Ugly – I think that’s the best word to describe it. The Phillies crushed the Dodgers 11-0 on Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in the 2009 NLCS.
Dodgers Manager Joe Torre didn’t have Hiroki Kuroda available for the NLDS against the Cardinals because of an injury and he made a bold move by adding Kuroda to the NLCS roster against the Phillies. Kuroda had had a solid year – 20 starts, 8 wins, 3.76 ERA and 1.14 WHIP – and had even stymied the Phillies back on June – 2 hits and 3 walks in 6 scoreless innings of a 3-2 Dodgers win in L.A. But Torre calculated wrong big time in this situation. Kuroda barely got out of the 1st inning, and didn’t last much longer in the 2nd inning, as he gave up 6 runs – all earned – on 6 hits, the big one being a 2-run HR by Jayson Werth to cap-off a 4-run 1st inning.
And with Cliff Lee on the mound for the Phillies, the game was pretty much over after Ryan Howard’s triple plated 2 runs ahead of Werth’s HR to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. Lee was as dominant as ever – 8 innings pitched, 3 hits, no walks and 10 K’s. 114 effective and efficient pitches, and just like that Lee kept his spectacular regular season going with another solid post-season start. In 3 October playoff starts, Lee has given up just 2 ER (4 total) in 24 1/3 innings pitched. Throw in just 14 hits and 3 walks against 20 K’s and you are looking at the hottest playoff pitcher in baseball right now.
The Phillies bats stepped up to the plate as well. After the 4-run 1st inning, the Phillies continued to pund away at Kuroda with 2 more runs in the 2nd inning on a Jimmy Rollins double and a Ryan Howard RBI groundout. The Phillies tacked on 2 more insurance runs in the 5th inning on a Pedro Feliz run-scoring triple and a Carlos Ruiz RBI single. And the Phillies capped off their scoring in the bottom of the 8th inning on Shane Victorino’s 3-run bomb to deep right field. All in all, the Phillies scored 11 runs on 11 hits and 7 walks against 5 Dodgers pitchers. Victorino, Chase Utley and Ruiz each had 2 hits, while Victorino and Howard each had 3 RBI’s.
Game 3 starts tonite at 8:07PM EST on TBs. Randy Wolf will toe the rubber for the Dodgers while Joe Blanton will look to give the Phillies a commanding 3-1 series lead and a chance to close out the series at home in Game 5 on Wednesday night…
Taylor Swift already had one of the most successful tour in 2009 and now she is back for round two. Swift announced last week that she will be heading back to the US with more tour dates. Most of the dates will be in cities she did not play in the first round of her tour. Swift has not only been crushing ticket sales this years her music is flying off the shelves also. Looks like Kanye should have picked on someone else this year, maybe he wouldn’t have had to cancel is tour due to poor sales. We have tour dates below and if you are looking for tickets you can find them on our site.
It’s plain and simple – I hate Alex Rodriguez. I was so excited to watch Brian Fuentes close out the 3-2 Angels win on Saturday night. Fuentes even had lead-off hitter Alex Rodriguez right where he wanted him – 0-2 count with a confused look on his face after he guessed wrong on the first 2 pitches. Fuentes even had him off-balanced on the 3rd pitch, but A-Rod got just enough of the pitch to drive it a few feet over the right field wall to tie the game at 3. I would have rather had any other Yankees player tie the game instead of A-Rod. He annoys me show much – he is all show and he has not delivered in the clutch for the Yankees in his previous post-season at-bats. But for whatever reason, A-Rod keeps on delivering in October 2009. Please make it stop soon!
The rest of the game was moot. You knew the Yankees would ultimately beat the Angels at some point to take a 2 games to none lead over the Angels in the ALCS. The fact that it came on a Macier Izturis throwing error that allowed Jerry Hairston Jr. to score all the way from 2nd base made it even all the more frustrating. Once again, the Angels defense allowed the game to get away from them, and they now go back to California with their backs against the wall. Jered Weaver needs to show up big time against Andy Pettite in Game 3 this afternoon – there’s no way the Angels will be able to come back from a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees.
Two other notes – A.J. Burnett threw another solid game for the Yankees. Burnett gave up just 2 ER on 3 hits and 2 walks in 6 1/3 innings pitched. He struck out 4. Sabathia and Burnett – 2 of the Yankees “Big 3″ free agent signings before the season – have really delivered in the clutch this season.
And how about Mariano Rivera – he conserved his pitches so well that he was able to give Manager Joe Girardi 2 1/3 innings from the bottom of the 8th inning through the 10th inning. He allowed just 1 hit with 2 K’s and kept the game going for the Yankees to have a chance to pull off the win.
Game 3 starts today at 4:13PM EST in Anaheim. The game will be televised on Fox…
Taylor Swift already had one of the most successful tour in 2009 and now she is back for round two. Swift announced last week that she will be heading back to the US with more tour dates. Most of the dates will be in cities she did not play in the first round of her tour. Swift has not only been crushing ticket sales this years her music is flying off the shelves also. Looks like Kanye should have picked on someone else this year, maybe he wouldn’t have had to cancel is tour due to poor sales. We have tour dates below and if you are looking for tickets you can find them on our site.
