22-1

Alright, I'm back from my little 'vacation' and ready to write again. Since I last wrote, there's been so much going on, I guess I'll just take it a little bit at a time.

I'll start by taking us all back to last Monday night at the corner of Darien and Pattison in the City of Brotherly Love, as I attended a ho-hum game between the Phillies and the Reds. Except, there was nothing especially ho-hum about it.

Turns out, the Phils won this one 22-1. 22-1. There's nothing to compare that to. Not a football game, not hockey or lacrosse, maybe a junior high girls basketball game with nine crappy players on the court and one 6'-1" girl. 22-1!

I've been to thousands of baseball games in my life, on all levels. At this point, I love just being in the park and seeing a game, but I really enjoy when I get to see something I've never seen before with my own eyes. For example, I had my first Major League rain delay earlier this season. Last Monday's Phils-Reds game had several things I had never seen in a big league game...

- I had never seen a 10-run inning before, much less the first inning.

- I had never seen eight runs scored with two outs. Here's the play by play for the Phils first inning. Jimmy Rollins walked. Shane Victorino homered (2-0 Phils). Chase Utley struck out (1 out). Ryan Howard lined out (2 outs). Jayson Werth singled. Greg Dobbs homered (4-0 Phils). Pedro Feliz was hit by a pitch. Carlos Ruiz walked. Cole Hamels doubled, scoring two. (6-0 Phils). Rollins doubled, Hamels scored (7-0). Victorino walked. (Herrera relieved Cueto) Utley homered (10-0 Phils). Howard struck out (3 outs). So that's 10 runs, 6 hits, 3 walks, one hit batter, two pitchers and two outs by Ryan Howard.

- I had never seen a position player pitch in a Major League game. However, Reds backup infielder Paul Janish entered the game in the bottom of the 8th with his squad behind 16-1. Janish had pitched once earlier this year, giving up five earned runs in one inning for a robust ERA of 45.00. Seeing Janish enter in the eighth, bloated ERA in tow, I figured, sarcastically, that at least his ERA would go down. Nope. After Shane Victorino and Eric Bruntlett had RBI hits, Jayson Werth stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and an 18-1 lead. Werth cracked a homer to right center, putting the final exclaimation point on the rout. Janish's line: 1 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 SO, 1 HR and a new 2009 ERA of 49.50. THAT is taking one for the team.

- I had never seen a major league team score 20. I've seen alot of run totals in the teens, but never into three-touchdown land.

- I had never seen a legit, front of the rotation starting pitcher like Johnny Cueto get torched like that. Coming into the game, the 23-year old Cueto was 8-4 with a 2.69 ERA and was in contention for a spot on NL All-Star squad. Then he threw this line: 0.2 IP, 5 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 2 HR, 3 BB, 1 SO, 49 pitches, and an ERA spike from 2.69 to 3.45.

Entering the ballpark, I was excited to see a great pitching matchup between Cueto and ancient (by Cueto standards) 25-year old Cole Hamels, two guys who should be among the NL's best for the next decade or more. What we got was a laugher that had me excited for a few other reasons.

Just another example that you never know what you'll see at the ol' ball game.