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Show me your "O" face! The Phillies *can* win, and in front of a very partisan crowd in Baltimore, they made the travelling Phillies fans, myself included, quite happy.
In addition to the unlikely win by the Phillies, this game had a lot of unusual facets. Shane Victorino hit a homer from the left side. Jim Thome, back from the dead, legged out an infield single. *Boggle* Mike Fontenot hit a home run. Wait, what? No, really. And Thome had a pair of doubles to go with the infield single.
I watched all of this from Section 17 with my kid. Liz snuck down to visit with me, and I handed her a warm Natty Boh pounder, which she gamely put away, grimacing through most of it. And we all watched Joe Blanton sweat his way through good peripherals, but bad outcomes. Again. I don't get it with Blanton, but he pitched 6.2 innings, striking out 7, walking 1, and giving up 5 earned runs on 7 hits. I guess the best you can say is that he ate innings, and pitched to the score, or something. The outcome sure was "meh."
Fortunately, Jake Arrieta was awful, and the Orioles left him in through 4 innings, 11 hits, 9 runs, 5 strikeouts and 0 walks. The Phillies hit around in the second, scoring 6 runs on a triple by Juan Pierre, a homer by Mike Fontenot, and a passel of other hits, including three doubles. The game was over, but the Phillies made it interesting by letting the O's score three in the bottom half of the frame. Still, the Fangraph tells the tale -- it was all over.
The bullpenning, other than a rough outing by Michael Schwimer (Liz sort of called this) who gave up a cheap-o homer into the first few rows of the TFJOAB, was excellent. Antonio Bastardo struck out the side around a walk, and Jonathan Papelbon put away the O's in the ninth, giving up just a single and striking out one.
And Michael Martinez made an appearance! No wonder the Phillies won! Their MVP is back!
Wow. The Phillies just needed a game like this. Fangraph of release:
Source: FanGraphs