Phillies starter Pedro Martinez provided a quality six inning performance in Thursday’s game 2 giving up 3 runs on 6 hits, 2 of those hits being solo homers, but the offense which grabbed control of game 1 in the late innings, was largely shut down by Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, who went seven innings giving up 1 run on 4 hits, and future Hall of Fame closer  Mariano Rivera.  In the 3 situations where the Phillies threatened against Burnett and Rivera, they couldn’t buy that clutch RBI hit as Burnett and Rivera stifled the Phillies by a 3-1 score as the Yankees knotted the Series at a game apiece.
 
As in game 1, the Phillies hit the scoreboard first with a run in the second after Pedro made short work of the Yankees in the first inning.
In that first inning, Martinez struck out both Derek Jeter, the 1st of 3 times Jeter went down on strikes in the game, and leftfielder Johnny Damon before getting 1st baseman Mark Teixeira to pop out to shortstop on a 2-2 pitch.

Burnett retired the first 5 Phillies he faced, 2 on strikeouts, before leftfielder Raul Ibanez pounded a 2 out ground-rule double to leftfield.  DH lefthanded hitting Matt Stairs followed with a single to leftfield scoring Ibanez with the Phils’ only run.  Burnett struck out 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz to end the inning.

Rightfielder Jayson Werth led off the third inning with a single to rightfield but was picked-off of 1st base by Burnett with Ibanez at the plate.  The Yankee starter struck out Ibanez and Stairs, first pitch swinging, lined out to leftfield to end the inning.

The 1-0 Phillies lead held up until Teixeira blistered Martinez’s 2nd pitch of the fourth inning out to right centerfield to knot the game at 1-1.

In the fifth, catcher Carlos Ruiz stroked Burnett’s 2-2 pitch to leftfield for a double but was stranded as shortstop Jimmy Rollins struck out and centerfielder Shane Victorino popped out to 3rd base to end the inning.

Burnett went clean on the Phils in the sixth inning as 1st baseman Ryan Howard struck out for the 3rd time in the game.  Howard fanned in all 4 plate appearances.

Martinez looked as if cruising striking out Teixeira and 3rd baseman  Alex Rodriguez to open the the Yankees’ sixth.  A-Rod would fan 3 times in the game, both he and Jeter would account for 5 of Pedro’s 8 strikeouts.  But with a 1-2 count, DH Hideki Matsui reached Martinez for a solo shot to rightfield giving the Yanks a 2-1 lead.

In the Phillies seventh, Burnett was, by now, cruising going clean on the Phillies fanning 2 and coaxing Feliz into a groundout. 

Martinez was chased in the seventh after giving up singles to the first 2 Yankee hitters he faced and was relieved by Chan Ho Park and then by lefthander Scott Eyre as the Yanks’ pinch hitter and catcher Jorge Posada singled to center to drive-in the Yankees’ 3rd and final run which was charged to Martinez.

Pedro provided an impressive effort throwing 107 pitches in six-
plus innings walking 2 and striking out 8 while giving up the 2 homers and giving up the 3 runs on 6 hits in a losing cause.

The Phillies Nation blog sums up Martinez’s effort:

When Charlie Manuel announced that Pedro Martinez would get the nod in New York, the script was written, it was just waiting to be performed.

All of the hype surrounding Martinez’s return to New York and “Who’s Your Daddy,” and what not, Pedro came out unfazed. He made two mistakes that were rightly hammered for long-balls. However, everywhere Martinez goes, a show is sure to follow. For six innings, Phillies fans got exactly that.

Winning pitcher Burnett went seven innings giving up 1 run on 4 hits while walking 2, striking out 9 and largely baffling Phillies hitters.

Yankee manager Girardi, seeing Burnett’s pitch count at 108 after seven innings, didn’t mess with middle relief or set-up and went right to closer Rivera to start the eighth inning.  After getting Ruiz to ground out to 3rd base, Rollins battled Rivera for an 11 pitch at-bat finally drawing a walk.   Victorino followed touching Rivera for a single to rightfield — runners on 1st and 2nd base.  But 2nd baseman Chase Utley, silent in game 2 after a 2 homer game 1, grounded Rivera’s full-count pitch into an inning-ending doubleplay.

The Phillies brought on reliever Ryan Madson who had an impressive ninth inning only giving up a single to 2nd baseman Robinson Cano while striking out the side: A-Rod, Matsui and late-game centerfield replacement Brett Gardner.

Ibanez, the only Phil with any production at the plate, stroked his 2nd double of the game with 2 outs in the ninth. But Rivera went to a 2-2 count on Matt Stairs before fanning him to end the game.

Just how unproductive was the Phillies’ offense?  The first 5 hitters went a collective 2 for 17 with 3 walks while fanning 6 times.  4 of strikeouts were on Howard.

Both teams have Friday off and resume play on Saturday at Citizen’s Bank Park as the Phils look to jump-start their offense and to jump ahead of the Yankees in another battle of lefties as Cole Hamels is opposed by Andy Pettitte.

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Phillies ace Cliff Lee was nothing short of magnificent in the matchup of lefthanders with Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia.  Lee carried a shutout into the ninth inning with the Yanks only run scoring on shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ throwing error on a fielder’s choice grounder. 2nd baseman Chase Utley reached Sabathia for solo homers in the third and sixth innings as Lee breezed.  But the Phillies offense salted the game away taking control with 4 late-inning runs including an eighth inning bases loaded 2 run single by leftfielder Raul Ibanez.  Lee, Utley and Ibanez led Phillies to a 6-1 World Series opening win over the Yankees.

The win was the Phillies first-ever World Series win over the Yankees to whom they lost in a 4 game sweep in the only other series match-up between the 2 teams in 1950.  That series marked one of the lowest-scoring match-ups in MLB history.  A total of 16 runs were scored in the 4 games; 11 by the Yanks and 5 by the Phils’ “Whiz Kids.”

Lee was masterful on the mound and equally masterful defensively in flawlessly handling 4 put-out opportunities; a first inning bunt grounder, a sixth inning pop out and groundouts in the seventh and eighth innings.  The eighth inning play, as recounted by Phillies Nation’s Brian Michael, was “an amazing behind-the-back stab to rob Robinson Cano of a single.”

As Lee breezed through 9 of the first 11 Yanks he faced allowing only a 1 out single in the second inning and a 2 out double in the third, Utley blistered a 2 out, full-count pitch from Sabathia to the rightfield seats to put the Phils on the board.

Then Lee struck out the side in fourth in a great power-pitching display; 1st baseman Mark Teixeira, 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez and catcher Jorge Posada — all swinging.

In the fifth, DH Hideki Matsui led off with a single to center but then got doubled off of first base on Cano’s line drive to shortstop Rollins.  Lee then retired the side on a pop out to rightfield.

With 1 out in the Phils’ sixth inning, Utley then turned on Sabathia’s 0-2 pitch bombing it to right centerfield for his 2nd solo shot of the game — sooo nice, we gonna do it twice, and the Phils had a 2-0 lead.

Shortstop Derek Jeter, the only Yankee to reach regularly in the game going 3 for 4, singled to center with 1 out in the sixth.  But then Lee coaxed a pop out to the pitcher and a fielder’s choice grounder rubbing the Yanks in the inning.

Lee then went clean on the Yanks in the seventh on 9 pitches, 3 groundouts.

Then the Phils offense went to work scoring 4 runs, 2 in the eighth and 2 in the ninth as the Yankees burned through 5 reliever to no avail.  Meanwhile, Lee went clean again on the Yanks in the eighth, this time on 12 pitches.

AP’s Ben Walker recaps the Phils eighth and ninth inning scoring for Yahoo sports:

Lee bamboozled the Yankees with a spiked curveball, deceptive changeup and his usual pinpoint fastball, pitching a six-hitter while striking out 10 without a walk. He became the first [pitcher] since Don Newcombe in 1949 to fan double digits with no walks in a Series game.

Raul Ibanez hit a two-run single in the eighth and Shane Victorino added an RBI single in the ninth.

1st baseman Ryan Howard, who had 2 doubles in the game, added his 2nd one for good measure in the ninth driving in the 6th run while Victorino was nailed trying to score from 1st base on the play to end the inning. 

Lee took a shutout into the ninth but then Jeter and leftfielder Johnny Damon each singled to open the frame.  Teixeira then grounded to 2nd base into a textbook fielder’s choice. Damon was out at 2nd base with Jeter moving to third. But Jeter scored and Teixeira moved to second on shortstop Rollins’ throwing error.  With 1 out in the Yanks ninth, Lee fanned A-Rod and Posada to end it.

Winning pitcher Lee threw 122 pitches striking out 10, walking none and giving up the ninth inning run and 6 hits in his complete game effort.  Sabathia provided a superior performance only giving up Utley’s 2 dingers, although he ran deep counts and thus threw 113 pitches in seven innings while giving up 4 hits, walking 3 and striking out 6.

AP’s Walker continues:

The defending champion Phillies shut down Alex Rodriguez & Co. in the first Series game at the new billion-dollar ballpark. Trying to become the first NL team to repeat since Cincinnati in 1975-76, the Phils’ 17-4 postseason run is the best in league history.

How complete was Lee’s shutdown of the Yankees?  A-Rod went down on strikes 3 times while Teixeira and Posada each fanned twice accounting for 7 of Lee’s 10 strikeouts. 

With game 1 in the Phillies hopper, manager Charlie Manuel goes to veteran Pedro Martinez for game 2 on Thursday as the best chance of possibly sneaking out of Yankee stadium with 2 wins over the Yanks.  Martinez also translates into a mega-TV bucks across the nation.  Pedro will be opposed by A.J. Burnett.

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Phillies lefthander Cole Hamels lasted just 4 1/3 innings.  But the Phils clubbed Los Angeles starter Vicente Padilla for 6 runs in four innings on Wednesday.  Four homers, including 2 by rightfielder Jayson Werth, led the Phillies who pounded the Dodgers by a 10-4 tally to clinch their 2nd NL Pennant in 2 seasons and set-off celebrations in Philadelphia.

With this 2nd Pennant in 2 seasons, the Phils have achieved not only a first in their franchise history but a rarity in Philadelphia sports history. The only other Philadelphia teams ever to make it to a Championship series 2 seasons in a row were the Eagles in 1948 and 1949 seasons, the 76ers with Wilt Chamberlain in 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons and the Flyers in 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons.

1st baseman Ryan Howard was awarded the NLCS MVP award.  Howard, who hit .333 for the series with 2 homers and 8 RBIs while going 5 for 15 in the series also collected a double, a triple. This blog noted after game 4 that Howard tied Lou Gehrig’s 7 decades old MLB record garnering at least one RBI in eight straight playoff games.  Howard’s RBI streak ended in Wednesday’s clincher when he failed to knock in a run.  He went 0-2 in game 5 as Dodgers pitching gave him little to hit resulting in his reaching twice on walks.

The Dodgers notched a first inning run off of Hamels on leftfielder Andre Ethier’s 2 out solo homer, but the Phils came back wth 3 runs in their first inning as Werth homered to right centerfield off of Padilla following 2 out walks to 2nd baseman Chase Utley and 1st baseman Ryan Howard.

The two teams swapped single runs in the second inning as Dodger 1st baseman James Loney reached Hamels for a leadoff homer and 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz followed suit with a leadoff shot off of Padilla.

After Hamels settled down somewhat retiring 6 of the next 7 Dodgers he faced in the third and fourth innings, Werth lead off the Phillies fourth with a single to leftfield and scored on Raul Ibanez’s double to deep centerfield.   That was it for Padilla who was relieved by Ramon Troncosco who first got Feliz to ground out to 3rd base before walking catcher Carlos Ruiz.  Hamels bunt sacrificed the runners up — Ibanez to 3rd base and Ruiz to 2nd.  Then Troncosco proceeded to hit shortstop Jimmy Rollins and was gone, replaced by reliever George Sherrill who plunked centerfielder  Shane Victorino, the latter hit batsmen forcing in the Phillies 6th run.  Sherrill finished the inning by striking out Utley with the sacks jammed. After four innings, the Phillies were up by 6-2. 

Hamels opened the fifth by getting 3rd baseman Casey Blake to pop out to rightfield before pinch hitter Orlando Hudson solo homered to narrow the Phils lead to 6-3.  Shortstop Rafael Furcal followed with a double to leftfield chasing Hamels and beginning a parade of Phillies relievers.  Lefthander  J.A. Happ notched the 2nd out and Chad Durbin the final out of the fifth.  Durbin went clean in the sixth inning to notch the Pennant-clinching win. 

Victorino padded the Phils’ lead to 8-3 with a 2 out, 2 run shot in the sixth off of reliever lefthander Clayton Kershaw, the originally schedule starter for game 5.

Chan Ho Park relieved Durbin and went clean on the Dodgers in the seventh inning.   Lefthander Hong-Chih Kuo replaced Kershaw for the seventh inning and opened by striking out Howard.  But Werth followed solving Kuo for his 2nd homer of the game, a solo shot to centerfield.  Kuo then fanned both Ibanez and Feliz to strikeout the side.  After seven innings, Phillies 9, Dodgers 3.

In the eighth, Park was chased giving up 2 hits to open the inning.  Ryan Madson came on to walk leftfielder Manny Ramirez to load the sacks with none out.  Centerfielder Matt Kemp followed capping the Dodger scoring with an RBI single to center — the run being charged to Park.  Madson then got Loney on a foul-out and struck out catcher Russell Martin.   Madson could almost see himself out of the inning, but still had to get past Casey Blake as the sacks remained loaded with Dodgers.   What ensued was a epic 9 pitch confrontation between Madson and Blake in a situation where one solid swing could have changed the game from a Phillies cruise into a nail-biter.   After 2 balls and 2 strikes including 4 fouls,  Madson coaxed a shortstop fielder’s choice  by Blake to end the only significant Dodger threat of the game.

Leading 9-4 in the game, the Phils capped their scoring as Rollins scored on a wild pitch after singling with 2 outs and going to 3rd on Victorino’s ground-rule centerfield double.

Then, all there was left was for suddenly rejuvenated closer Brad Lidge to close out the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth.  He notched a strikeout, a foul out and a fly out to centerfield to cinch the game, the series and the 2nd NL Pennant in 2 seasons for the Phillies.

Interesting, former disgrunted BoSoxer Manny Ramirez,  who chose to shower and not to stick around with the team in game 4 after removed for defensive reasons, provided some offense for the Dodgers; 6 hits in 19 at-bats with a homer and 2 RBIs in the series, but he was largely not a factor in the offense against the Phillies.

The boxscores for both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s league championship games in both leagues can be found here and here.

The World Series opener is tentatively set for Wednesday October 28, 2009, barring any weather-related postponements in either the ALCS final games or in the opener itself, in the stadium of the ALCS winner, either the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Angels.  This gives the Phils 7 days to rest, heal and prepare for the series.

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I still remember reading and re-reading that old Sports Illustrated magazine that I found at my grandparents house in Montreal, Canada during a visit some 50 years ago.   I treasured that mag for years until one day it disappeared during housecleaning.

One of the most fascinating things I recall reading in that magazine was about how Phillies lefthanded hurler of the time, Curt Simmons, who was 2nd on the staff to mound ace and now Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, went DL in June, 1953 after having sliced off part of his left big toe in a freak power lawn mower mishap. He returned after a month and still posted a 16-13 record and 3.21 ERA for the season.  Nothing particularly intriguing about that accept that Simmons got back in action that quickly and didn’t skip a beat.  How often do you see that today?  Guys turn an ankle and go DL, then get sent down to the minors to rehab before returning to the active roster.  Never mind that Simmons, after the injury, went strong for the Phillies until the late 1950s when he was traded to St. Louis in 1960 after which he brutalized a hapless Phillies team for years.

Today’s Yahoo Big league Stew reviews two of the more freakish, intriguing injuries to surface this spring, former Phillie and now Cleveland Indians’ outfielder David Dellucci’s alligator yarn and Kansas City Royals outfielder  Jose Guillen’s self-mutilation of his right big toe with tweezers.

The Stew notes:

…The tale he [Dellucci] told reporters on Saturday of how an alligator chomped his thumb while he was saving a child — if only it were true.

From the Associated Press:

    “Right before I came here,” Dellucci explained, “I was fishing on the side of my lake, and I heard a little boy screaming. I ran over there, and an alligator had him by the leg. I jumped on the gator, poked him in the eyes, freed the kid, but he [bit] me in my thumb. I got stitches, had surgery and the stitches will come out on Monday.”

Dellucci had reporters sold on the story, but his conscience got the better of him and he broke the silence with a well-placed “just kidding.” Turns out Dellucci slammed his hand in a trailer tailgate before leaving his home in Louisiana and had to get three stitches that will cause him to miss the beginning of Cactus League play. 

When told by team doctors that an ingrown nail on his right big toe might require surgery, Guillen took matters into his own hands and removed the nail by himself with a pair of tweezers later that night.

…Here’ a short conversation that Y! Sports’ own Jeff Passan had with his own mother, who works as a nurse:

    JP: “How much would it hurt to yank your big toenail out with a pair of tweezers?”

    JP’s mom: “They have a word for that. Torture.”

    JP: “So someone who would do that himself …”

    JP’s mom: ” … is crazy.” 

Guillen’s toe is currently being treated with antibiotics, but he has has since developed a sore shoulder and was limited to light conditioning work Saturday in Arizona. No word yet on whether Guillen plans to scope the shoulder himself with assorted kitchen utensils … 

Wonder how much DL and minor league rehab time these guys will spend before returning to the active roster.  Personally, my money’s on Chase Utley returning before either of these jive turkeys!

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Yes, this is a baseball blog; to paraphrase Rush Limbaugh; “All Baseball, All the time.”

But we can’t live in a total one-sport vacuum when another major Philadelphia sports team advances, as the Eagles did in the post-season on Sunday with a 23-11 win over their turnpike rival New York Giants can we?

The Birds, left for dead just before Thanksgiving with a 5-5-1 record in the regular season, reeled off 4 wins in their finaL 5 games and prospered pummelling the Dallas Cowboys in the regular season final. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Eagles’ major competition for the NFC Wildcard spot, were beaten by the Oakland Raiders enabling the Birds to ascend into the post-season.

The Birds then knocked off the Minnesota Vikings to move on to the Meadowlands.

The Eagles and Giants played to a near-standoff for 3 quarters as quarterback Donovan McNabb scored a 1 yard touchdown to go along with David Akers field goals. The Giants got 3 field goals from John Carney and recorded a 2nd quarter safety as McNabb was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.  The Birds led by 13-11 after 3 quarters.

Giant quarterback Eli Manning could never quite get uncorked as he struggled with a swarming Eagle defense as each quarterback coughed up 2 interceptions.  The Giants were inside the Eagle 20 yardline 5 times and converted 3 field goals to show for it.

But after Carney missed a 47 yard field goal attempt, the Eagles took over on their 37 yardline and reeled off a 10-play drive culminating in a McNabb 1 yard TD pass to make the score 20-13.

After the Giants failed to convert a 4th and 2 on their 48 yardline, the Eagles took over possession.  After running back Correll Buckhalter was thrown for a 1 yard loss, McNabb connected with flanker DeSean Jackson for a 48 yard completion on the 2nd play of the possession placing the Eagles at the Giants’ door at the 1 yardline.  The Birds failed to convert on 3 downs and Akers then booted a 20 yard field goal.

The teams traded possessions and the Giants turned the ball over twice.  The game ended with McNabb falling on the football twice.

Way to go Eagles!   They must be celebrating again Big-Time back in Philly.  Onto the NFC Championship game with the Arizona Cardinals and onto the Superbowl — Hopefully, finally a Superbowl win to go along with a World Series Crown.

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24 year old 2nd year ace of the San Francisco Giants Tim Lincecum and 30 year old Cleveland Indians 7 year veteran lefthander Cliff Lee garnered their respective league’s Cy Young Awards in MLB announcements made on Tuesday and Thursday.

Both Lincecum and Lee had phenominal seasons; Lincecum going 18-5 while racking up an incredible league-leading winning .783 percentage and league-leading 265 strikeouts in 227 innings with a 2.62 ERA for a Giants team which finished 4th in the NL West with a 72-90 mark and one of baseball’s least productive offenses.  Lee finished with the best mark in all of MLB at 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA in 223 1/3 innings pitched.  Between them, they gave up an incredibly low total of 23 homers (11 off of Lincecum, 12 off of Lee) in 450 1/3 innings.

In the NL, Arizona’s ace Brandon Webb finished a distant 2nd in the voting despite his 22-7 mark and 3.30 ERA in 226 2/3 innings.  Webb gave up but 13 dingers.  Johan Santana and CC Sabathia came in 3rd and 4th in the voting while Phillies closer Brad Lidge who recorded a perfect 41 saves in 41 chances in the regular season, 48 for 48 including the playoffs and the World Series, finished in the 5th spot in balloting.

Lincecum is only the 2nd Giant ever to win the Cy Young award with joining  Mike McCormick who won in 1967.  Records show that only Steve Carlton, in 1972, won the Cy Young for a club with a worse record than the 2008 Giants. Lefty went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA for the morbund 1972 Phillies team who sported baseball’s worst record that year of 59-97.

Toronto Blue Jays starter Ray Halladay, with a 20-11 mark and a 2.78 ERA in 246 innings finished a distant 2nd in AL balloting and L.A. Angels closer
Francisco Rodriguez who set an MLB record with 62 saves and had a 2.24 ERA finished an even further distant 3rd.

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