A crowd of more than 7300 turned out for the first postseason home game in Lakewood last night, between the BlueClaws and the Hickory Crawdads (Texas Rangers). 
Brody Colvin was on the mound for the 'Claws. 
Both Colvin and Crawdad starter Erlin went five innings. Each gave up a run in the first and that was it. Erlin struck out the last five batters he faced. At one point, eight 'Claws whiffed in a row. In all 18 struck out. I guess it was payback for game 1, when starter Trevor May struck out 13 Crawdads and the bullpen K'd another three. Last night, too, the 'Dads were coming up empty, to the tune of 12 strikeouts. The BlueClaws threatened in the 7th, when they got their first two men on, but the next three--hey, what do you know--struck out. At this point, one of the kids behind me was whining, "Can't anyone play baseball?" In the 10th, the Crawdads pushed a run across and made it stand up in the 2-1 victory. The rubber game in the best-of-three series is tonight. Go, 'Claws! Before the game, Geoff Brown, general manager at Lakewood, and Steve Novaryta, of the Phillies, signed an extension that will keep the Phillies in Lakewood at least through 2012. Like so many of the minor league affiliates in the Phillies system, Lakewood is a model franchise. And the park is sweet.
The two-hour drive home was an adventure, with traffic streaming non-stop on 195, then animals everywhere on 29 onward. Deer were posed by the side of the road, a skunk ran onto the road and sprayed, two raccoons loitering on the shoulder suddenly veered into my lane and started running ahead of me, and an opossum froze just feet in front of the car. Give it to the raccoons. They woke me up.
