That Shit was for the Birds.

Happy Tuesday Bunters!

SOUND THE ALARMS! THE CARDINALS GOT A WIN!

Ok, so it wasn’t just any ol’ WIN for the St. Louis Cardinals, it was a win in Sunday’s game 2 of the NLDS… against our beloved Ace Clifton Phifer Lee. It was a win despite the Fightins having a four-run lead early on. It was a win in a best of 5series, a win in Citizens Bank Park, a win that sealed the deal for a sucktastic day in Philadelphia sports history (unless you’re Kornhole, who rather enjoyed the Eagles losing to the 49ers early Sunday afternoon).


It happens, right? A loss in the playoffs isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility here and there, no matter how beastly your pitching staff may be. However - I don’t think anyone ever expected it to happen with ‘The Clifton’ pitching against a short-rested Chris Carpenter and Cards relievers. I also don’t think we may have expected it happening at CBP this early in the postseason, and I definitely wasn’t expecting Jimmy Rollins (or so say the media) to call out disappointed fans-in-attendance for ‘not being loud enough’.

Whatever the hell happened Sunday night, let’s fucking hope it doesn’t happen again tonight (pardon my French). Blame who you want until you’re blue in this face (this goes for both players and fans). Hell, I even got into the blame game personally after touting Lee on my FB page for “dealing”… only to have him fall apart 38 minutes later in the 6th inning (just as I jumped into a quick shower). Go ahead, Blame ME if it makes anyone feel ANY better. When it comes to sports I can be pretty superstitious like most fans; I also have an awful reputation as a Phillies ‘Mush’ so maybe I did have something to do with the epic failure that begun in the 6th inning. Regardless, ‘The Clifton’ did not piss excellence Sunday evening and the bats went silent precisely at the worst time possible. This can again invoke the season long debate of whether the Phillies can win a World Series with their usually stellar pitching squad and an on-again/off-again offense. I think the answer was given on Sunday loud and clear: No.

The pressure on the pitchers right now is extreme and definitely warranted BUT the bats need to stay awake if we intend to continue this journey through October. You may not have realized this but Lee lost his third straight postseason decision Sunday night. No man/pitching stud is immune to a bad outing once in a while. Yet when that poor outing happens in the postseason, that pitchers’ team needs to get their shit together quickly because every single out counts… hopefully in enough time where it doesn’t lead to an all too early final out of the season.


With momentum naturally moving into the Cardinals favor tonight, the Phillies need to get an offensive burst going early as a showdown between lefties Cole Hamels (14-9; 2.79) and Jaime Garcia (13-7; 3.56) squares off in St. Louis at 5:00.


As the MLB postseason commercials say, “Legends are born in October”. Without *CONSISTENT* offensive support by the Phillies for their pitching staff, the road through October (when the legends are supposed to be born) could come to an abrupt stop.

It’s NOT time to sound the alarms, there’s really not one person to put the blame on. But playoff baseball is contingent on the efforts of an entire team. It’s simply time for the bats to wake the hell up – and stay that way.

I EXPECT to be back with you next week getting my NLCS on.
-xo,
DiamondGirl215