Page: 3 of 3 View All
Dick Jerardi: Was that Mia Hamm in Ashburn Alley?
the real thing
Hamels was at 84 pitches through five, but the Phillies'
DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff photographer
Pat Burrell is well received after belting a sole homer that put Phillies ahead in sixth inning.
offense was generating nothing, no runners in scoring position. With Ruiz and then Hamels due up with two outs, there was no hint of anything brewing. Then, line single, line single, 3-2 to Jimmy Rollins, crowd crazed for the first time in 90 minutes. Flyout to Manny, but the stage was set for Lowe to get lit up in the sixth.
"Sometimes, you get some misguided pitches and they stay up instead of where they are supposed to be,'' Dodgers manager Joe Torre suggested.
When to pinch-hit
I was thinking the Phils might have pinch-hit for Hamels in the fifth. I was wrong. I was thinking Hamels should have been sent up to bunt in the seventh. He was pitching great at the time, but the result for the Phils could hardly have turned out much better. We do know he could not have done any worse than So Taguchi.
You have to wonder if Taguchi's lame bunt popout was his
final act as a Phil. The crowd, still up after the three-run sixth, took no time to turn on So. He was impolitely booed back to the dugout. This crowd loves players who can execute a bunt and is quite uncomplimentary toward those who can't.
Quite efficient
Even while giving up a hit that Pedro Feliz might have caught, Ryan Madson needed 10 pitches to get the Dodgers in the eighth.
No hitting
As Brad Lidge walks in from the bullpen to close the game, the press box announcer says: "Lidge will bat fifth, Bruntlett will bat ninth." I'm thinking Lidge best not bat at all. He does not.
Exactly 5 minutes, 13 pitches and two long flyballs to Shane Victorino in center later, the deed is done.
And incredibly, a night playoff game took just 2 hours, 36 minutes, which must be some kind of modern-day record. *
Send e-mail to jerardd@phillynews.com
