Figures.
It really shouldn’t be a surprise that this thing is going down to the final day. But oh brother, what a bad way to go into that final day. All told, given that we had Eaton starting, things weren’t that bad. However we got let down on some other fronts. The offense is the obvious culprit with how little they generated, but the defense gets some brickbats as well. In particular, while I think Carlos Ruiz has done a very solid job this year, he made two crucial mental mistakes today which cost the team dearly.
The first was in the fourth he threw to second instead of third on the sacrifice bunt. He would have had the runner easily at
third, and with runners on first and second, the fly to left wouldn’t have scored anyone. Then in the seventh he got an error for the overthrown at second, but that ball should never have been thrown, not with a key insurance run for the Nationals sitting at third. Take those away and it’s a whole different story.
So once again the Phils are playing meaningful games on the last day. Two years ago I dug up that 2005 was only the third time it had happened, so this makes it the fourth. (1950 and 1964 were the first two.) In all of those cases they were either a game up or a game behind going into that last day. This is the first time they’ll ever have been tied for first going into that final day.
I can’t say as how I particularly like the pitching matchups either. We have to hope that Dontrelle Willis finds something somewhere, because he’s been pretty lousy all year long. Likewise we have to hope that the good Jamie Moyer shows up because the bad one has been showing up an awful lot recently and the results haven’t been pretty. Could be a very stressful afternoon tomorrow.