Below are my notes from today's Live Internet Scorecard Blog of the Phillies, Jays game at Toronto, featuring Cliff Lee in his bid to go 4 consecutive games without surrendering a run.
See the complete game Scorecard, "Scorecard: July 3, 2011 Phillies at Blue Jays - Game 3 of 3".
Plus, my new video at Youtube: "The sound of Encarnacion's HR: For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Lee"
(embed is here too, below the fold)
Game Notes:
Philadelphia Phillies (53-31)
Manager: Charlie Manuel
@
Toronto Blue Jays (40-44)
Manager: John Farrell
Game 3 of 3
First pitch: 1:07 PM EST
Starting Pitchers:
Philadelphia - Cliff Lee
Toronto - Jo-Jo Reyes
Umpires:
Home - Ed Hickox
First Base - Ed Rapuano
Second Base - Brian Onora
Third Base - Alfonso Marquez
Weather:
Sunny - clear blue sky :)
Temp: 28°C | 88°F
Wind:NW at 23 kph | 15 mph
(left field line out to right field corner)
Notes:
Bottom of 3
Lead-off hitter R Davis hits 3BH8(9) 8-6-5 safe. FAN590 Radio Play by Play co-host Alan Ashby mentions the no-hit 5 seconds before the pitch --- then WHAM! And the next batter (John McDonald) ruins the no run streak with a 6-3 ground out that scores the triple.
Bottom of the 8th
We've all heard the expression,
'You could tell it was a home run by the sound of the bat."
Well, I'd always thought I knew what that meant, in fact I was sure I'd heard it before - several times, but until I heard the sound of Edwin Encarnacion's bat hitting the ball squarely for the third HR of the 8th inning I hadn't heard that most distinctive of sounds. Clear like the ring of a bell, it had a tone I've never heard before - like an exceptionally load, snap of the fingers.
I was busy at the keyboard and I didn't even look up, I just typed in 'HR' in the little box... .
Here's an edit I made of the beautiful sounding thwack.
(Link to the original MLB video page is below.)
MLB has the video up of Encarnacion's hit, "Encarnacion's two-run homer": http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_07_03_phimlb_tormlb_1&mode=wrap
Post Game
Now I'm not saying any of the following is well thought out - but two things:
1. Eric Thames
2. Rajia Davis
Eric Thames is looking very comfortable in a major league uniform, and hitting the ball more often now with what looks like great authority --- well, it changes everything. Eric Thames is a young man who looks and carries himself a lot older than he is, without this new metric piling all kinds of expectation on him, what about this line-up?
'I have a dream' line-up
1. C Patterson LF
2. R Davis CF
3. E Thames RF
4. J Bautista 3B
5. A Lind 1B
6. J Arencibia C
7. E Encarnacion DH
8. A Hill 2B
9. J McDonald SS
Rajia Davis' play today, hitting the ball away, plus a fine at-bat in the 8th, shows he wants to hit higher in the order and 'Rickey Henderson' this League - and by the looks of it he could - he stole with impunity on the Phillies battery today.
Putting him 2nd gives him the opportunity to get some at bats in lad-off type situations and moving Jose Bautista down to the 4 spot, and Thames up to the 3 spot takes the pressure off the top of the order and adds to the possibility of a big inning, and more team RBIs.
Line ups and pitching totals from ESPN - Box Score.
* * *
Cliff Lee's magnificent no-run streak destroyed:
DATE OPP. RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO Dec. ERA Jul 3 @ TOR L (7-4) 7.1 10 7 6 3 0 9 L(9-6) 2.92 Jun 28 vs BOS W (5-0) 9.0 2 0 0 0 2 5 W(9-5) 2.66 Jun 22 @ STL W (4-0) 9.0 6 0 0 0 1 3 W(8-5) 2.87 Jun 16 vs FLA W (3-0) 9.0 2 0 0 0 2 4 W(7-5) 3.12
Stats from ESPN: Cliff Lee - Game by Game
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