even reach playoffs,so don't discount his contribution to that also.
♦ The Phillies will host former closer Jonathan Papelbon and his Washington Nationals for the first time on Monday, Sept. 14 ... which just so happens to be the night of the Eagles' regular season opener at Atlanta.
♦ At the All-Star Break, the Phillies (29-62 at the time), needed to play .479 ball (34-37) to avoid 100 losses this season ... Now, they need to go just 24-35 (.407) to keep their losses in double digits.