Victorino has gone two for two now in the balloting for the All Star Game’s Final Vote. Shane won the voting with 9.2 million votes. Right behind him was Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier. Rockies first baseman Todd Helton came in third with Nationals first baseman Mike Morse and Diamonbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
I was really shocked that the home town D-Backs fans didn’t make more of a push for Kennedy, who, you know, plays for the Diamondbacks. But then I remembered that people in Arizona don’t care about baseball, much less sports.
It is unclear whether or not our boy will actually participate in the Midsummer Classic, as he has been injured since Sunday with a sprained thumb. I’m sure Victorino would love to play, and wants to play, but the Phillies will probably advise against it.
Reports say that Victorino expects to play this weekend against the Braves.
Shane joins his teammates Placido Polanco, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay on the NL squad in Arizona.
Whether he plays or not, it is still a huge honor to be voted into the All Star Game. So on behalf of everyone at The Phillies Blunt, I’d like to say Congratulations Shane! We hope to be cheering you on next Tuesday.
SW – Brian Maloney
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The Phillies and the Braves will duke it out in a three game set over the weekend, before all 30 teams head into the All-Star break. Charlie set the rotation a week ago making sure that his three best pitchers would get the start this weekend. Roy “You Wish You Never Faced Me” Halladay (11-3, 2.44 ERA) will start off the series tonight vs Brandon “Fat Chicks At The” Beachy (3-1, 3.23 ERA). Roy is coming off a helluva start vs his former team, the Blue Jays . Last Saturday, he pitched a complete game, allowing 3 earned runs on 8 hits, while striking out 8. In his career, Roy is 4-1 with a 1.65 ERA vs the Braves, a very good history headed into tonight’s game. Oh yeah, Brandon Beachy is 0-3 with a 5.00 ERA vs the Phillies in his career. In 18 innings vs Beachy, the Phils have scored 10 runs and given him all 3 of his career losses. 4-1 vs 0-3. You be the judge.
The great match ups don’t end there! Saturday, Cliff “Sit Down Boy” Lee (9-4, 2.92 ERA) will try to bounce back from his ugly performance last Sunday and go for his 10th win. He allowed 7 earned runs and 10 hits over 7 1/3 innings, but did strike out 9. Lee will get his chance tomorrow afternoon vs Tommy “4th Member Of” Hanson (10-4, 2.52 ERA). Hanson is coming off a great start against the Rockies, allowing 1 earned run in 7 innings. In his last 5 starts, he’s gone 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA. His 2.52 ERA is among the best in the National League. Bogus.
Cole Hamels has pitched like a 15-year veteran this season, accumulating a 10-4 record while maintaining his ERA to 2.40, one of the best in the National League. Though he hasn’t received the run support that he deserves, it’s safe to say, Cole is having a Cy Young year. In his last outing in Florida, he threw 8 solid innings, allowing only 2 earned runs on 8 hits in a 14-2 Phillies’ win. He learned Sunday that he will be on the All-Star roster in Phoenix on Tuesday…but, he won’t pitch because of his outing today. He is a career 10-6 with a 3.65 ERA vs the Braves. Today, he will get his chance to earn his 11th win, and join Roy at that impressive win total. It’s up to the offense to give him the run support.
On Tuesday night fans in Arizona will be treated to some of the biggest stars in the game battling against each other in a game that counts. Our own Philadelphia Phillies will be represented well in the desert, as we send five of our boys to the Midsummer Classic.
Roy Halladay absolutely deserves to be there. Not only is he a complete game machine, but he makes sure to turn those games into wins. People buy tickets just to see this dude pitch. His eleven wins this season leads the team. His ERA is nothing to squawk at, sitting pretty at 2.45. He has 138 strike outs in 143 innings pitched this season. That’s almost one strikeout per inning, for you non-math majors. Halladay makes the Phillies go, and he instantly makes this team a contender.
Cliff Lee has shown in his recent string of games that he deserves to go to the All Star Game. In yesterday’s game alone he not only pitched a gem, but decided to give himself run support by putting one in the seats. His start to the season had it’s speed bumps, but he has righted the ship as of late. A string of shutout complete game performances has brought his ERA back down while making history in the process. He has 137 strikeouts in 137 innings. And you thought Halladay’s strikeout numbers were good.
Cole Hamels definitely deserves to go to the All Star Game. What a bounce back year he has had. He’s putting up numbers comparable to his 2007 season, which was his only other season with an All Star appearance. His 2.40 ERA leads the team. After the All Star break he’ll have the chance to tie Halladay’s 11 wins, as currently Cole sits with ten wins.
As we all finally wake up from what should be a late night hangover on this, the Ron Swanson of holidays, our favorite native Hawaiian is leading the All Star Game’s Final Vote. Shane Victorino is in first place among his National League “competition”. Shane is sitting pretty on top of the Dodgers Andre Ethier, the Nationals Michael Morse, Arizona’s Ian Kennedy, and Colorado’s Todd Helton.
Keep Shane in first!
In the baby blue corner: Hailing from Sacramento, California, at 5′ 10″ and a svelte 155 lbs. He hits both ways and throws right. Ladies and gentleman of yesteryear, Larry “The Boa Constrictor” Booooooowaaaa.
So looking at these numbers, you would think that this would be a complete knockout victory for Jimmy Rollins, or at least a TKO. He’s faster, stronger, has more hits and is, for the most part, a really well liked Phillie. You would be wrong, and here’s why. Larry Bowa had grit and determination and possibly a personality disorder. He was never the biggest, the strongest or the fastest guy, but he played the game like his life depended on it. He was intense and had singular focus on winning. He wasn’t out there trying to make friends, and he didn’t. Story has it that in the opposing dugout at the Vet, other teams would write loathing messages about Bowa on the walls of the bathroom. I’m not saying that Rollins doesn’t want to win, and I’m certainly not questioning his work ethic or heart, but when you compare him to the craziness that Bowa played with, its not even close. That check has to go in the spot next to Larry Bowa’s name.
about the numbers, we care about what else you bring to the plate. Bowa had that inferiority complex that all Philadelphia sports’ fans have. He hustled, worked harder, wanted to get the job done no matter what the cost. That’s what made him a real Phillie. We’re a blue collar city, and we like our players blue collar. We like the underdog who fights no matter what. It’s why we loved Pete Rose back in the day, and its why we love Chase Utley today. Those two, along with Larry Bowa, epitomize what we want from our boys on the field.
Will Bautista take Roy deep? The guy certainly took Kendrick back to the States yesterday. It seems that when he is nearly beamed, he beams it out on the next pitch. Roy isn’t known to throw at guys, so that might factor itself out, but Bautista has gone deep 25 times. I’m not really concerned about it, but that’s where we may need some insurance runs in the late innings or something.
Roy Halladay made his triumphant return to Toronto today, and I do mean triumphant. The standing ovation that Roy received from the fans at the Rogers Centre lasted more than a minute and a half. If you want to see the video for yourself, click here. In a complete game performance, the good doctor allowed 8 hits, 1 walk and 3 runs, while striking out 8. This was the first time that Halladay threw against his former club in Toronto, and the first time that Toronto experienced the Doc Effect. Man, if this guy isn’t on your team, you have to want to pull your hair out. Home plate umpire, Alfonso Marquez, was giving the edges, and Roy was using them. With Roy’s 8 K’s, he took over the league lead in strike outs with 131 punch outs.
The tallest man in baseball, Toronto reliever Jon Rauch, came in to pitch, but he wouldn’t make it through the inning. In a tough AB against Ryan Howard, the home plate umpire, Marquez, called two very close pitches balls resulting in a walk. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Shane Victorino served a single to left which scored Chase Utley. Rauch didn’t take to kindly to this, sticking his glove in the the face of Alfonso Marquez and telling him that the run was him. Marquez returned the favor with the old heave-ho to Rauch. The 6′ 11″ pitcher went ballistic, and had to be restrained by his manager John Farrell and several other players. Farrell would end up getting tossed as well, moments later, while complaining about the strike zone. He and Marquez got into each other’s faces, dirt was kicked and Phillies fans around the world laughed as Toronto fans threw things on the field.
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It continued with, “[Worley] sent someone to get Pedroia’s signature on a ball before the game, but came up empty.” They then quote Vance about the incident and he said, “He wouldn’t give me one until I met him. Then I threw one up and in on him so I probably won’t get it now.”
After the game the Red Sox had nothing but praise for the Rec Spec’d one. Pedroia said, ““He had great mound presence, and we were all very impressed. It’s really good for a kid that young to have a presence like that on the mound. He’s going to be a good one.”
Another point I want to hit on, is Jose Bautista. For real? This guy HAS to be on steroids, 24 home runs and 52 RBIs? Yeah, anybody can do that. But this guy is crazy good… and pretty damn scary. I hope Kendrick is smart and pitches around the guy in his first career start against Toronto. Romero is 1-0, with a 1.93 ERA career vs the Phillies. Let’s pull for a good start on the road. This year, the Phillies are 19-17 on the road compared to their 32-14 record at home.
The sun rose in Canada today, and Canadians popped open a Molson, saluted their poster of Alan Thicke, got on their moose and set off for the syrup factory ready for a day filled with Canada Day festivities. For those of you who don’t know, Canada Day celebrates the day that a beaver saved Shania Twain after she fell through some ice while playing hockey. As part of their Canada Day celebration, many Canadians decided to watch their beloved Toronto Blue Jays take on our beloved Philadelphia Phillies for a rousing game of baseball, or as its known in the Great North, rounders. (Except in the part where they speak French, those people just think baseball is the weirdest game of hockey they’ve ever seen.) Before the game, Mounties spread corn flakes on the field, the first pitch was thrown by the president of Canada, Bryan Adams, and Canadian pride was flying high. There was a lot riding on this game, too, because as we all know, if someone beats the Blue Jays on Canada Day then they gain ownership over the country of Canada.
The Phillies didn’t really want to own Canada because that’s like owning a Billy Ripken rookie card, so they decided to throw Kyle Kendrick. True to form, KK allowed two runs in the first inning and the Phillies were looking to play from behind, something that they would have to do for most of the day. Battle back they did, however, and the Phillies were able to put up a run in the 2nd and 3rd innings against Blue Jays’ pitcher Ricky Canada to tie the game at 2-2. The game remained tied until the bottom of the 5th when Kendrick gave up a monster two run shot to Eric Canada that flew like 150 meters or something (I’m not good with the metric system because I’m an American).
What followed was a 3,000 meter (again, not great at the metric system) bomb to left to give the Blue Jays a one run edge. The Jays would hold onto that lead heading into the ninth where Toronto closer, Frank Canada, came in to try and record the save. He walked Polanco after a full count, and got Chase in the whole with two strikes. Chase would battle at the plate before sending a fly ball to left which should have been caught. However, left fielder, Juan Canada, completely misplayed the ball and found it sailing over his head, giving Chase a gift of a double and allowing Polly to get to third. Howard would then come up to fight a pitch off and send it into shallow center, allowing Polanco and Utley to both score. The Phillies had the lead and Canada’s collective little Canadian heart broke as we in the Delaware Valley laughed like mad men. Bastardo would come in to seal the deal in the top of the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning that can only be described as filthy. His ERA is now at 0.90. The kid is playing ridiculously good.
Cole Hamels was dealing early against the Boston Red Sox today, but it wasn’t to last. After keeping the Bo Sox off the board for the first 3 1/3 innings, Adrian Gonzalez stepped into the box and dealt a blow to Hamels. Not on the scoreboard, but rather to the hand. A line drive, bullet back through the box struck Hamels on his non-pitching hand. Hamels was able to stay in to complete the inning, but not the game. He was pulled after the 4th inning with what the Phillies are calling a hand contusion. X-Rays on the hand were reported back to be negative, and Cole is listed as day-to-day. He is expected to make his next start.
For Boston, the pitching story was completely different. John Lester was dealing from the first inning on. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, a single by Chase Utley, and only allowed one more for the rest of his outing. The only real jam that Lester got into came in the bottom of the seventh when he allowed a one out single to Ryan Howard and a walk to Shane Victorino. With two on, and down three, the Phillies were threatening to put something together, but only threatening. Ben Francisco lined out to center, and Raul Ibanez struck out swinging to end the inning, the chance to score, and John Lester’s outing. Lester ended with a line of 7IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, and 5K to earn the W.