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Citizens Bank Spark

The Phillies Romp on Fan Appreciation Night Before Houston Kills Our Buzz

Forty-two large showed up at Citizens Bank Park last night for Fan Appreciation Night, and we were treated to an offensive performance explosive enough to mitigate Vicente Padilla's mediocre start. With the Phillies whacking the Mets around like a piñata, and Dan Baker playing Santa Claus at the end of every half-inning, there was a festive atmosphere gently infusing the ballpark. Every fan present, though, was mindful of the Phils' dire straits, and with the rightfield scoreboard continuing to show the Astros and Cardinals within a run of each other all night long, we couldn't really cut loose and celebrate. It was like being at a party for a guy who's about to start his prison sentence. Which is not an inaccurate way to put it. Houston's magic number is 2; on Sunday night, the Phillies begin serving six months to life in the prison that is a nonplayoff October and the five long months of winter which follow.

No Offense Taken

The Phils' Sleepwalking Offense Leads to Another Ill-Timed Loss

Four hits. Two runs. One big loss. There's not much more to say. Well, perhaps this: If the Astros hold on to their ninth-inning lead, their magic number will be shaved to 3. Tomorrow is Fan Appreciation Night at Citizens Bank Park, and I'll be there, but I'm not sure how much there will be to appreciate; the National League wild card is looking like an increasingly unattainable goal for the Phillies. The momentum of last week has dissipated in a swirl of botched opportunities against a team with nothing to play for but pride. It appears the Phils' chronic, gut-churning inconsistency will be their undoing.

Help Wanted

After a Late Collapse, the Phils Look to St. Louis for a Hand

Talk about speaking too soon. An eighth-inning bullpen implosion, long after I had hit the hay, gave the Mets a 6-5 win last night, costing the Phillies the chance to draw to within a half-game of the idle Astros. The Phils now are 1-1/2 out, reducing Houston's magic number to 5. And so now we all become wicked passionate fans of the Cardinals, who host the 'Stros tonight and tomorrow, and the Cubs, who visit Minute Maid Field for four this weekend.

When I caught the final this morning, I uttered a loud, sharp expletive whose euphemism is a yummy chocolate treat. A win would have furthered the Phils' momentum and given the Astros even more of a reason to be looking over their shoulder. And to blow a three-run lead in the eighth ... . On further reflection, though, I realized that the last month has seen the Phillies get up off the mat time and time again and counterpunch extraordinarily well. Sometimes it's been in individual games, and sometimes over the course of a series, but these guys don't have much quit in them, a point Sam Donnellon made in today's Daily News. I'd rather they make it easy, of course, but this is baseball; as Jimmy Dugan once said, the hard is what makes it great. Yes, the Phils need help -- at least two games' worth -- from Chicago and St. Louis, but I'm not willing to jump off the bandwagon yet.

Swingin' in the Rain

Better Late Than Never, Rollins Ties Franchise Mark With Leadoff Homer

The odds that I'll be around for the end of tonight's rain-delayed Phillies-Mets game are long indeed, but I'm sure glad I caught the start of it. After storms pushed back the first pitch to about 9:30, Brett Myers set the Mets down in the top of the first. Then Jimmy Rollins tied a 105-year-old franchise mark by taking Jae Seo deep to right; the dinger meant J-Roll matched Ed Delahanty's 31-game hitting streak. And for all who think the Phils faithful show up expecting the squad to fail, well, you should have heard the roar of the Citizens Bank Park crowd, who demanded and received a curtain call.

After Kenny Lofton was called out at first on a blown call, Chase Utley slammed a pitch to the left-center wall and raced for a standup double. Bobby Abreu walked. Pat Burrell's single to center, which glanced just off the shortstop's glove, plated Utley. Ryan Howard's sharp grounder to first advanced Abreu and Burrell. David Bell popped a fly to shallow center; for a second it appeared to have a shot to drop in, but Carlos Beltran glided in and ended the inning with a sliding catch.

And that was just the first.

The Phillies look as if they came to play tonight. I won't know for sure until the morning. It rather feels like the old days, when a grade-school bedtime would keep me from the final until the next day's paper ... or a report from coffee-swilling Mom and Dad. Tomorrow, then, I'll tell my girl what happened. And I'll hope as I fall asleep that the news is good.

Update: It's 3-1, Phils, in the bottom of the fourth, and I'm packing it in. Let's go, boys!

One Week

A Series Win, a Game Gained, and the Phillies Surge into Season's Final Seven Days

My weekend viewing of the Phils-Reds series was sporadic, given various other life responsibilities, a fact which had its ups and downs. I saw a handful of pitches from Friday's wildly thrilling and improbable 11-10 win, and none of Saturday's 3-2 loss to Eric Milton. But I managed to catch several innings of yesterday's 6-3 win, which, combined with Houston's loss to the Cubs, drew the Phillies to within a game of the wild-card lead. Corey Lidle was outstanding, and the Phils squeezed just enough offense out of their lineup to earn the victory.

A few words must be said in praise of some guys who have gotten banged around at this site and around Phillies City-State. David Bell, in particular, has played very well of late. He's collected lots of clutch hits, including the two-run homer that put the Phils up Friday night, and I saw him make quite a few sparkling defensive plays yesterday. Jimmy Rollins has hit safely in 30 games. Billy Wagner has pitched as well as he runs his mouth, including a pair of recent closes in games that were nonsave situations. Bobby Abreu grew some guts and has played in a considerable amount of pain of late. A tip of the cap to all of these guys.

And so it comes down to one week, six games, and a lot of scoreboard watching. For the Phillies, three at home with the Mets, starting tonight, and then a weekend series at RFK. For the Astros, a pair at St. Louis Tuesday and Wednesday, and then four at home against Chicago.

This is what we wanted, right? Meaningful games at the end of the season? More, most of us suspected this, didn't we? Not a runaway playoff spot, but a tense, challenging race that extended to early October. I'll be at Citizens Bank Park for Wednesday's game with the Mets, the final home contest of the regular season. For the rest of the week I'll be in front of my television and my laptop, watching ... and hoping.

'Lost' is Found

The Continuing Travails of the Survivors of Oceanic Flight 815

Okay, friends, show of hands: Who thought the writers and producers of Lost would string us along for a few episodes before revealing what was under the hatch blown open by Jack, Locke, Kate, and Hurley in last season's final episode?

Yeah, me, too.

Instead, Wednesday's premiere gave us a hell of a look inside, beginning with the opening scene. The episode continued with the series's usual adrenaline-fueled, tension-packed rush of intricate detail and deepening mystery. There were effective flashbacks, a typically cryptic "B" plot, and a slam-bang ending that left me longing for next Wednesday night to get here quick. In short, viewers were treated to a completely usual Lost, not a Very Special Episode, not an all-too-typical disappointing drop-off in quality from the previous season. It was everything it was last year. As Hurley might say, way to go, dudes.

Afternoon Delight

Ninth-Inning Heroics Lift Phils to Series Win Over Braves

The Law of Inverse Viewing could not have picked a better time to make its return to my Phillies following.

Last night, I couldn't tune in until after putting the youngest member of the Shallow Center household to bed -- Phillies 3, Braves 0. While I watched, Atlanta slowly chipped away -- Phillies 3, Braves 3. The missus and I switched over to catch the season premiere of Lost (more on that later), and then checked back in during a commercial -- Phillies 6, Braves 3. We finished up with Lost and returned to Comcast SportsNet -- Phillies 6, Braves 6. I shut off the TV to finish up some work I had brought home from the office, and followed the game online, via CBS SportsLine, where I read about Ryan Howard's grand slam in silent joy -- Phillies 10, Braves 6, final.

This afternoon provided an even more vivid example of the Law in action. A meeting kept me away from my desk until about 4:15, so it was only while walking back to my office that I discovered, via a cell-phone conversation with my colleague, that Jon Lieber had outdueled Tim Hudson. Stardom abounded for the Phils -- Jimmy Rollins collected a pair of base hits to extend his hitting streak to a modern-era franchise record of 27 games; Shane Victorino crashed his first career homer, a three-run, pinch-hit bomb in the ninth; Lieber fanned seven in eight innings, yielding just five hits and no walks; and for the second straight game, Billy Wagner entered in a non-save situation and focused sufficiently to close things out. Phillies 4, Braves 0.

Philadelphia rebounded nicely from Tuesday's loss to take two of three in Atlanta. Showing impressive and atypical late-season grit, the Phils now have won seven of their last 10, against the Braves and the Marlins. They are within four of the division lead, but with just nine to play, catching Atlanta is going to be tough. Of greater concern is that for all of their recent success, the Phillies continue to trail the Astros -- let's say it, the goddamn Astros. Houston won again today, edging the hapless Pirates to retain its two-game lead in the wild-card race. Regardless, the Phils are closing strong, a concept as foreign to the Larry Bowa Era as clearly articulate English is to the Charlie Manual Era. For this they deserve considerable credit.

Make no mistakes, though -- this won't substitute for a playoff berth.

Paper Cuts

Inky, DN to Trim Newsroom Staffs; Lousier Journalism to Follow

Yesterday was not a good day to be a newspaper reporter in Philadelphia. The parent company of the Inquirer and Daily News announced (Inky; DN) significant personnel cuts in the papers' newsrooms. Sagging ad sales were the cited reason. Journalists interviewed -- some on the record, some anonymously -- expressed the anticipated mix of anxiety and anger toward parent company Knight-Ridder, while the papers' editors vowed to continue producing a compelling product while tightening their belts at the same time.

As a short-term solution, the cuts are hardly surprising. Print journalism is a slowly dying industry -- fewer and fewer people make reading newspapers a daily part of their to-do list -- and the industry has been slow to respond to external threats, in particular the medium you're currently reading. Print's influence is growing ever weaker; the only place where it remains strong is in the political arena, but as public consumption continues to decrease, that influence is likely to wane. Trimming newsroom staffs is an obvious way to cut costs and boost the bottom line. (Not to mention increase sales at local bakeries.)

In the long term, though, the move will only hasten the downfall. The pages of the Inquirer, once a regular collector of Pulitzers, will see more and more wire-service stories and inconsequential, easily produced journalism. The Daily News will circle the wagons and rely even further on the sports pages to carry its water, hoping that the Eagles continue to win. Neither paper's long-term strategy will result in more readers and greater interest from advertisers; quite the opposite, actually.

And the hell of it, of course, is that pound for pound, newspapers are the most informative, reliable, balanced, interesting, and professionally produced sources of news that exist. That market forces and demographics are stripping them, slowly but inevitably, of their influence and their effectiveness, is sad. And it will hurt the city and the region, and, ultimately, the country (the New York Times Co. also announced staff cuts yesterday), as our most vigilant civic watchdogs are rendered toothless because their margins aren't wide enough. Neither TV nor the 'Net stands ready to take their place.

Atlanta Knaves

Phillies' Bats Silent in Loss to Braves; Astros' Win Increases Deficit to 2

The Phils' meek offensive performance tonight forced Charlie Manuel to lift a very effective Corey Lidle in the sixth, after just 59 pitches and one run, and the bullpen proceeded to give up three more in a 4-1 loss to the Braves. Manuel is likely to get second-guessed for hooking Lidle, who was pitching a gem and was visibly disappointed at his removal. For a while it looked as if it wouldn't matter, given the way Jorge Sosa was befuddling the Phillies, but they finally displayed some grit in the ninth, scratching out a run on Jimmy Rollins's single, the base hit extending his streak to 25 games. Alas, potential tying run Jason Michaels offered Kyle Farnsworth only token resistance in fanning to end the game.

Houston, meanwhile, righted its ship, downing Pittsburgh to increase its wild-card lead to two full games. over the Phillies; the Marlins lost to the Mets in 12 and lurk a game behind the Phils.

Philadelphia managed only three hits off Sosa and the Braves' 'pen tonight; this failure to even show up is not acceptable at this stage of the season. We'll have to hope that the Phillies' vaunted second-half resilience shows up tomorrow night.

Remote Access

The Small Screen Offers Up Its Charms

On Sunday the television industry indulged in its annual ritual of self-congratulation, presenting Emmy Awards to the usual suspects (lots of people from Everybody Loves Raymond), the occasional upstarts (Lost directors, House writers), and, for kicks, the random Oscar winner (Geoffrey Rush). The presenters' jokes were horrible, the musical numbers boring, and the usually charming Ellen DeGeneres painfully unfunny. Given the mountainous piles of garbage TV offers up each fall, and the way the industry falls back on tried and true profiles (cop, lawyer, and medical dramas, workplace sitcoms, "extreme" reality shows, etc.), it would be easy to write off the whole enterprise and just switch to ESPN.

Except that if you look hard enough, thar's gold in them thar hills. Lost kicks off its sophomore season tomorrow night with aims to defend its well earned title as Watercooler Show of the Year. Desperate Housewives isn't the cultural touchstone that the critics and sociologists have speculated, but it's still a lot of fun. Scrubs and Arrested Development are terrific, untraditional comedies with heart and bite, respectively. Over the summer the missus and I got into the solid House and the surprisingly layered and well acted Veronica Mars. The amazing Amazing Race, TV's best reality show (a sincere compliment, not a backhanded one), launches tonight next week with families competing instead of couples. Old reliable Survivor delivered the goods in its premiere last week, and offered a hilarious moment as its closing credits rolled, when the various tribal council votes were revealed: The player kicked out, an older guy who had apparently torn a bicep during one of the challenges, cast his vote against the nurse practitioner who had assisted not only him but also three or four teammates who had suffered nausea and cramps during a grueling, 11-mile hike through the Guatemalan jungle. Well played, sir.

Throw in the pennant races, the start of football season, and then the baseball playoffs, and autumn becomes ridiculously packed with good stuff to watch. Hmm. The missus has been making noises about getting a second TiVo for upstairs, and now I'm starting to understand why ... .