Back and forth thing going on in Philly last night after they got the tarp up at about 10 PM Eastern, wasn’t it? The Phillies built up a 4-1 lead on homers by Carlos Ruiz in the 2nd and Chase Utley and Ryan Howard going back to back in the sixth. In between, the wind denied Evan Longoria a two-run shot in the top of the sixth off Jamie Moyer, the Pennsylvania native, who got the breaks and threw well for his six and a third of work — and made every announcer joke about possible relation to Gene Simmons after that long fly ball by Longoria.
The seventh and eighth innings got weird.
Carl Crawford bunted his way on in the top of the 7th, followed by a double by catcher Dioner Navarro. Gabe Gross grounded in Crawford, and Jason Bartlett grounded in Navarro to get within one run. The eighth gave us the Bossman Junior Show, as B.J. Upton hustled out an infield hit against Ryan Madsen and then proceeded to steal second and third with amazing jumps. Carlos Ruiz threw past third baseman Pedro Feliz, allowing Upton to score and tying the game.
J.P. Howell came in with Jayson Werth on in the bottom of the eighth with nobody out. Werth stole second with Chase Utley up, but Howell pulled the string on him and got him to whiff. Howell caught Werth leaning towards third and picked him off, then got Ryan Howard looking.
J.C. Romero held the Rays off in the 9th, and in the bottom of the inning, Howell hit Eric Bruntlett with a pitch. Grant Balfour came on, and threw a wild pitch past a bunting Shane Victorino. Bruntlett ran for second, and then headed to third when Navarro’s throw went into the outfield.
Joe Maddon then got Ben Zobrist in from right field and played five infielders, walking Victorino and pinch hitter Greg Dobbs to pitch to Ruiz. Ruiz hit a dirty little chopper up the third base line, and Brunlett scored with no one out to finish this one just before 2 AM Eastern….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poFxhNBz9Gg&hl=en&fs=1
Wild stuff. Game 4 is tonight in the 8:30 range, and since there’s no NFL game this weekend, there will be a live-blog.
