I wasn’t planning on writing about this game, but baseball is a funny thing; if you pay attention there are always so many interesting things happening, and it turned out to be a fine game with lots to discuss. I got to see Homer Bailey’s return, Jay Bruce hit and Ken Griffey just miss homers 600 and 601 by a total of ten feet or so.

There were so many interesting plays and things to see in this game that I was compelled to write about it. I attended the game with fellow General Andrew Cleary. At one point there were runners on first and second, and a fly ball was hit to center. The runners went half way, and then returned to their bases when the ball was caught. I expressed my disapproval, saying “these guys should tag up; this is the majors, guys don’t drop fly balls.” Of course you know what happened next. A liner was hit to Griffey, who apparently lost it in the clouds and dropped it, allowing a run to score.

Even worse, on another play Carlos Ruiz was on first and Cole Hamels was hitting. Hamels squared to bunt and looked like he was hitting with a twig. Andrew and I then were discussing the DH, expressing our disapproval of pitchers hitting, as the “strategy involved is a mirage; everyone knows that Hamels will bunt.” Strike two against the experts, as the Phillies did a hit and run on the next pitch (!) with the catcher on first and the pitcher at the plate. 

Some other notes:

1. Dusty had Jerry Hairston hitting first.  Someday perhaps he will look at the OBP column in the stats.

2. Hamels and Bailey presented an interesting contrast. Neither looked like they were throwing hard; and the stadium radar had both of them no better than 92 mph. Bailey was consistently in the high 80s with his fastball, which was unimpressive. Hamels’ breaking stuff was noticeably better even from the stands. Bailey had little command the second time through the lineup. It was as if the Phils lineup went through the first time to see him before striking. Yet, but for the errors his line might looked fine as he let up two unearned runs.

3. Hamels’ had good command of his pitches, retiring 12 in a row at one point. He pitched a three-hitter which should have been a two-hitter, but for a very generous call by the official scorer. Complete games are apparently so scare that according to my scorebook (which has every game I have been to since 2000) the last CG I saw live was by Freddy Garcia in 2003.

4. By far the biggest disappointment of the year for me was Griffey JUST missing two homeruns; either of which would have been 600. He hit a ball the other way that hit the wall about three feet from the top. Later, in his last at-bat, he hit one to dead center that was caught at the wall. The fans gave him an ovation and he graciously tipped his cap. The camera was on Victorino after he caught it and he had such a wry smile like he was disappointed it wasn’t a home run.

5. Paul Janish had a very interesting third inning.  WIth two outs he completely muffed a pop up, dropping it for no reason. The fans razzed him of course. The very next play a ball was popped up between LF and 3B, and Janish came running out from short and made a full-out diving catch. Talk about redemption.

6. It is worth mentioning again just how unimpressive Bailey was; he was a disappointment.

7. It was both a sloppy game and a great game defensively. Griffey and Janish muffed easy catches, and Bailey threw a ball away that should have been an error. There should have been five errors in the game. On the other hand there were a slew of great catches; Ryan Howard (!), Eric Bruntlett and Janish all made diving catches, Brandon Phillips snared a hot liner with the bullfighter swipe and Edwin Encarnacion nabbed a hot smash down the line.

8. Jay Bruce hit the ball hard almost everytime up; he is just locked in. Two of the great plays mentioned above were on balls he hit, and another was a liner to right that was snagged. Good luck/Bad luck; they all can’t fall in for hits.

With two outs in the ninth, Dusty brought up Corey Patterson. Surprisingly, he swung at the first pitch and popped it up, ending the game.