A come-from-behind win, lots of two-out offense, and a tension-filled ninth all went to make the 10-8 slugfest over the Marlins last night seem like old times. Both starters, Kendrick and Volstead, pitched themselves out of the game by the fifth. As he did 10 days ago in Florida, Kendrick had trouble throwing the ball to first. Howard made the second of the Phillies' two errors, both of which led to Marlins' runs. Howard then atoned with a two-run homer in the third, to make it 4-2 Fish, and later added an RBI groundout. The Marlins too had two errors, but only one cost them.The Fish took an 8-7 lead in the eighth only to see the Phillies put three on the board. Neither bullpen could hold a lead, until Brad Lidge came in for the ninth, and even that was iffy. He gave up a single to Hanley Ramirez, got Cantu and Uggla swinging, walked Ross, then gave up an infield hit to prospect Mike Stanton, who made his MLB debut last night. Lidge finally got Ronnie "Phillie-Killer" Paulino to pop out to second to end the game. Oh, my.
Just about everybody hit--or at least reached base. Victorino and Howard both homered; each now has 10. (Welcome to the new world order, where Victorino ties Howard for home runs.) Chase Utley had two hits and a sac fly; he was also hit by a pitch. Raul Ibanez had four hits, for his first four-hit game of the season. Ben Francisco, filling in for the struggling Jayson Werth, hit into two double plays and had a couple of misadventures in the field, but rebounded to single in two, and put the Phillies ahead, in the eighth. Long in hiding, the team's trademark resilience last night was back. Stick around, willya?
Speaking on the radio postgame show, Raul Ibanez quoted his college coach about baseball, It's a tough game for tough people. Ibanez said that he and his teammates didn't understand what the guy was talking about. Surely, football was the tough game for tough guys. But in time they came to realize that their coach was saying that baseball is a tough game mentally. Ibanez has talked about this before, but it obviously bears repeating.
Maybe fans were snapping last night in the eighth, when they started doing the wave. The wave is so over and why anyone does it is beyond me. Especially when the game is still in doubt. Are you kidding me? But that's pretty much what happened in the eighth, with two outs, two men on and Wilson Valdez at the plate. The Phillies had already plated two to go up by one run. And the bloody wave gets going around the park. When Valdez hit his RBI dribbler up the third-base line, my section was on its feet and I was unable to see a thing. Now, that is embarrassing fan behavior.
Meanwhile, down in Washington, Steven Stasburg was exceeding the hype, throwing 14 strikeouts in seven innings. The Pirates scored two in a 5-2 loss. They never really had a chance.
