JrBB Phillies

            On an absolutely beautiful evening at Fleet Park, we saw a precursor to the Phillies of 2007.  37 Phillies batters went to the plate in 4 innings.  We had 2 Ks, 6 walks and the rest were either hits or ROE.  Impressive offensive production!  Couple that with 2 errors and you can score a lot of runs, while holding the opponent to a few.

            Orion pitched very well to open, throwing 50 pitches in 3 innings, recoding 7 Ks, 1 ER on 1 hit.  Peyton pitched well in the 4^th, with 1 ER and a K.  He struggled a bit in the 5^th, before being relieved by Justin, for his Junior Baseball debut.  Justin’s ER average approached triple figures!! But it was a good first outing.  Orion finished the 5^th to get us out of there before parents started getting antsy.

            Defensive plays coupled with the 9 Ks, included a strike ‘em out/throw ‘em out double play to end the first.  Orion struck out the lead-off batter and the 2-slot batter reached on a poolee error.  Orion struck out the #3 batter and Joe gunned down the runner going to third.  We started the scoring early in the bottom of the 1^st. Peyton singled and scored on a PB.  Orion doubled and scored (I believe) on Joe’s ROE.  Poolee Bashara ROE before Dirk RBI’d Joe.  After 1:  Phillies 3, Pirates 0.

            In the top of the 2^nd, Orion hit the lead-off and #2 flied out to Austin at second.  Their # 6 batter ROE, scoring the runner before Orion struck out the last 2 batters.  Austin got in the books with his first base hit of the season to lead-off the 2^nd.  With 1 out, George singled to deep left-center.  Justin GO to SS, but scored Austin.  Peyton GO to end the rally.  After 2:  Phillies 4; Pirates 1.

            In the 3^rd, Orion K’d the first 2 batters.  The Pirate lead-off reached on a dribbler and the next batter walked, both runners eventually moved into scoring position.  A key defensive play was Justin’s catch in center, which he covered significant ground to get to, retired the side with the Pirates’ clean-up batter on-deck.  Orion led off the 3^rd with a triple to the fence in center, and scored on Joe’s single to left.  Dirk hit into a FC and Kyle ROE.  Austin hit into FC, scoring Dirk on a play at the plate.  The next sequence isn’t pretty, but it scored a lot of runs and I can’t be sure of the RBIs.  Chris, George and Orion all ROE, before Joe walked, scoring Kyle.  Dirk hit a shot to SS, beat the throw and scored at least Chris and George.  Don’t know how Orion got home, so I’ll give Dirk credit for that RBI, as well.  Kyle GO to the mound to retire the Phillies, but not before they had plated 8 runs, sending 13 batters to the plate.  After 3:  Phillies 12; Pirates 1.

            In the 4^th, Peyton relieved Orion, and Orion paid him back by snatching a liner to short for the lead-off out.  3 batters walk, one of them scoring on a PB, before Peyton got his first K.  With runners in scoring position a second key defensive play was made by Kyle at 2^nd, catching a fly to retire the Pirates.  Phillies piled on in the bottom of the 4^th, scoring 7 more runs on 12 plate appearances.  Don’t have any idea about these RBIs, but it all started with a lead-off walk to Austin.  Chris, George, Justin and Peyton all hit clean signles and all went on to score.  Orion GO before Joseph walked to reach base for the 4^th time of the night.  Kyle walked and scored before Austin got his second base hit of the night and we left 2 runners in scoring position when George flied out to SS.  After 4:  Phillies 19; Pirates 2.

     In the top of the 5^th, we threw a lot of pitches but not enough strikes to keep from seeing 13 Pirate batters come to the plate and score 7 runs, all earned on either walks or their 1 base hit.  Justin made his pitching debut in relief of Peyton, and Orion relieved Justin for the last 3 batters to get us out of there.  After 4 ½:  Phillies 19; Pirates 9.

            With the win, the Phillies take a half game lead in the Division.  We next play at Aragona-Pembroke on Saturday, May 27^th at 4:00, against the AP-1 Red Sox.  We come out of the Memorial Day holiday with a 6:00 game against the Royals.  Have a great and safe holiday weekend.