Always be the lion: Braves 2, Phillies 1

During tonight's game, radio color guy Larry Anderson recalled pitching advice he'd heard Phillies' pitching coach Bob McClure give to the young staff. The advice? Always be the lion and never be the antelope. Essentially, a pitcher shouldn't be defensive on the mound, he should be offensive.

LA relaying that slightly bizarre story about the slightly bizarre Bob McClure may have been one of the most interesting things that happened during tonight's 2-1 snoozefest loss to the Braves.

The Phillies couldn't get anything going against Braves' starter Ryan Weber. They had just three hits all game, and only two walks. Ruf walked in the 4th and that was the last baserunner the Phillies had until the ninth inning. The Phillies got their only run in the second inning, on two singles and a double play.

Jerad Eickhoff pitched seven scoreless innings on 91 pitches tonight, and yes that is a FULL seven innings. He allowed only five hits and two walks. He still has trouble getting lefties out, but his early success is nothing but encouraging to me.

In the bottom of the seventh, the first interesting thing happened in at least four innings (and maybe more). With a man on, Michael Bourn laid down a bunt that fell directly in front of home plate. When I say in front of, I mean like this: stand up, look down at your feet, and then look a foot in front of your feet. That's where the ball was. Bourn started trotting out of the box looking behind him, not sure if the ball was fair or not before hauling ass down the line. But Chooch didn't waste a second — he jumped on the ball and threw it across the diamond to Andres Blanco at second and Darin Ruf at first for a nifty double play. A double play that helped get Eickhoff through the inning quickly.

That's pretty much where the good things stopped, because Jerome Williams started the eighth inning. (Hat tip to Mike Gianella for leading me to the forthcoming tweet.)

"The Phillies don't have a long guy in the pen because they like Jerome Williams in the 8th." hahahahah omg

— Corinne (@Ut26) September 19, 2015

Williams entered with a 1-0 lead and promptly gave up a single and a walk, because he is bad. A double from Freddy Freeman cleared the bases and gave the Braves a 2-1 lead. The Phillies only had three offensive outs to play with, and despite the tying run making it to third base in the ninth, they couldn't mount a comeback.

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzz oh I'm sorry did I fall asleep? It's hard to imagine how I could do that when I'm recapping the most scintillating baseball I have ever seen. OH WAIT I MEAN THE OPPOSITE OF THAT.

There are 13 games left and if they're all like this, my recaps are going to get really interesting. And by interesting, I mean "a terrifying look into the deepest, darkest, most terrifying corners of my soul."