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Live-blogged Recap: Phillies 9, Brewers 1

Admit it, you thought they were going to be no hit again, didn't you?

By RyneHorde
Best friends!
Best friends!
Mike McGinnis

The "live blog" is something that's gone out of favor the past few years having been mostly replaced by things like twitter and, well, Twitter, mostly. But I'm going to bring it back this afternoon, and live-blog my Phillies game watching experience, and use this in lieu of an actual well-constructed recap. If this is too long, or you have anything better to do with your time (you do, trust me), you can just skip to the bottom to check out the fangraph of lose, or check here: https://twitter.com/didthephilswin

2:01 - T-Mac and Jamie Moyer are dressed in suit coats today. A decent look for a change, though I continue to loathe the matching clothing thing they always do. There's really no need for two or three adult men to wear the exact same clothes every day. They're not 5-year old triplets going for a family photo.

2:03 - McCarthy and Moyer are now talking about how well Garza has been pitching, but I can't stop thinking about how awful he is at throwing to bases. Also, how terrible he is at not being a giant tool.

2:05 - Marshall Harris and Ricky Bottalico have something to say. I mostly ignore them and go back to trying to work my way through the dozens of tabs I have open right now. An example: an interesting long-form article on a theory of pitching velocity: http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/6/18/5818380/effective-velocity-pitching-theory-profile-perry-husband

2:10 - Oh, Keys To The Game, great. Always good advice. Don't chase the high fastball. Okay, gotcha.

2:11 - I start to worry this recap might get really long. Not substantive, just long. I quickly shift my worry to Ryne Sandberg's managerial competency as Tony Gwynn (.174/.296/.217) steps in to lead off the game. Three pitches later he flies out on a weak pop-up in foul territory.

2:12 - In the time it took me to write the above sentence Jimmy Rollins also pops out, this one to deep 2B.

2:16 - After working the count full Utley flies out to left. Garza has thrown 10 pitches. I am already regretting this recap idea. It's no wonder why the live-blog went the way of the Dodo.

2:18 - I Google image search "Garza throwing errors" to find the funny gifs to hyperlink into the 2:03 entry. A peek behind the recap-construction kimono for ya there.

2:19 - I notice David Buchanan has that grumpy Kendrick-face, and kind of has the look of a younger Kyle Kendrick if you squint right.

2:23 - T-Mac informs me that the temperature in Milwaukee is 73 and that it's supposed to drop to the mid fifties this evening. Riveting. As he's doing his worst John Bolaris impression David Buchanon strikes out Jonathan Lucroy to end the inning.

2:25 - A Jeep commercial featuring  Michael Jackson's "Love never felt so good" song appears. I miss my old Grand Cherokee.

2:27 - Ryan Howard steps to the plate as T-Mac informs me that Howard and Utley are a combined 4-27 against Matt Garza. Delightful.

2:29 - The first Greg Murphy appearance, live from the bowels of Miller Park. He scratches at the beam of light that falls on the wall behind him. Still, a step up from Tuesday's copping a feel on the Bob Uecker statute's leg.

2:31 - A graphic with the NL central standings. I don't care.

2:34 - Marlon Byrd strikes out, but had a nice 12-pitch AB, nearly doubling Garza's pitch count. I wonder about what kind of goodies he might fetch later this month and am struck by how good a signing that actually turned out to be. Better than the Ellsbury and Choo deals, clearly.

2:41 - Fell down a twitter hole for a few minutes after seeing a tweet calling Eli Lake an egg and was curious of the context (other than his head being egg-shaped). In that time I missed an out, then the first hit of the game by Ryan Braun, and then a Khris Davis strikeout.

2:43 - Cody Asche with his second assist of the inning, ending it.

2:48 - After a Brown flyout and a Rupp strikeout the broadcast crew does a little video montage on Fauxto's good game yesterday, with Moyer saying something to the effect of, "If he can pitch like that he'll continue to be effective." Forced insight is often no insight at all, I'm finding out.

2:50 - Buchanan strikes out, and I get to watch more car commercials. No, I don't want a Toyota, even if I had the money to buy a new car, which I don't. Same goes for you, Ford commercial that's been made to look like a movie trailer.

2:53 - Buchanan walks Jeff Bianchi which begets the "hey, this strike zone is inconsistent!" protestations from the broadcast crew. Garza sacrifices him to second.

2:55 - Carlos Gomez swings so hard his helmet falls off. I think McCarthy is annoyed, saying he things Gomez needs a smaller helmet. I secretly hope Gomez has reason to do some of his patented "antics" this game. Instead Gomez flies out to center.

3:01 - Scooter Gennett flies out to center. Scooter. His name is actually Ryan. As is mine. But nobody calls me Scooter. "Ry" sometimes, but never "Scooter."

3:02 - This is the fangraph of win probability so far this game.

Partialgraph_medium

It could double as a graph of my excitement level thus far. Or a graph of my approval level of this horrible lineup, as Tony Gwynn Jr is due up in the top of the fourth. Any time you've got a guy coming into the game with a .296 OBP you've got to make sure he gets the most plate appearances.

3:05 - Gwynn's OBP is now .291.

3:07 - Car alarm going off outside, I have to check to make sure there aren't some local hoods making trouble. I return to find the game has shifted to commercials. Going out on a limb to guess that they still don't have a hit.

3:13 - Quick inning, Buchanan got Lucroy and Ramirez to ground out before striking out Braun. Buchanan's actually been fairly impressive thus far; is he another in the long line of serviceable 5th starters the Phillies have cultivated? It seems like that's the forte of the Phillies' player development team.

3:19 - Marlon Byrd works a walk! THE PHILLIES HAVE BROKEN UP THE PERFECTO! There shall be no perfect game against the Phils today! There was much joy in Mudville!

3:25 - After retiring Cody Asche and Domonic Brown Garza keeps the no hitter intact.

3:27 - There are twitter rumors that Lebron James is about to announce where he's taking his considerable talents. This is diverting my attention from the offensive void  being broadcast on my television.

3:31 - No Lebron updates, but now T-Mac and G-Murph (ugh) are debating the top-10 selling jerseys. Apparently across the league people like a 40 year old guy who's been a historically bad fielder at a hugely important defensive position.

Also at 3:31:

3:34 – Buchanan works around a Reynolds HBP, keeping his one-hitter alive. 5 innings, one hit. Can we lower the mound? I don’t mind a pitchers’ duel from time to time, but I really do miss the offensive side of baseball.

3:37 – Cameron Rupp flies to left-center. The call, "Davis and Gomez collide! Did they hang on to the ball? Yes, they did!" What? This man is paid to speak. Literally, his job is to clearly communicate the happenings of a baseball game to a television audience, and that’s the stuff he comes up with.

3:40: Garza’s response to T-Mac’s call.

3:42 - Inning ends as Gwynn Gwynns. (.288 OBP)

3:44 - Carlos Gomez launches a ball into CF. Well, I asked for offense, I guess. And Gomez antics. Jamie Moyer mentions how he enjoyed watching Gomez run around the bases at fairly rapid pace. I wonder if Moyer is aware of Gomez's entire body of work?

3:48 - Jamie Moyer saying that Buchanan is young and will learn that if you are going to make a location mistake you need to do it off the plate. Jamie Moyer is baseball's all-time HR allowed leader, with 522.

3:50 - My computer case is making a cricket-like noise. I think it's a fan, but wow is this annoying.

3:50 - I see news breaking of Yadier Molina's torn thumb ligament, keeping him out 2-3 months. I guess Ruiz's three-year deal makes him an unattractive candidate for the Cards. Oh well.

3:54 - One hour and fifty-four minutes into this game Jimmy Rollins rips a single into right field. The no hitter has been broken up, our collective shame has been postponed!

3:56 - Utley with a single to CF! A rally! I just got excited about back to back singles. This is what Phillies fandom has become. Can Howard keep up the rally?

3:57 - No. Howard grounds out to first. Runners advance. Not the worst outcome, I guess, for a guy who hits a ton of ground balls and has the speed of a giant tortoise.

4:00 - Phillies manage to escape the inning without a run. Whew, that was close. Almost scored a little bit.

4:02 - Oh no, the cricket sound is back. Holy crap is this annoying. Do I restart the computer, maybe see if that does it? I'm sort of in the middle of typing this whole thing up, so that's not a terribly attractive option, but I think I may go all "The Yellow Wallpaper" if I have to sit through this high-pitched squeal all afternoon.

4:09 Buchanan works gets out of the 7th unscathed. The squealing has stopped...for now. I fear it will return shortly. Oh, hold on, text message. Coworker wants to know if I work today. I inform her I do not.

4:12 - Cameron Rubb doubles down the RF line. Hernandez pinch hits for Buchanan, Revere pinch runs for Rupp. T-Mac is wondering why Sandberg is not using John Mayberry as the pinch hitter. He has not considered that the reason may be because John Mayberry is terrible and even worse against RHP. I am informed by the broadcast crew that Hernandez is 0-3 lifetime against Garza while Mayberry is 0-4. That information is as valuable to me as the current weather conditions in East Timor.  Maybe less so.

4:14 - I realize I wrote Cameron Rubb in the above entry, and I chuckle a little, so I decide against going back and changing it.

4:16 - Hernandez walks, bringing up sure-out Gwynn. The question is, does he make one out, or two?

4:19 - I hear back from coworker. Turns out they need something I have on me. I may have to deliver it to work, which would put a real crimp on this live blog recap.

4:20 - Only one out. Gwynn grounded to third, runners advance. Two out, men on 2nd and 3rd for Rollins. Pitching change for the Brewers as Will Smith replaces Matt Garza.

4:25 - Rollins rips a ball to left scoring two! Phils gain the lead. I'm also really disappointed that Smith's warmup music isn't some Will Smith (the other one) song. Maybe Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble, or something like that. Or Summertime. Probably want to avoid the more recent stuff though.

4:30 - Ryan Howard lofts a double down the left-field line, scoring Utley and Rollins! 4-1! Floodgates are open! Matt Garza is...uh...not happy in the dugout.  Oh, wait, now due to some ground rule they're saying Utley has to go back to third. Oh well. 3-1 is still better than 2-1. Plus there's the opportunity for more with Asche coming up with two on.

4:36 - Moyer talking about how Asche has to look for his pitch as he's up 3-1 after a Byrd intentional walk. Asche proceeds to immediately deposit the ball over Braun's head in right for a double. Phils up 5-1. Things are going swimmingly now. But also:

For context:

And with that, the Brewers have seen enough of Will Smith.

4:40 - Brandon Kintzler comes into the game and is immediately greeted by a Dom Brown single, scoring Byrd and Asche. It seems the Phils were saving all their hits for late in the game. The inning ends after 12 men come to the plate, scoring 7. I called the floodgates opening a few minutes ago, and it looks like I wasn't wrong!

4:50 - Uh oh. I have to run to work to drop off some supplies. So the live blog is going to have to pause here, and turn into a tape-delay blog. Or something like that. Apologies.

5:33 - Back! Nasty thunderstorms out there, and now I have WIll Smith's Summertime stuck in my head. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Back to the recap. According to Fangraphs' play log Bastardo shut down the Brewers in the 8th, Tony Gwynn Jr brought his OBP down to .283 in the top of the 9th, Rollins walked and The Big Piece launched a home run to bring the score to 9-1. Diekman ended it in the 9th with a couple strikeouts of Lucroy and Braun.

Phillies continue their winning streak, and have just swept a 4 game series against one of the better teams in the NL. Yay variance!

5:38 - I wonder whatever happened to DJ Jazzy Jeff? Do you think he's a little resentful of all of Will Smith's success?

5:40 - I put all this stuff into the TGP Editorial page, and get ready to publish it. Why are you still reading? Really, this is way too many words, just stop. I will.

Fangraph of Victory!


Source: FanGraphs

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