3 Walk Offs!!

As of lately the Phillies haven't been much to talk about in the National League East as the last time they won a series it was against the Blue Jay in the middle of June and have dropped down to third place in the division behind the New York Mets and first place Atlanta Braves. Here in July right before the All-Star break in back to back to back nights the Phillies have won all 3 games against the first place Reds in walk off fashion.

We start on July 8th, 2010 game one against the Reds and we take you to the bottom of the 12th inning with the game tied 3-3 and catcher Brain Schneider hits a walk off home run to win the game 4-3 for the Phillies and was the hero in the first game of a four game series.

Now over to July 9th, 2010 and this game is probably one of greatest come backs in Phillies history and they do have a lot might I add but this one was a fun one to watch in the end. The score in the bottom of the 9th inning was 7-1 and your thinking as a fan this game is over considering the way this team has been playing not so great. Victorino starts things off with a double and Werth get on, Howard would then hit a single and score Victorino from second now a 7-2 Reds lead. Greg Dobbs the next batter would then hit a 3 run home run to now cut the lead 7-5 Reds. Two batters later Cody Ransom who was brought up from Triple A would hit a 2 run home run to tie the ball game a 7-7! WOW!! Just when you thought they were out they pulled themselves right back in down 6 runs in the 9th inning. But the firework don't go off in till the bottom of the 10th inning where Ibanez would hit a leadoff double to start the inning, then the big guy Ryan Howard would hit a 2 run walk off home run to win the ball game 9-7 for the Fighin' Phils and he would be the walk off hero in this game that looked like another ugly lost for the Phils, instead they make it a ugly lost for the Reds.


Now to game 3 of this 4 game series on July 10th, 2010 was indeed another good one as it was a pitching duel between Reds left hander Travis Wood and Phillies ace right hander Roy Halladay. Both pitchers matched each other pitch for pitch in this game and at one point one pitcher was perfect through 8 innings of work and you probably think it would be Roy Halladay but it was indeed Reds rookie pitcher Travis Wood who shut down the Phils bats going 9 innings giving up 1 hit, no runs, no walks, and having 8 strikeouts. Roy Halladay on the other hand who this year has already thrown a perfect game matched Wood shutting down the Reds bats going 9 innings giving up 5 hits, no runs, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts. Both pitchers worked well in this ball game but there was only one winner in the end. The fireworks would start in the bottom of the 11th inning with Ruiz on second and Valdez on first and coming to the plate with 1 out would be Jimmy Rollins who would hit an RBI single and win the ball game 1-0 in WALK OFF STYLE and he would be the walk off hero for the third straight night!!

So the Phillies would win game 3 of this 4 game series and will look for their first 4 game sweep over the Reds tomorrow as the Phillies will give the ball to left hander Cole Hamels who has an ERA of 4.05 with 6 wins, 7 losses. Going against him will be the Reds left hander Matt Maloney who has an ERA of 4.76 with no wins and 1 lose on the year. Phillies - Reds tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 p.m.


I'm Seth Lempert for Beyond Baseball,
Goodnight everyone.