Announcement
Phillies vs Pirates, Monday, April 18th
“The Tale of Two, or Three, or Four Baseball Games.”
I sometimes decompress after a game and let a day go by before writing the summary. Can’t with this one. A special “thanx” to Julie and Mary Ellen for keeping a book that reads like a Vin Scully play-by-play.
Game 1: On Monday the Phillies welcomed the Pirates in to the 2005 season. As visitors, we got on the board with only 1 run because of an aggressive coaching error at third. M. Hall led off with a 300’ triple to dead center. Pirates’ O’Donnell picked him off when he was coached into a too-big lead. Aguirre his sharply to shallow left and stole 2nd. He scored on Triplett’s double to center. After stealing 3rd, he was out trying to go home on PB. Pirates sent 6 batters to the plate without scoring in the bottom half.
In the second, Phillies loaded the bases on walks by Wilkins, Chapman and Ford. Mayfield’s FC forced Wilkins at home. Chapman scored on M.Hall’s sacrifice (SAC). Barrett’s single to center scored Ford. Klein made a good 5-3 to rob Aguirre of a base hit. Aguirre struck out the first two Pirates I the bottom of the second, and Chapman-O.Hall set them down in order. Phillies sent 7 batter to the plate in the second. At the end of Game 1: Phillies up 3-0.
Game 2: Phillies sent 8 batters up in the third. Triplett & O.Hall walked to lead-off. They stole 2nd & 3rd while Wilkins was at bat. A dropped strike three scored Triplett and put Wilkins on. Mahoney singled in O.Hall. Georges got the first of his three singles, but the Phillies left the bases juiced.
Coming on in relief, O.Hall struggled after a truly quality outing on “deep freeze” Saturday. He faced nine batters and allowed 3 runs. A dropped ball and “throw it around” allowed the Pirates to get on the board. At the end of Game 2: Phillies 5-3.
Game 3: Phillies got one back in the fourth when Aguirre walked, took 2nd on PB, stole 3rd and home. Triplett relieved O.Hall and retired the side in order on a routine Wilkins-Hall 6-3, and fly outs to Wilkins and Georges.
In the fifth, trying to close the door, the Phillies scored four runs while sending nine batters up. Georges singled, Mayfield walked, and M.Hall singled to load the bases. Barrett hit a 2-run single. With M.Hall and Barrett in scoring position, Aguirre walked to again load ‘em up. Triplett’s FC scored M. Hall, stranding two. Phillies got 5 hits in fifth inning. Phillies allowed a lead-off walk to score in the fifth, before a strike out and double play retired the Pirates. At the end of Game 3: Phillies up 10-4.
Game 4: Phillies added two more runs in the sixth, on another 5-hit effort. Georges (3-3) led off with a single. M.Hall’s double scored Georges. Pirate errors allowed Hall to score before singles by Barrett, Aguirre and Triplett left the bases loaded again. In their half of the sixth, the Pirates scored four runs on one hit, two walks and more defensive errors tan even Vin Scully could record! An in-field fly, a strike-out and a batting out-of-order ruling ended the game at 2 hr/ 45 minutes. At the end of Game 4: Phillies win 12-8.
Phillies set 41 batters to the plate; Pirates 26. Phillies pitchers combined for 5 Ks, 12 BB, 4 hits, and 5 earned runs. Take away the 3rd and 6th innings, this was a good ball game.
