Everyone loses but us! Phils 12 Astros 6

On the heels of a pretty disappointing defeat, the Phillies woke up and pounded the Astros tonight by a score of 12- 6. I don't know about you guys, but it felt a lot closer for about 7 innings. Cole Hamels was handed a 4 run lead, and I never felt confident. Mainly because it was Houston, but also cause...I can't explain it, other than I feel like I'm packing a full seasons worth of CARE into 3 weeks right now. Like I've got a second lease on life, but I'm in an airplane with one engine failing. And we got killer parachutes.

But theres sharks in the water below.

But theres also an all you can eat lobster buffet on the plane.

But I've got a heart condition and thats a LOT of cholesterol.

Seriously. I really don't know if my heart is going to hold up over the next few weeks. I'm clinging to every pitch, waiting for the inevitable other shoe to drop, figuring out when that one little thing is gonna happen to turn this all to hell. But it's relevant September baseball guys. Whoda thunk it?

Actual recap after the break.

Jimmy Rollins got the M&%$#@$F*(&(^G party started with a lead off home run (his 20th) Juan Pierre continued to prove my early season "This years Juan Castillo" prediction wrong with a walk, then stole second, and scored on an Utley single. Then Utley, proving why we didn't need Juan Castillo anyway, said anything you can do I can do better, and stole his own damn base. Ryan Howard, knowing he wasn't stealing S*&T on 3/4 of a wheel, hit a ground rule double to get to second base the easy way, and Utley Scored. John Mayberry who would end up with 3 hits and 3 RBI of his own on the day, decided to play too, and scored Howard with a single and its 4-0 Phils before Hamels even touched the ball.

Normally this is where I feel REALLY GOOD. Hamels. 4 run lead, crappy team. But its the Astros. In Houston, and that damn LEFT FIELD WALL just screams at me. Haunts me in my dreams.

And thats what the damn thing did for seven innings. Hamels was pretty darn good tonight. 8 K's, just 1 walk over 7. (Side note: with three starts left, Cole needs 7 K's to hit 200 for just the second time in his career, and 18 to eclipse his career high 211 in 2010. He has just been dominant all year and I'm so glad he's ours.) He really only threw two bad pitches, they just went out. Far. Over that damn wall. Twice. Don't get me wrong we we're never in real trouble. 5-1 became 5-3 in the fourth, and we scored two in the 5th to make it 7-3, then the next Home run made it 7-4.

But I wasn't confident. Not at all. I was sure it was all gonna get screwed up.

And then, Dom Brown murdered a Baseball.

He hit the ball so hard, that the tailwind literally knocked the pitcher over. Seriously, forget everything else. If theres one thing to take from this game its that. Watch that video and remember the kid is 24 and still hasn't found his swing.

Just like that it was 9-4, ad I was feeling pretty good.

by the 8th, when the inning was over, the Phils tacked on three more to make it 12-4 even when DeFratus tried to make it interesting and gave up a run to make it 12-5, it was over.

So over, in fact, that Darin Ruf got his ML debut AB in the 9th inning.

He did not hit a home run.

He popped up to the third baseman.

I got it! Ruf to SS, Rollins to 3B. He's got the bat for it.

Amirate?

The sixth run came in the bottom of the ninth. Long after I had actually finished this recap.

Pirates, Arizona, Brewers all lose, and the Dodgers were eeking there way back in to it as I wrote this, down 4-3 after an Andre Ethier Home run in the 3rd. High hopes indeed.

Fangraph of someone else needs to figure that shit out cause I never can get the hang of it not here. But I'm sure it looked pretty.