Hitters Gonna Hit

The Phillies had a season-high 18 hits to score a season-high 14 runs against Chris Volstad and the Marlins last night. This is only the second time this season the Phillies have scored more than 10 runs in a game. The other time was an 11-0 win against the Mets on April 7th. What made last night's win so beautiful were all those old time Phillies coming through with the bats. J-Roll had four hits and three runs scored. Ryan Howard had four hits including a two run homer in the third. He finished with four RBIs and three runs scored. Seems like old times—am I right? Now is where I finally insert the song "Phillies Fever" by all the Phillies greats from the '70s in high hopes that it will help the Phillies bats stay alive (ah, ha, ha, ha):

Even Michael Martinez came through late in the game with a 3-RBI base-clearing triple. After the game Uncle Cholly said, "We jumped our team batting average some, didn't we? Did we get over .250?" After some basic research, I found that we sure as hell did: the Phillies batted .409 last night. Boom!

Everybody Hits! Woo Hoo!

Take a look at us now.

Baseball's back! For those who didn't catch the end of yesterday's game in a dingy pizza place across the street from work, the Phillies rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Houston Astros in a great show of Opening Day April foolery. This is how it all went down:

Jimmy Rollins singled. Ryan Howard singled. Raul Ibanez popped out. Jimmy stole third. Ben Francisco singled. Chooch singled while Phil Collins' "Sussudio" played on the pizza place's radio. I began to dance in my seat with a slice of pizza (What is it about the Chooch/Phil Collins combo that's so darn magical?) Wilson Valdez doubled. Then John Mayberry Jr. slapped a hit to center with the bases loaded to complete the Phils' walk-off rally. Mayberry was pied and the entire city celebrated by slinging back beers in neighborhood bars.

Someone who probably didn't celebrate and ate his feelings in pizza while listening to a lot of Phil Collins was "relief pitcher" for the Astros Brandon Lyon who currently has a 81.00 ERA as a result of that beautiful ninth inning for the Phillies (1/3 IP, 6H, 3R). What a game!