Philly Sports Today

Two things were bound to happen sooner or later. First, the Washington Nationals were bound to win their first game of the season, and second, Joe Blanton was bound to lose his first game as a Phillie. Unfortunately, both of these events happened during the same game as the the Nats abused relievers Chad “You may be able to start calling me J.D.” Durbin and Jack “Trashner” Taschner in the seventh and eighth innings during their 8-2 win. To put in perspective how poorly those two guys pitched, the Phillies only trailed 3-2 when Durbin took the mound.

In what seems to be an every game occurrence, the Phillies allowed first inning runs when starting pitcher “Fat” Joe Blanton served up a three-run home run that Adam Dunn absolutely crushed into the right field seats. The Phightins got one back from Washington starting pitcher Shairon Martis in the fourth inning when Raul Ibanez’s RBI-single plated Chase Utley. The Phils clawed to within one run in the fifth inning on a Jimmy Rollins sac fly that scored rookie Lou Marson.

However, Philly couldn’t get anything else off of Martis, who threw 6 1/3 strong innings and allowed two runs on five hits with one strikeout and two walks. Blanton didn’t do so bad either. During Fat Joe’s six inning of work, he allowed three runs and scattered eight hits while striking out five and walking one. So besides the Dunn jack, Blanton had a pretty good night. Then, the Phils completely unraveled. Durbin started the seventh in relief of Blanton and got a rude welcome by pinch hitter Josh Willingham, who greeted him with a solo homer to left that pushed Washington’s lead to 4-2. Taschner came on in relief of Durbin to record the final out of the inning, but it was only a matter of time before he would get abused.

If J.C. Romero isn’t suspended, does the eighth inning play out the way it did? The obvious answer is no. Elijah Dukes led off the inning with a home run. Then, Trashner picked up two outs and it looked like he was going to be able to get out of the inning after only allowing one run. Not so fast, my friend. Alberto Gonzalez hit a solo home run to left. Roger Bernadina walked, stole second, and scored on Anderson Hernandez’s single. After Nick Johnson walked, Ryan Zimmerman singled to center to plate Hernandez and suddenly that Nats had a 8-2 lead. Joel Hanrahan came on in relief in the ninth and had an easy 1-2-3 inning as the Nationals cruised to their first victory of 2009.

The Phillies’ pitching has been absolutely dreadful this season. In 70 innings, the staff has allowed 54 earned runs (6.94 ERA). Additionally, they’ve now served up 20 home runs. Only the Baltimore Orioles have allowed more homers (21), but at least they’re hitting .290 as a team with 56 runs scored, while the Phillies are only hitting .261 with 42 runs scored. The Phightins right the ship as soon as possible since their schedule gets a lot tougher once the calendar flips to May.

The Phillies return home tonight to begin a three-game series with the surprising San Diego Padres, who just won two of three from the Mets during the first series at Citi Field. Cole Hamels will make his second start of the year in the series opener and will be opposed by Chris Young. Hopefully, Cole has a much better performance than he did in his first outing of the year when he threw about as hard as Jamie Moyer.

Go Phillies.

It was a pretty tough night for Philly sports teams. The Flyers dropped the puck on the road for Game 1 of their first round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it was just like the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals. The Penguins significantly outplayed the Flyers the entire night as the rolled to an easy 4-1 victory and a 1-0 series lead. On the flip side, it was a good night for the Sixers as they closed out their regular season with a 111-110 overtime win on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the win, Philly clinced the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference and became the first Eastern Conference team to win in Cleveland this year. However, this win becomes a lot less impressive when you find out that LeBron James, Mo Williams, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas didn’t play. Either way, a win’s a win and now the Sixers don’t have to play the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, even though they’ll still get crushed by the Orlando Magic, but I digress.

Let’s start with the Flyers, who were flat out dominated by the Penguins in Game 1. I’m glad that Philly decided to revert back to taking careless penalties all night since that strategy worked out so well for them all season. Less than five minutes into the first period, Arron Asham couldn’t get off the ice during a line change, stayed out for an extended shift and drew a pivotal hooking penalty. Only fifteen seconds into the power play, Sidney Crosby made the Flyers pay with a goal that gave the Pens a 1-0 lead. Sid the Kid threw the puck down low to Evgeni Malkin, whose rebound deflected off Crosby’s skate, the goal post and Martin Biron’s right skate before settling into the back of the net. The play was reviewed, but the goal was upheld when it was confirmed that Crosby didn’t intentionally kick the puck.

The Penguins extended their lead early in the second period after Braydon Coburn committed a costly turnover in the neutral zone that allowed Jordan Staal to start an up-ice rush with Tyler Kennedy that finished with Kennedy beating Biron, who made 29 saves, with a chip shot that went top shelf. The goal also ended Kennedy’s streak of 20 straight playoff games without a goal. You expect Crosby and Malkin to get theirs during the playoffs, but when guys that are in goal-scoring slumps break out against you, it’s normally not going to be your night. Oh year, it’s also never good when you don’t record a shot for the first ten minutes of a period like Philly did in the second. It’s pretty tough to score goals when that happens.

Pittsburgh blew the game wide open in the third period after another costly turnover by the Flyers. Mike Knuble tried banking a pass off the back wall, but the puck went right to Malkin like his stick was a magnet and he quickly beat Biron with a backhander to make it 3-0. Four minutes later, the Pens lit the lamp once more when Mark Eaton, a Delaware native and former Flyer, scored on a shot from the point that increased the lead to 4-0. Simon Gagne finally got Philly on the board late in the third with a power play goal, but that was pretty much the only bright spot for the Flyers all night. Marc-Andre Fleury, who was idle for much of the first two periods, stopped 26 of the 27 shots that he faced as the Penguins cruised to victory. For his career, Fleury is 15-6 against the Flyers during the regular season and is not 5-1 against them in the playoffs, so Philly is definitely going to have a tough time winning this series.

The Flyers will look to even the series tomorrow night in Pittsburgh. If Philly falls into a 2-0 series hole, it’s pretty much over for them.

Let’s Go Flyers!

Now, a quick note about the Sixers. The win in Cleveland was nice, but barely beating a team in overtime that didn’t have it’s best three players is hardly impressive. Especially when one of those players is LeBron James. Either way, Philly did what they needed to do and now get “rewarded” with a first round game against the third-seeded Orlando Magic instead of the second-seeded Boston Celtics.

The two Andres carried the Sixers as they have pretty much all year. Miller led the way with 30 points, eight assists, three steals, and a rebound, while Iguodala poured in 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Thaddeus Young continued his stellar late-season play by adding 20 points, nine rebounds, three steals, and an assist. Louis Williams came up big off the bench with 19 points, and Reggie Evans had a yeoman 10 point and seven rebound effort.

With the stars out of the line-up, it was Daniel “Boobie” Gibson’s time to shine. Despite coming off the bench, Boobie, who averaged 7.8 points per game, went off for 28 points, seven assists, three rebounds, two steals, and a block. Wally Szczerbiak, who only averaged 7 points per game this year, stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. It was the first time since May 2, 2008 that Szczerbiak broke the 20-point plateau in a game and it was the first time since February 19, 2008 that he did it during the regular season. I guess that’s what happens when 68.6 points per game are in street clothes. Sasha Pavlovic, who only averaged 4.6 points per game this year, poured in 20 points with three rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Seldom-used Darnell Jackson and his 1.9 points per game average chipped in 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

The Sixers will open their first round playoff series against the 59-23 Magic on Sunday night in Orlando. The Magic swept the season series 3-0, but all of the games were decided by 10 points or less. Additionally, with two of the games taking place in November and the other taking place in February, I’m not sure how much those results will be able to tell you about either team. Orlando is 5-5 in their last 10 games heading into the playoffs, while Philly is 4-6. I think that the Sixers can be competitive, just like they were last year against Detroit, but I don’t see any way that Philly will be able to pull off the upset. The Magic were 32-9 at home this year, so unless the Sixers win all three home games and somehow steal a game in O-Town, they’ll be one-and-done for the second straight year.

Go Sixers!

If the Sixers can’t beat the Boston Celtics when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen aren’t in the line-up, how is Philly supposed to keep up with them when the Big 3 is reunited? Once again, the Sixers collapsed in the fourth quarter against the Celtics and came up short as Boston escaped with a 100-98 win. While the C’s didn’t win in as dramatic fashion as when Ray Allen buried the game-winning three-pointer with 0.5 seconds left back in February, this win may do more psychological damage to the Sixers because they got beat by a bunch of reserves.

I never thought that Philly had any chance of beating Boston in the first round of the playoffs anyway, but now it’s pretty clear that the Sixers have absolutely no chance since they couldn’t even beat an undermanned team at home. It’s pretty pathetic. If the Sixers take Boston to six games, it would be a moral victory, but would also prove that they have made absolutely zero progress since they lost in six games to the Detroit Pistons in the first round last year. Someone needs to be accountable for that, especially when they get swept or, at best, lose to the Celtics in five games.

Andre Iguodala led the way for the Sixers with 25 points, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals, and a block, but came up very small when his floater late in the game went nowhere. That’s the kind of stuff that happens when your team’s #1 option would be a #2 on a good team and a #3 on a championship team. In his first game back from an ankle injury, Thaddeus Young poured in 18 points, while Andre Miller stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, nine assists, and six rebounds. Willie Green also chipped in a surprising 11 points. Louis Williams was the only real contributor off the bench and he added 14 points.

With Garnett and Allen on the sideline, Paul Pierce shouldered the load with 31 points, three assists, two steals, and a block. Tony Allen, who only averages 7.6 points in 19 minutes per game, “went off” for 18 points, five assists, four rebounds, three steals, and a block. Rajon Rondo added 11 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, while Leon Powe tacked on 10 points, four rebounds, and an assist. Kendrick Perkins cleaned the glass with 12 rebounds. Off the bench, Glen “Big Baby” Davis contributed 15 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

The Sixers close out the regular season tonight with a trip to the NBA-best Cleveland Cavaliers, who 39-1 at home. These two teams only met five days ago at the Wachovia Center and the Cavs left with a 102-92 win. Philly has now lost six straight games since clinching a playoff spot on April 4th with their win over the Detroit Pistons. Now, the Sixers need to beat Cleveland on the road and have the Toronto Raptors beat the Bulls in Chicago in order to be the sixth seed and avoid a first round match-up with the Boston Celtics. Basically, things are not looking good for Philly.

Go Sixers.

On a day when the Phillies edged the Washington Nationals 9-8, the game was meaningless. At about 12:30 p.m., Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas was found by the Phillies’ director of broadcasting after collapsing in the broadcast booth. Harry the K was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It is a dark day in Philadelphia, and it is fitting that today’s forecast calls for rain. That pretty much describes how all members of Phillies Nation feel today. I never thought that I would see the day when Kalas was gone. He was supposed to call Phillies games forever, and for an entire generation of Phillies fans, his voice is all that we know. Every time that there is a big play, I’m going to wonder, “How would Harry have called this?” Phillies games will never be the same. Now, like the countless home runs that he called, Harry is “Outta Here,” but he will be in all of our hearts forever. I think Phillies president David Montgomery summed up Harry’s death best when he said, “We lost our voice.” Truer words may never be spoken.

Although the Phillies and the Nationals discussed postponing the game, they ultimately decided against it. The starting pitching continued to struggle early on as Jamie Moyer quickly found himself in a 1-0 hole after an Elijah Dukes RBI-double in the bottom of the first inning. However, the Phils battled back in the second inning when Chris Coste picked up an RBI on a bases-loaded walk and Moyer helped himself out with a sac fly that put Philly up 2-1. Unfortunately, the Nats responded in the bottom of the second when Cristian Guzman stroked an RBI-single to tie the game at 2-2.

“The Flyin’ Hawaiian” Shane Victorino put the Phillies back on top in the top of the third inning with a solo shot. After the homer, Victorino crossed himself and then pointed up at the booth where Kalas was supposed to be working. The Phils tacked on another run in the fourth inning when Jimmy Rollins roped a double to right that plated Pedro Feliz to push the advantage to 4-2. Unfortunately, the winless-Nationals would not go away as Guzman picked up an RBI-single in the bottom of the fourth and Dukes connected on a solo homer in the fifth to retie the game.

The Phillies busted out in the seventh inning when “The Big Man,” Ryan Howard, belted a three-run home run to deep center field. One batter later, Raul Ibanez got into the act and smoked a solo homer to put the Phightins up 8-4. Once again, the Nats battled back as Adam Dunn answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to slice the deficit to 8-6. Victorino tacked on an insurance run in the eighth inning on a sac fly that plated Eric Bruntlett, and that would prove to be a very big run.

Brad “Lights Out” Lidge came on in the ninth inning and had another shaky save performance. Lidge gave up a single to Guzman and then a two-run homer to Ryan Zimmerman that cut Philly’s lead to 9-8. Just like that, the Phils were clinging to a one-run lead with no outs in the ninth inning. However, Lidge settled down and struck out Dunn and Dukes before Nick Johnson grounded out to first to end the game. It was nice to get the win for Harry.

The Phils have an off-day today before returning back to the field on Wednesday for the second game of their series against the Nationals. “Fat” Joe Blanton will be on the mound for the Phillies and he will be opposed by Washington’s Shairon Martis.

R.I.P. Harry Kalas
March 26, 1936 - April 13, 2009

Go Phillies.

The legend of Matt Stairs continues to grow. The 41-year-old crushed a tie-breaking pinch-hit two-run home run in the ninth inning as the Phillies battled all the way back from an early 5-1 deficit to escape with a 7-5 win over the Colorado Rockies. Stairs is arguably one of the best pinch-hitters as he now leads all active players with 15 career pinch-hit homers. The decision to keep Stairs over Geoff Jenkins has already paid dividends.

The Phightins got off to yet another terrible start thanks to their starting pitching. In his first start as a Phillie, Chan Ho Park was awful. Colorado jumped all over Park in the bottom of the first inning as Brad Hawpe opened the scoring with an RBI double to center. After a passed ball by Chris Coste, Garrett Atkins stroked another single to center to put Colorado up 2-0. Ian Stewart followed with a single and then Troy Tulowitzki walked to load the bases with only one out. One batter later, Clint Barmes singled to shallow left that plated Atkins and Stewart as the Rockies were suddenly up 4-0 before Park could get out of the inning.

The Phillies got one back in the top of the second when Ryan Howard hit a lead-off double and came around to score on a throwing error after Raul Ibanez hit an infield single. Unfortunately, Park gave the run right back by serving up a solo shot to Dexter Fowler as the Rox extended their lead to 5-1. The Phils inched closer in the fourth inning when Jayson Werth hit an RBI single that plated Chase Utley to slice the deficit to 5-2. Park settled down a bit before being lifted with runners at first and second and one out in the bottom of the fourth inning. Thankfully, Chad Durbin came on in relief and got out of trouble. For the game, Chan Oh No allowed five runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and three walks in only 3 1/3 innings pitched. I really hope that he’s out of the rotation sooner rather than later.

Werth continued to be a one-man wrecking crew in the sixth inning as he hit another RBI single that once again scored Utley to make it 5-3. The Phightins squandered a lead-off double by Pedro Feliz in the seventh, but Utley crushed a two-run jack in the top of the eighth inning off of Manny Corpas to tie the game at 5-5. After Ryan Madson pitched a perfect eighth, Feliz led off the ninth with a double and a Chris Coste sacrifice bunt moved Peter Happy to third. Stairs was summoned to pinch-hit for Madson and absolutely crushed Huston Street’s fastball for a go-ahead two-run bomb that gave the Phillies a 7-5 lead. Brad Lidge came on in the ninth inning and things got a little dicey, but Lights Out got out of the inning unscathed to preserve the win.

The Phillies will look for their third straight win this afternoon when they open a three-game series on the road with the winless Washington Nationals. The crafty left-hander Jamie Moyer will face-off against the gigantic Daniel Cabrera. The Nats always seem to give the Phils some problems and Washington’s home opener will definitely be a tough game for the Champs to win.

Go Phillies.

Just some quick comments about the Flyers and Sixers as they free fall into the playoffs. All the Flyers had to do to lock up the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference was force overtime. However, they couldn’t hold onto a 3-2 lead in the third period as the New York Rangers lit the lamp twice in the first half of the period and the Flyers couldn’t answer as they fell 4-3. This is a very disappointing result for the Orange and Black, who have essentially been the number four seed for the entire second half of the season, but their inconsistent play has finally caught up with them. Now the fifth-seeded Flyers get rewarded with a match-up against the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins. Game one of the series is Wednesday night in the Steel City. Philly’s defense has just been awful, so I’m predicting that Pittsburgh wins in six games.

Let’s Go Flyers!

The Sixers are also slumping their way into the playoffs and have now lost five straight games, including a 111-104 road loss to the Toronto Raptors. Philly is tied with the streaking Chicago Bulls as both teams are 40-40 with two games left. The Sixers finish up with games against the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, so I’m expecting them to finish with the seventh seed and have to meet the Celtics in the first round. I guess it’s going to be another one-and-done playoff appearance. Why couldn’t they have just tanked the season once Elton Brand went down and gotten a lottery pick?

Go Sixers!