Comments

[bananagrabbers]

Best graphic yet. Let's go, fellas.

[Lwolf]

Boy this is an important one tonight.

[GBrettfan]

Nice to see Chooch on there, he's earned it!

[Pops]

There's the game chat. CHOOCH!!!! We need to control the game, get the crowd involved early and often and let Clifton Phiefer do what he does best. Everybody hits.....

[Scott]

Critical game, the most important one of the year. Anyone else extremely nervous?

[J. Weitzel]

Sometimes you just need to catch up on the chores and put the blog on hold. All done, just in time.

[strange]

PANAMANIA!

[G-Town Dave]

This weekend requires a morale booster, stat -- Let's Go Phils!!! :-D

[Pops]

No more nervous than I was before Games 1 - 4 of the Rockies series. Kuroda hasn't pitched in over a month, the crowd is going to be raucous and Lee is pitching as well as he has all year. Rally towels are waving! Let's play ball!

[erich]

I normally focus on technology on my blog, but tonight, I've written about how beerleaguer has restructured my basebsll media diet. http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-optimized-baseball-media-diet-and.html

(In case anyone is interested)

[gjs]

How's everybody feeling? Nervous? Confident?

With the way we lost that last one, I'd love to see us get off to a quick start and keep the home crowd behind the team.

[joe l]

Buck still working on pronunciation of Raul's name. Don't believe Chip has it down yet either.

[John]

Jump to the latest comments.

[joe l]

Ooo, another Willy Wonka suit jacket.

[Bob]

Yep, I'm nervous given the stakes. There are many keys but I'm looking at (1) Lee getting into one of his grooves, (2) the offense establishing itself early as a force, and Chase establishing that last game was a fluke.

Go Phils!!

[NEPP]

If the offense shows up...that'd be nice.

[NEPP]

Burrell would have had that, right?

[bananagrabbers]

Nice to see Sager dressing up to match the home team.

[Noah]

Someone should let TBS's producers know that Lee works fast and if they don't stick with him they're liable to miss more pitches like they have twice already this half inning.

[Old Phan]

Nice start

[NEPP]

Leetastic.

Once again, it looks like the starting pitching will not be the issue. Hopefully Lee makes it so we don't have to even go to the BP.

[Old Phan]

I'd wouldn't be surprised if TBS told Lee to slow down

[Pops]

A JRoll single up the middle would be a nice way to get this party started....

[NEPP]

Is it wrong that I'm still pissed at Utley? He better come out strong in the rest of the series.

[NEPP]

Vic came to play!

[G-Town Dave]

J-Roll is making a run at Pete's claim to Most Useless Phillie of the postseason.

[Noah]

J-Roll took a pretty good whack at the ball and hit it right at a fielder. I have no issues with his swing, on the fourth pitch of his at bat.

[NEPP]

For the NLCS:
Jimmy's batting .100 so far.
Chase's batting .125 so far.

Which is more ?

[G-Town Dave]

Ugly hits are always more valuable than solid outs.

Wow! Close one, Vic!

[NEPP]

Wow...thought he was out there. Good slide.

[Old Phan]

Vic!

[Noah]

Obviously you'd rather have a hit but it's not like he grounded into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded and no one out.

[NEPP]

Good work Utley!

[G-Town Dave]

Noah: Give it time.

Solid hit! The best of both worlds!

[Pops]

Good hold there. No need to get too aggressive in the first and run ourselves out of an inning.

[Old Phan]

Could it be hittin season?

[NEPP]

No way in hell Vic would have been safe at the plate...good call to hold him.

[NEPP]

3 run blast would be nice here.

[bananagrabbers]

I can recall a few times I've thought Perlozzo was way too cautious, but it's moments like that where I remember what an upgrade he is over Steve Smith.

C'mon, Ryan.

[Old Phan]

If RBIs mattered,I'd be happy that Ryno is up.

[NEPP]

RBI and HR are no way to measure a slugger's importance.

[RSB]

So how about Ryan Howard?

[G-Town Dave]

BIG MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

[NEPP]

BIg man carrying the team this post-season.

[bananagrabbers]

WOW! What a moment. The stuff you want to see on a year-end DVD.

[gjs]

How about that? Nice start.

[Pops]

Good start. Just what the doctor ordered!

[strange]

Wow. A triple from the big man. The outfield must really have misplayed that.

[NEPP]

Ryno is damn fast for a big guy.

[dwr]

Not content with duplicating his RBI double to the right field corner again, Ryan Howard makes it a triple!

[bananagrabbers]

Ethier ran for that ball like he thought Howard just automatically stops at 2nd every time.

[DTrain]

I think Ryan Howard might be a pretty good hitter. Maybe.

[Old Phan]

Amazing. That's our non elite B type 1st baseman!

[NEPP]

I guess Ethier doesn't read scouting reports then...damn shame that.

OUTTA HERE HOMERUN!!!

[G-Town Dave]

WEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

[RSB]

Safe to say the Kuroda curse has been lifted.

[tg082]

YEEEEEEEEEAH!

[jo]

boom

[DTrain]

Also, Jayson Werth is pretty good.

[cjp]

Well, this looks a helluva lot better than game 2 ...

[strange]

Kuroda's postseason ERA for this year now 108.00

[NEPP]

That's 1 DITHL look for Kuroda now.

[birds]

werth got around the bases in a hurry.

not a bad start.

[NEPP]

He's cut!, He's cut!, The Russian is cut!!!

[Pops]

Crush me.........

[bay_area_phan]

See, now I feel like I actually accomplished something by whining about the Phillies' problems in the first few innings.

[bananagrabbers]

It's like these guys are pretty upset they lost Game 2. Keep it up.

[Old Phan]

Damn! The lumber company is out tonight!

[NEPP]

I would be surprised if Kuroda is back out for the 2nd inning.

[G-Town Dave]

Seems relevant right about now:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20091018_Gonzo___No_respect_for_Ryan_Howard_.html>Gonzo: No Respect For Ryan Howard?

[Old Phan]

Anyone who didnt think the Phils would come back tonight has never seen them play.

[strange]

For that matter, Howard's postseason average for this year now .571.

Big man came to play.

[DTrain]

It'll be interesting to see if Cliff Lee is the kind of pitcher who will now bear down and put this one in the books, or it the type who will lose focus and get shelled (Hi Cole Hamels!).

[bay_area_phan]

I guess this would probably be an inappropriate time to complain about Pedro Feliz's continued ineptitude at the plate.

[Noah]

@NEPP:

Feliz sees 2 pitches, grounds out weakly to 3B, in case you're keeping track.

[Albert]

BAP: Pedro Feliz is a joke the plate. I only hope he has a big hit in him somewhere.

[NEPP]

Which was 1 more pitch than I thought Feliz would see.

[tg082]

BAP: I hope that, at the maximum, we need to worry about Feliz for only 11 more games.

[joe l]

Bust 'em inside, Cliff.

[G-Town Dave]

b_a_p: He senses Jimmy breathing down his neck; wants to keep that lead.

[NEPP]

I can't imagine they pick up Feliz's option at this point but there aren't alot of alternatives.

[Old Phan]

Yes, because of Feliz, the world will end. I lose sleep over it.

[Burt Lavallo, friend to all]

it seems churlish to complain, but it's crazy that UC is *still* batting feliz 7th and ruiz 8th. it makes no sense to me. chooch deserves to get promoted and feliz demoted in the lineup.

[NEPP]

Yeah, Manny CRUSHED that one...okay.

[Kool Earl]

NEPP - Ever hear of Chone Figgins?

[NEPP]

Will/can they afford him though?

Figgins would be great but he's the top 3B available and he will be costly (in years and $$)

Good catch Chase.

[G-Town Dave]

Earl: You mean career .175 hitter in the postseason (over 10 series) Chone Figgins?

[Greg]

You guys are talking about the off season during game 3 of the NLCS.

[NEPP]

Too nervous to talk about the game.

[NEPP]

Beautiful DP.

[G-Town Dave]

Nice DP! :-)

[DTrain]

Well, Cliff Lee seems to like the idea of winning this game.

[gjs]

Love a shut down inning after we put runs on the board.

[G-Town Dave]

DTrain: I dunno ... Cliff's already at 29 pitches. Charlie might wanna consider pulling him. I mean, w/ this bullpen what could possibly go wrong?

[NEPP]

Unless we're up by 10 runs, I don't see UC pulling Lee short of 150 pitches.

[king myno]

Howard hits the two-run triple, Howard starts the DP. Give that man his $150 million dollars.

[bananagrabbers]

Brett Myers spotted at Bull's BBQ.

[NEPP]

You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.

[G-Town Dave]

Cool weather makes Chooch frisky! :-D

[DTrain]

G-Town Dave: You might be right. I think Lidge would really build confidence with a 7 inning save.