Phillies play Orioles, fans lose. BAL 6 - PHI 4

My son is playing in a 13-16 league this summer, accounting for much of my MIA-ness doing what I love, which is recaps. He's inherited a full dose of my non-athleticism, but he walked twice tonight in two appearances and scored two runs. He caught a fly ball in left in limited action in the field, and his team won again tonight. His OBP is.783 (the team average is .588 - they score a lot).

We drove home listening to L.A. and Franzke on the radio describing how a Freddy Galvis error in the fourth helped welcome Kevin Correia to the nightmare that is Philadelphia's 2015 season. The start in Pittsburgh was merely a baseball equivalent of a sympathy...hug.  Galvis helped the Orioles to four runs in the fourth, turning a 1 - 1 game into another in a series of steps leading to the first draft pick in the 2016 MLB entry draft.

It's not to say that the game was without its moments.

Utley created a run in the first, singling, stealing second and advancing to third on an error. He then went home on a wild  pitch. Chase Utley isn't dead, folks. The old man has some fight in him yet.

Galvis redeemed himself somewhat with a drive to left in the seventh inning that resulted in a three run *HOME RUN*. That, fans, is something that when hit, causes the ball to go over the fence, out of play, and allows the player who hits it to circle ALL the bases. ALL OF THEM.

The rally killed, Ben Revere hit a triple and smiled while the Phillies failed to bring him home. The rally was killed by Galvis' homer, remember. The load being shot, the Phillies were spent, and retired to the dugout to towel themselves off.

Ubaldo Jimenez continued to do against the Phillies that which he has done against other teams this season in his process of reinventing himself. He went 6 2/3, walked NOBODY, and struck out 8. He did give up the dinger to Galvis, but he pitched well.

Correia was sabotaged by poor defense, but he also gave up two dingers and a bunch of hits. He was better than what we saw last night, but this isn't Four Aces and a Blanton. Or even a Blanton.

The Phillies had a great shot in the 4th with runners on second and third and nobody out. Of course, they scored NOTHING. NOTHING. Christ, this team...

Ken Giles looked Gilesish, hitting 99 on the TV gun, and displaying a pretty wicked slider.

A rally was mounted in the ninth, but it ended with Jeff Francoeur grounding into a double play.

Tonight was a loss, but it was just a loss. It was not the trainwreck of last night, so I guess that's improvement of a sort. Nine in a row! Woohoo!

A Fangraph follows:

Source: FanGraphs