Between innings Monday night these guys flocked to the rail in hopes of getting a ball from Domonic Brown. When Brown finally tossed one that landed a couple of rows in front of me there was a terrific scrum. The two buddies seated just in front of me lost out to the dude in front of them. One of the two turned and high-fived me, saying, "We touched it! We touched it!" I almost fell out of my seat laughing. Last night's game too had laugher written all over it. On a night of relentless wind, Cole Hamels obviously did not have his best stuff but still shut the Marlins out for seven innings. Only once did the lead-off batter reach base and that was in the 7th, but Hamels coolly got the next three guys, striking out the last two. He also ran his scoreless streak to 25 innings, a personal high for him.
The Phillies started hitting Fish starter Andrew Miller early and often. (The mustache the kid is now sporting has not helped.) Ryan Howard had a three-run homer and ended the night with six RBI. But it was equal-opportunity hitting, to the tune of 18 in all. When Hamels left the game, the score was 10-0.
Tears were streaming from my eyes because of the wind. But it was a laugher, right? Then ex-Marlin Nate Robertson came in for the 8th and with this and that the score was suddenly 10-6. Ryan Madson had to put it all away.
Except for the wind, it was a great night at the ballpark till the crowd got too exercised over Robertson's performance. It wasn't exactly as if the game were on the line, folks. Geez, you'd think some people were just waiting for a chance to boo. Or else they had wandered in hoping for a football game.
These two negatives: Ryan Madson, used too much recently, had to be used again last night. And Jimmy Rollins was lifted after scoring in the third inning, with what has been termed a mild hamstring strain. When Wilson Valdez was announced as Rollins' replacement, I said, "Uh-oh." The man next to me said, "Uh-oh, indeed."
