Think of tonight's Phillies-Diamondbacks game as two different games.
In the first game, the Phillies beat the Diamondbacks 6-2. In this game, Cliff Lee was hittable, but the Diamondbacks didn't take too much advantage of it, scoring only two thanks to a Mark Trumbo RBI single in the first and a Martin Prado solo home run in the third.
In this first game, by the end of the third inning (the last inning of this first game), every Phillies starter had a base hit other than Ryan Howard. Marlon Byrd became only the fifth NL batter with 20 home runs this season. Jimmy Rollins had two doubles, Chase Utley had two singles, and Cody Asche had a two-run home run.
In this winning game, the Phillies chased the Diamondbacks' starter, Josh Collmenter (who I have on two different fantasy baseball teams - ouch!), before the end of the third inning.
But then the second game happened. In this second game, the Phillies were blanked 8-0. Lee continued to give up hits. Justin DeFratus relieved him after two innings but didn't have the magic that he had Friday night. Martin Prado was a Phillie-killer, collecting 4 more RBI (on top of the solo home run in the first game).
In the sixth inning of this second game (9th inning of the overall game), we were treated to two replays. The first seemed to be wrong, as the umps in New York called Reid Brignac out on a phantom tag while stealing second base. But, I'll give the close call to the umps on this one because why Brignac (Reid Brignac!) was stealing in that situation was beyond me. The Phillies then got two more men on base, leading the alternate universe types to wonder whether Brignac could have scored if he had stayed put. With two on and two outs, Grady Sizemore grounded out, sending this second game into its 7th inning (and the overall game into extra innings).
Here's where things got ugly. It was already bad having sat through (or, in my case, driven through, as I was listening to it all unfold while driving home from DC for the entire game) this slow, rambling game. But then Antonio Bastardo entered the game. After letting up a grand slam last night, Bastardo seemed hell bent on lowering his trade value once again tonight.
And lower his trade value he did. An infield single, and a long double gave the Diamondbacks two on, one out. Martin Prado hit a sacrifice fly (his fifth and last RBI of the night), Paul Goldschmidt walked, and then Nick Evans, who the TV announcers (I was home from DC by then) for some reason thought may have been sold to Japan right before the game, hit a no-doubt-about-it three run home run.
Not shown on TV was Ruben Amaro Jr. banging his head against a wall wondering how he can make a trade with anyone this July.
The Phillies went down meakly in the 10th, losing the second game 8-0. Two games, two very different outcomes. Together, the Phillies lost 10-6, the same margin they won by last night.
A few things to note:
- Every single starter had a hit tonight except for the best player on the field - Paul Goldschmidt. Woohoo!
- Ken Giles is sick (in a good way). His 98 to 100 mph heat combined with his high 80s slider makes batters look foolish. I always worry about the longevity of relievers like him, both arm and head, but if this is a sign of what's to come for him, we have something special here.
- After two at-bats that weren't pretty, Ryan Howard made good. He blooped a single to left in his third at-bat, lined a single to right in his fourth, walked in his fifth plate appearance, and although he struck out in his sixth, he hit a few line drive foul balls that looked like he was very close. Here's hoping he gets back on track.
- Overall tonight, these two terrible teams had 16 runs and 33 hits. Add on last night, and you have 30 runs (15 for each team) and 56 hits (Phillies up, 29-27) in two games. And 7 hours, 43 minutes of baseball. If I were a pitching coach for either team, I'd be worrying about my job security right about now.
Fangraph of please-let-tomorrow's-game-that-I'm-attending-be-better:
Source: FanGraphs