Phillies starter, former Dodger Chan Ho Park provided another quality outing going six innings allowing 2 runs. Leftfielder Raul Ibanez capped a 3 run Phillies fourth inning rally off of lefthander Clayton Kershaw by ripping a 2 run double to centerfield and rightfielder Jayson Werth put himself in the franchise record-books with 4 steals in the game, including a seventh inning steal of home to lead the Phillies past the Manny-less Dodgers by a 5-3 score on Tuesday.

With the win, the Phils remained 1 game behind the Mets who split their Monday and Tuesday games with Atlanta.

Park struggled through a first inning which saw him give up 2 doubles and a single but, thankfully only 1 run.  Then he retired the next 6 Dodgers in a row while the Phils managed a 1 out, 2nd and 3rd base pickle for Kershaw who walked the 1st 2 Phillies hitters in the third inning.  Park helped out his own cause sacrificing both runners into scoring position with 1 out.  Centerfielder Shane Victorino, batting lead-off as manager Manuel juggled his lineup, then grounded out to shortstop scoring 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz as the Phils knotted the score at 1-1.

The Dodgers took a short-lived 2-1 lead off of Park in the fourth on 3 singles, the last of which being a 2 out RBI single to left centerfield by centerfielder Matt Kemp.

But the Phils took the lead for good in their fourth inning.  Werth, batting 3rd, led off with a single to centerfield.  Kershaw then walked 1st baseman  Ryan Howard.  Werth and Howard worked a double-steal to put runners at 2nd and 3rd.  Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, demoted to the 5th spot in manager Manuel’s lineup juggling, solved Kershaw singling to rightfield scoring Werth and moving Howard to 3rd base.  Ibanez followed doubling to right-centerfield to score Howard and Rollins to put the Phils up by 4-2.  Feliz was then walked and it looked like the Phils were not done yet in the inning.  After Kershaw got catcher Carlos Ruiz on a line to centerfield and struck out Park, Victorino reached on a fielding error to load the sacks.  But Kershaw struck out 2nd baseman Chase Utley to evade further damage.

Meanwhile Kershaw singled through the 2nd base/shortstop hole to lead off the fifth.  But Park retired the next 6 Dodger hitters as the Phils led 4-2 after six innings.

Kershaw, who suffered his 3rd loss of the season, left the game after five innings having thown 98 pitches and having given up 4 runs on 4 hits while surrendering a crucial 4 walks, 3 of them leading to Phillies runs.

Winning pitcher Park evened his season record to 1-1 with his 2nd straight excellent performance throwing 101 pitches through six innings while giving up 2 runs on 7 hits walking none and striking out 3.

Relievers Chad Durbin and lefthander Scott Eyre took over for Park in the seventh making short work of the Dodgers and bringing us to Werth’s base-stealing exploits in the Phillies seventh.

AP sports writer Dan Gelston describes Werth’s seventh inning stolen bases for Yahoo sports;

Werth stole home in the seventh inning and tied a team record with four steals in one game.

He had a one-out single in the seventh, then stole second and third. He stole third base in the fourth.

Werth surprised the Dodgers when he took off on a slow toss from catcher  Russell Martin to reliever Ronald Belisario. Werth’s steal of home gave the Phillies a 5-2 lead and the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Werth’s four steals in a game tied a club record set by Sherry Magee on July 12 and Aug. 31 in 1906, and Garry Maddox on May 29, 1978.

Utley led off the seventh by flying out to center.  Werth followed singling to leftfield.  Werth stole 2nd on a 3rd strike to Ryan Howard.  Lefthanded reliever Will Ohman intentionally walked Rollins — a huge mistake as Martin and reliever Belisario later found out.  Werth and Rollins worked a double-steal as Ohman was walking Ibanez loading the bases.  When Werth spotted Russell’s slow return toss to the pitcher who was in process of walking Feliz, he broke for home and made it safely.

Inquirer staff writer Andy Martino adds more color to Werth’s steal of home;

Werth’s final steal of the evening, a seventh-inning swipe of home with Pedro Feliz batting, underscored the team’s impressive performance. Werth said that first-base coach Davey Lopes had recently spoken to him about more aggressively seeking base-stealing opportunities. Noting the suggestion, he stood on third and watched catcher Russell Martin ignore him after the first pitch of the at-bat.

“On the first pitch, he didn’t look at me,” said Werth. “So I figured if we got to two strikes and he didn’t look at me, I was going to go.”

When that situation arrived, Martin remained on his knees and threw the ball casualty back to pitcher Ronald Belisario. Werth dashed toward home, beating the throw and drawing visceral cheers from surprised teammates and fans, who cheered until he made a curtain call.

“Jayson timed him down,” said a smiling Charlie Manuel. “I was just as surprised as you were. I saw him going and I said, ‘What’s going on?’ . . . I guess he was feeling frisky and had a lot of energy, so he wanted to run.”

He became the first Phillie to swipe home since, yes, Carlos Ruiz on June 26, 2007.

Reliever Ryan Madson set the Dodgers down in the eighth allowing only a harmless 2 out single.

The game was turned over in the ninth to closer Brad Lidge who recorded his 5th save of the season, but it was quite dicey as Lidge gave up 3 singles in between recording 2 outs.  The 3rd single drove in the Dodgers’ 3rd run.  But Lidge got leadoff hitter leftfielder Juan Pierre, subbing for 50 game suspended Manny Ramirez, to fly out to center to end the game.

For all of the results of Monday’s and Tuesday’s games, click here and  here.

Wednesday’s game is a battle of lefthanders as veteran Jamie Moyer looks to regain his 2008 form.  He is opposed by former Phil Randy Wolf who has been solid in his last 3 starts.

For all of Wednesday’s games, click here.

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Two days ago, this blog noted that the L.A. Dodgers had won their first 11 home games.  Well, with their Wednesday 10-3 pounding of the  Washington Nationals, that consecutive home record has reached All-Time MLB record-breaking proportions:

Joe Torre settled back into his chair in the cramped manager’s office at Dodger Stadium for his postgame interview when he was interrupted by his boss, there to offer a congratulatory handshake.

Torre grasped general manager Ned Colletti’s hand firmly and then gave him a carbon copy of the Dodgers’ lineup card as a gesture of appreciation.

“Streaks are fine, but we have more important things in mind,” Torre said. “Hopefully, it’s just a stepping stone on the way to something more important. The fact that we’re playing well takes precedence over anything else. The good part about this thing is that this is about winning games, which is what we try to do every day.”

“Everywhere I go, all people are talking about is the streak because it’s the hot topic,” Torre said. “I’m sure these guys enjoy being be the team that owns the streak all by themselves—and maybe like the 1911 Tigers, not be around when it’s broken.”

The 1911 Tigers were 51-25 at home—but 38-40 on the road—and finished 13 1/2 out of first place.

But question is, with a lineup where 3 of their first 4 hitters own better than .315 batting averages, where both leftfielder Manny Ramirez and rightfielder Andre Ethier — 3 and 4 in the order have 6 homers each and 3rd baseman Casey Blake has 5, a starting ace Chad Billingsley (5-0) who hasn’t been beaten in 6 outings and a pitching staff with a collective 3.72 ERA, when will this home winning streak ever end?

Lucky thing for the Phillies that the Dodgers follow Atlanta into Citizen’s Bank Park next Tuesday because L.A. is a more down-to-earth, human 8-8 on the road.

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The L.A. Dodgers got into the modern-day NL record-books on Monday by defeating Arizona, thus winning their first 11 home games, breaking the modern record of 10 set by the 1918 New York Giants and equalled by 1970 Chicago Cubs and 1983 Atlanta Braves.  Those 1983 Braves were also managed by Joe Torre, who is now in his 2nd season managing Los Angeles.  The Dodgers set the consecutive home victory mark by defeating the Diamondbacks by a 7-2 score on Monday at Dodger Stadium.

But this game was not just notable for the Dodgers’ home winning streak.  28 year old Diamondbacks shortstop Josh Wilson made his entry into the MLB recordbooks in this game as well. 

After Dodger catcher Russell Martin led off the second inning wih a walk, the AP recap for Yahoo sports records Wilson’s play:

Wilson, making his third start this season in place of injured  Stephen Drew, bobbled Matt Kemp’s routine grounder for an error in his haste to start a double play in the second inning. But he made up for the mistake moments later, making a lunging catch of Casey Blake’s line drive in the hole with the runners going and turning it into the second triple play in Diamondbacks history.

“That’s definitely a rarity, and to be a part of one is something special,” Wilson said. “I knew the runners were moving, and the ball almost came out of my glove, so I was just making sure I held onto it first. And once I did, I knew we were going to get three outs.”

This blog has written about 3 other triple plays, all unassisted, two of them in detail; Mickey Morandini’s in 1992 and  Cleveland 2nd baseman Asdrubal Cabrera’s last season (2008).  Also mentioned in the latter blog post was Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s in April of 2007.

Leftfielder Manny Ramirez and rightfielder Andre Ethier slammed back-to-back first inning homers off of Arizona lefthander Doug Davis to give the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead which they built on with 2 runs in the fifth inning, 2 more in the sixth capping their scoring with a single run in the eighth inning.   Arizona socred single runs in the second and sixth innings.

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Taking great pleasure when the team everyone loves to hate gets their come-up’ens, this is one game which I just couldn’t pass up posting on.

The Yankees, those over-spending, over-rated Bronx boys who lately miss the playoffs habitually, got man-handled, bombed and pillaged for a 14 run marathon second inning, which included a 3 run homer, a grand slam and a solo shot enroute to a 22-4 humbling Saturday by the Cleveland Indians.

Chien-Ming Wang seemed to have little trouble putting down the Indians in the first inning as Yanks 1st baseman Mark Teixeira clubbed a 1 out, 2 run first inning homer off of Fausto Carmona to stake the Yanks to an early 2-0 lead.

But Yankee prosperity disappeared in the blink of an eye amidst the Indian’s 14 run second inning onslaught against Wang, who managed 1 out while being pummelled for 8 runs, and Anthony Claggett who got the side out in the second while being rocked for the other 6 runs plus single runs in the third and fourth innings.

Cleveland lambasted Yankees pitching for 4 more runs in the fifth and a run each in the eighth and ninth innings and a total of 6 home runs for the game including a grand slam and 2 sets of back-to-back homers.
 
AP sports writer Jay Cohen makes these points on the rout for Yahoo sports:

Cleveland’s 14-run second—the biggest inning ever against New York… set the bar for Yankee Stadium’s new record book.

The 14 runs were the most scored in the second inning of a major league game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

It was the most runs for the Indians since they beat New York 22-0 on Aug. 31, 2004, at the old Yankee Stadium. The 22 runs also tied the Yankees’ record for most allowed in a home game.

Carmona (1-2) was the beneficiary of the Indians’ big day at the plate, working six innings in his first victory of the season.

With the score at 20-2 in the Yankees fifth inning, leftfielder Melky Cabrera belted a meaningless 2 run homer off of Carmona, but the Indians onslaught was by then too much for the Yankees to overcome.

Unlike last season’s 30-3 Texas Ranger rout of Baltimore, neither Indian reliever pitched 3 innings and thus, there was no save recorded here.

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Click here for a great deal on an autographed Mike Schmidt MLB authenticated Bat as shown in the picture on the right, below.

These MLB authenticated Mike Schmidt Bats are marketed by  onlinesports.com.  Schmidt’s autograph appears midway on barrell of the bat.

Note that when onlinesports.com has a product that they warrant as MLB authentic, they list it as such. Buyers should be aware that when they do not warrant a product in this way, it is not MLB authentic. Such authentication can be found on the left side of the product page under brand. 

Mike Schmidt is generally recognized throughout the baseball world as among the greatest all-around 3rd baseman the game has known.  No less than the  Phillies Nation blog has pronounced Schmitty as the greatest of all Phillies.  Schmidt hit 548 career homers, won 9 Gold Glove awards at third base and led the Phils to 10 winning seasons over his 18 year Hall of Fame career — an entire career spent with the Phils.

Among the highlights of Schmidt’s career are 6 divisional titles, 2 NL pennants, a World Series title and being in the center of 2 of the Wildest games in all of MLB history;  April 17, 1976 when Schmidt hit 4 homers tying the all-time one-game record, and the legendary May 17, 1979; 23-22 game — both against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Buy it here, Now: The Mike Schmidt MLB authentic autographed bat.

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A few days ago, Yahoo’s Big League Stew blogged about the financial bind in which Phillies reliever Scott Eyre finds himself.

Veteran lefthander Eyre came to the Phillies at the beginning of August and was nearly perfect in spelling JC Romero, the other lefthanded set-up man, and giving up only 3 runs on 3 hits, including 1 homer in 14 1/3 innings while going 3-0 during the Phils’ great stretch run to the division championship, the NL pennant and World Series Championship.  Eyre logged 3 innings of work in 5 post-season appearances, only giving up 1 run on 3 hits against the Milwaukee Brewers in the Phillies’ only division series loss.

But this spring, Eyre arrived in training camp carrying an extra external unwanted burden not of his own making or responsibility.
Eyre’s assets, as are those of several other MLB players and athletes from other sports, currently remain frozen due to the ongoing investigation into an alleged $8 billion Stanford Financial fraud case.

At one point, Eyre confided that, although having signed a 1 year, $2 million deal with the Phillies in the off-season, he had but $13 to his name and his family’s bills were going unpaid due to seizure of assets.

Fortunately, Eyre had a little money in another bank account and has been able to feed his family during the trying period.  Also, fortunately, Eyre is a member of a team with a heart.  Yahoo sports reports that  the Phillies have agreed to advance him and undisclosed amount on his $2 million pay for the season in order to see him and his family through this difficult ordeal.

The Yahoo report on the Phillies’ efforts to help notes Eyre’s comments;

“If we paid our bills, we wouldn’t have any money,” Eyre said. “I’ll pay (the Phillies) back whenever I can I invested in (Stanford) three years ago (and) thought it was too good to be true - and it was.”

Eyre isn’t alone. Johnny Damon and Xavier Nady of the New York Yankees and Carlos Pena of the Tampa Bay Rays also have been affected by the Stanford scandal.

All four major leaguers have had some of their assets frozen by federal regulators. The players said they’ve been told by federal officials that their money is safe, but access to it is being blocked temporarily while the investigation proceeds.

“It’s not just the big people - not that I consider myself big - but there are people out there without a voice,” Eyre said. “I didn’t want this to be the ‘Woe is Scott Eyre Story.’

“Thousands and thousands of people who invested their money in Stanford can’t use their money right now. (They) can’t pay their bills the only reason I said anything at all is because of the people that don’t have access to media, so the government can realize (this is happening).”

Eyre, who during spring training stays with his family at his offseason home in nearby Bradenton, Fla., said several teammates also volunteered to cut him a check to help out.

Even though the team stepped up to help him, Eyre questions why the government took an action that has made life difficult for so many honest investors.

“I don’t think they needed to freeze everything - that’s just stupid,” Eyre said.

Sports writer Todd Zolecki reports the Phillies view of the situation for MLB.com:

“We understand the circumstances,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said before Wednesday’s Grapefruit League opener… “Typically, our policy is not to advance dollars. That’s just not what we do, but this certainly is a different type of circumstance that several players are having to deal with.”

One can only hope that the other MLB clubs whose players find themselves in this situation, as well as teams in other sports with members in this bind, act as thoughtfully, responsively and from the heart as have the Phillies.

As for lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre, I’m looking forward to seeing him and the team not miss a beat in the lefthanded set-up role while Romero is on the shelf during his 50 game suspension.

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