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No updates today unless there is breaking news. I am on a class trip to Gettysburg. The Phils won 11-4 last night. Pedro Feliz and Raul Ibanez continued their hot starts. Jamie Moyer got the quality start and win to improve to 2-1. I'll never understand how he does it.

This was posted via blogger mobile. It could fuck up

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Phillies game 4/20 Postponed

Tonight's Phillies game has been postponed due to rain. There has been no set make-up date, but expect it to be July 23rd.

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It's a Walk-off (Live Video)

Video submitted to youtube by nittany1992

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On the Pharm: April 20th Edition

Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs:

Lehigh Valley is off to a 4-6 start, but they were 4-2 this past week. 32-year old Justin Lehr recorded two wins in two starts. Phils top prospect, Carlos Carrasco, continues to dazzle, but he's yet to record a decision. Kyle Kendrick has also pitched well. No one in the lineup is worth noting though. Lehigh has not been spectacular offensively.

They start off the week finishing a series against Pawtucket. They then travel to Syracuse for 2 games and conclude the week with a 4 game series at home against Pawtucket.

Double-A Reading Phillies:

Reading is 6-3 and has won three straight games. 22-year old Michael Stutes is 2-0 on the season and has been impressive for the Phils. One of the Phillies top prospects, Joe Savery, has pitched one good start and one okay start. Antonio Bastardo is developing into a nice left-handed reliever.

28 year old first baseman, Kevin Mahar, and 3B Neil Sellers have been Reading's best hitters thus far. However, these players will not be with the Phillies anytime soon.

They travel to Altoona this week and close out with Bowie.

Single-A Advanced: Clearwater Threshers

Clearwater is tied for the FSL-North division lead at a 6-4 record. They went 4-3 this week. Kyle Drabek has been exceptional to start the season, but who is Yohan Flonde? Flonde has not allowed a earned run in 12 innings to start the season, resulting in 2 winning decision. Flonde is a 23 year-old lefty from the Dominican Republic.

As mentioned earlier, Drabek has been spectacular. He is 2-0 in 2 starts with a 16/3 K/BB ratio in 12 innings of work. It is nice to see him rebounding well from elbow surgery.

The Threshers travel to Lakeland and Tampa this week.

Single-A Lakewood Blue Claws:

After starting the season off 1-3, Lakewood went 5-2 this week to improve to 6-5. 18-year-old, Jason Knapp has pitched well for Lakewood. Granted he is 0-2, but he's allowed only 2 earned runs in each of his starts. He has a 16/4 K/BB ratio. Knapp has the potential to become one of the steals from last June's draft.

Tyler Cloyd is also posting good numbers for Lakewood. He is 1-1 with a 14/5 K/BB ratio in 17 innings of work.

Offensively, the Blue Claws are lead by 1B Jim Murphy and 3B Travis Mattair. Phillies catching prospect, Travis D'Arnaud is not exactly hitting well, but leads the team with 9 RBIs. Speedy outfielder Anthony Gose has 9 stolen bases in 10 games.

They will host Lake County and Hagerstown this week.

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Game 10 and 11 of 162: Blown Saves Work Both Ways

Game 10: 8-7 Loss: Lidge Blows First Save as a Phillie.

He deserved the ovation he received. Brad Lidge's run of perfection was amazing, but he was bound to blow one and it happened Saturday night. What can you do? It is better that it happened in April than September and it only hurt more when it was compounded with Friday's blown save by Ryan Madson as well.

Good news: The Phillies power hitters are starting to hit home runs. Ibanez, Utley, and Howard all homered for the Phils. Also, Brett Myers threw the second quality start of the season for the Phils.

Bad news: The already mentioned blown save. Too many home runs allowed.

Game 11: 5-4 Win: Ibanez Makes up for Mistakes.

In a drama-filled day for Philadelphia, Raul Ibanez hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Phillies their first win of the Padres series. The Phils fell behind 4-0 after sub-par pitching from Chan Ho Park. Park also allowed a home run to only continue the streak of home runs allowed by a Philadelphia starter. Yep, they've allowed a home run in all 11 games. Chase Utley made the score 4-2 in the bottom of the 6th after hitting his fourth home run of the season and he is quietly putting all of the hip concerns to bed.

Jimmy Rollins had the day off, but came through in the clutch when he hit a pinch-hit solo home run in the bottom of the 8th to bring the score one run closer. With the score 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Phils had the heart of their order up. Ryan Howard hit his third hit of the day as he looped a single into center field. It was off a change-up that Howard was often missing badly last season. Ryan Howard is having his best April ever, hitting .341 with a 1.009 OPS.

The stage was set for Raul Ibanez who had a bad play in the field that lead to a pivotal run in the game. It was time for his redemption. Ibanez deposited Edwin Moreno's 2-0 pitch into the right field seats to give the Phillies the 5-4 victory. Raul Ibanez has fit in very well with this line-up and is tied for the NL lead with 5 home runs. He is reaching base 44% of the time and slugging .864. He's been the legit hitter that they've needed after Ryan Howard.

Good News: The Phillies ended their three-game losing streak, which included two quality starts from Joe Blanton and Brett Myers. The Phillies fans continue to come out as well with their sixth straight sell-out. J.A. Happ pitched three exceptional innings and I would not be surprised if he gets a start within the next few weeks over Park.

Bad News: The home runs allowed are still a plenty. The Phillies could be holding a 3-0 lead and going for the sweep tomorrow, but instead they're looking to even the series at two tonight.

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Game 9 of 162: And That Ball Is Outta Here!

On a day where the Phillies honored the late Harry Kalas, balls flew out of the park left and right. There was one problem though, the Padres hit three to the Phillies one.

Holy home runs allowed Phillies. Through 9 games in this young season, the Phillies are posting a 7.06 ERA, by far, the worst in the National League. They have thrown only one quality start, which happened to be an 8-2 loss. Teams are batting with a .919 OPS against them and they've allowed a whopping 23 home runs. They are allowing 2.5 home runs per game.

This is not normally what happens to teams who lead the NL with a 2.58 K/BB ratio. The pitching staff should rebound at some point and everything will be okay, but these early mistakes are a little bit of a cause for concern.

The offense that struggled against Atlanta has rebounded and kept them in enough games to have a 4-5 record. The Phillies will pitching staff needs to improve immediately if the Phillies went to get out of April with a winning record and remain in contention with the extremely hot Marlins.

Everything was going well for the Phillies early on last night. They jumped out to a 5-0 lead after Chase Utley hit a three-run home run and Chris Coste hit a two-run double. The Phillies lead later went to 7-1 in the fourth, but that was all she wrote for the offense as San Diego's bullpen shut us down.

The same could not be said for the Phillies. Cole Hamels was cruising through the game until the fifth and sixth inning when left pitches up in the zone for home runs and the game was quickly 7-5. Condrey and Eyre pitched well for a scoreless 7th, but Ryan Madson had his worst appearance of the year and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk.

Good News: Raul Ibanez reached base 5 times in 5 ABs with 3 hits and 2 walks. His average is now up to .368 and he has been giving the Phillies a consistent hitter behind Ryan Howard, whether he hits fifth or sixth.

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This is just a mobile phone test post. Go Phillies!

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Game 7 of 162: The Day a Legend Left Us

Yesterday afternoon, I came online to write my recap of the Phillies come-from-behind victory on Easter Sunday. Little did I know that at that same moment I'd receive a text message regarding Harry Kalas being rushed to the hospital. Shortly there after, I received another text message that confirmed that he had left us.

I really wanted to put down all of my initials feelings regarding this horrible event, but I just couldn't. Every time I tried to write, I would just delete it, nothing seemed perfect enough to describe what Harry Kalas meant to us as Phillies fans.

Harry Kalas was everything about the Phillies. He was everything about Philadelphia. He had been the heart and soul of this franchise my entire life, and for even much of my father's life. See, our generation tends to take baseball announcers for granted with the adaptation of television. We as kids were generally always able to see the Phils play via a television. As much as Harry meant to us, he will always mean more to our fathers and their fathers. Kalas' dramatic voice always set the stage for a radio as if they were listening to a musical masterpiece. His deep, baratone voice called some of the greatest hits and pitches in Philadelphia and Major League Baseball history. He was baseball in Philadelphia.

From Michael Jack Schmidt to Bobby Abreu to Chase Utley and from Dallas Greene to Terry Francona to Charlie Manuel, there had always been one constant in Philadelphia: Harry Kalas. The man was Philadelphia baseball. The man was something different than life. His voice was the one that healed us when everything else in the world seemed bad from April to October.

When I was a child I didn't wake up every morning looking forward to watching some random cartoon. I woke up waiting for the night broadcast of the Phillies game. I woke up waiting for the voice of Harry Kalas. Baseball is in my blood and many others in the Delaware Valley. Baseball was hope. Harry Kalas was the man who called the greatest pitch of my life.

Nothing and two the count to Hinske. Fans on their feet. Rally towels are being waved. Brad Lidge stretches. The 0-2 pitch. Swing and a miss! Struck him out! The Philadelphia Phillies are 2008 World Champions of baseball. Brad Lidge does it again and stays perfect for 2008 season. 48 for 48 in save opportunities for the 2008 season. 48 for 48 in save opportunities and watch this city celebrate.

Maybe 2008 was more of fate than anything else. Harry Kalas finally reached the grandest stage and he was able to make the greatest call of his live and many of our own.

Baseball is and always will be America's past time. Harry Kalas will always be one of the greatest and most articulate at describing the game we love most. Yesterday, we lost one of the greatest people to ever grace the city of Philadelphia.

Below is a video posted by The Fightins via Comcast Sportsnet.

CSN Tribute to Harry Kalas from Mike Meech on Vimeo.

And the final home run call and out call of his career:


The Phillies won yesterday's game in honorable fashion for Harry the K with a 9-8 victory over the Washington Nationals. Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino both hit their first home runs of the season, while Raul Ibanez hit his third. Jamie Moyer got the win and Brad Lidge continued his perfection for the save.

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Rest In Peace, Harry Kalas 1936-2009

You can call games with Whitey again. Sad, tragic day.

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