Game chat: Ruf and ready Phillies host Nationals

Eastern League MVP and Reading home run king Darin Ruf gets his first start and plays left field when Cole Hamels and the Phillies open a three-game set with left-hander Ross Detweiler and the playoff bound Nationals. First pitch is 7:05. The "positionless" 26-year-old September call-up belted 38 homers for Double-A Reading this season, eclipsing Ryan Howard's record mark from 2004. He's waited patiently for a start while Charlie Manuel opted for experience, but with the Phils' playoff hopes all but gone, he gets the nod with a 5.5-game hole with nine to play. [Jump to the newest comments]

Comments

[Edmundo]

While I still think (although slowly sliding from think to hope) Brown has a future as a corner OF, I found EFFs comment hilarious.

[NEPP]

Watch out but Hamels and Lee are having nearly identical seasons statistically. Its eery how similar their numbers are outside of W/L.

[lorecore]

Hamels getting the W in one of his poorest outings of the season probably means that either KK or Cloyd are about to get screwed.

[Bonehead]

When watching Phillies games on TV, some days I am able to effectively ignore the commentary of TMac et al. Other days, practically every word uttered annoys me.
I hate that.

By the way, were they going to stop the game and present Cole with the pitching rubber if he reached 1300 career K's? Did you hear TMac's annoying countdown?

[Bonehead]

Rube should parlay Dom into Todd Frazier.

[ColonelTom]

To get Frazier for Brown, RAJ will have to slip Jocketty a Ruf-ie.

[dur]

Rube should parlay Dom into Mark Trumbo.