The Phillies great run appears to be long over, the five year span from 2007 through 2011 had been some of the greatest baseball this city has ever seen with the Phillies, it’s 2013 now and this Phillies team has certainly changed and not for the better.
Yes, we’ll have the memories, just like we have the memory of Brad Lidge’s perfect season. This was something that you just don’t see all the time, but the fans in this era of Phillies baseball were lucky enough to witness.
We have 1 perfect game memory by Roy Halladay, and one no-hitter that came during the playoffs. The perfect game came early in the 2010 season (It was only the 20th Perfect Game in MLB history), on May 29th vs. the Florida Marlins. Roy threw 115 pitches and didn’t allow a hit or a walk during the entire game. That was only the 10th time in Phillies history that a starting pitcher ‘no hit’ the opposing team, and the 2nd perfect game in franchise history. Halladay has been nothing but a class act with the Phillies, he celebrated by ordering 60 swiss made Baume and Mercier watches for teammates and clubhouse personnel and had them all inscribed with his perfect game line score, date of the game, and their name.
Roy Halladay ( making his first ever postseason appearance) allowed 1 walk in the October 6th 2010 NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds and nothing else. He came very close to throwing 2 perfect games in a season, but a no-hitter has never been thrown before by a Phillies pitcher, it was the first time that this has happened in the entire Phillies history. It was only the 2nd time in MLB history that this has happened, the other time coming in 1956 with Don Larson of the LA Dodgers.
We have a lot of happy times with seeing Ryan Howard start to rise towards superstardom with the youngest player to hit 100 HR ever, and we’ve been along for the ride with him. Lately Howard hasn’t been nearly the player that we used to see, a few injuries and a lot of strikeouts since he signed a $126M extension a couple years ago, Howard is no longer the superstar that carries this team.
Chase Utley has seen a resurgence this season after some had wondered if his career was over. We’ll never forget the speech by Chase after the Phillies won the World Series in 2008. His short compact swing explodes every now and again, but not like it used to.
We have the memories of Cliff Lee and his dazzling performances in the World Series and playoffs for the Phillies, and the nice season he is having so far. We’ll remember that catch in the World Series against the Yankees when Lee just sort of stuck his glove out and snared a pop-up like he was a man on a mission, a pitcher that desperately now wants to win, but doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen that way with this Phillies team this year.
Yes, this may be the right time to break off another piece of this team. It’s changing slowly over the years since the best time in a very long time for Phillies fans but now the pendulum has been swinging the other way.
Phils take Game 2 in San Diego
Jonathan Papelbon wasn’t on the mound to close out last night’s victory against the Padres. That may be a good thing both for him and for the Phils. Papelbon has gone through the worst time in his Phillies career so far with a string of 4 blown saves that all piled up within about a week’s time.
The Phils were powered by Dom Brown last night, and his homer and 4 RBI was the fuel that the Phillies needed to win last night in San Diego.
It’s the final game of the Padres series tonight at 10:10, the Phillies move up to LA for a 4-game series that goes through the weekend starting Thursday night.