Sunday May 15th Philadelphia Phillies vs Atlanta Braves

Hello and welcome to my first ever running diary for the Hitter's Count blog. I will be posting every few minutes with thoughts and commentary on everything happening in the game. There will probably also be some stuff that does not relate to baseball at all. Feel free to leave me comments/questions in the comments section about anything you are thinking.

What a sports nut huh?

12:41 PM EST: I'm watching The Firm prior to the game. I thought some scenes in Tom Cruise movies were ridiculous. This scene takes the cake.

1:23 PM EST: Morgan Freeman among others at the game for civil rights weekend. Shawshank your favorite Freeman movie? I'm partial to Wanted. That was brilliant filmmaking.

1:34 PM EST: Interesting defense behind Doc today. Shane Victorino is out of the lineup after being pulled yesterday late in the game for what I believe was a hamstring injury. Not good, obviously. Victorino was riding a 15 game hitting streak that was snapped after he missed his final at bat. In his place will be Michael Martinez, batting second and playing centerfield? Interesting choice by Charlie. He generally makes the right decision in these situations so I have faith. The rest of the lineup is listed below.

Rollins SS
Martinez CF
Polanco 3B
Howard 1B
Ibanez LF
Mayberry RF
Orr 2B
Ruiz C
Doc P

Ben Francisco hasn't exactly been tearing it up so it is nice to see Mayberry in right. It is also nice to see Chooch in the lineup making his second start in the last three games.

The Braves lineup:

Prado LF
McLouth CF
Jones 3B
McCann C
Uggla 2B
Hinske RF
Gonzalez SS
Freeman 1B
Hudson P

It should be one hell of a pitching matchup with both staff aces going in Tim Hudson, and of course Roy Halladay. I expect the Phils to get off to a slow start, as is tradition. Although, Ryan Howard does have decent history against Hudson. He hit three in one game off of him in his 2006 MVP season.

The Phillies and Braves are wearing excellent throwback uniforms from the 1974 season commemorating Hank Aaron's record breaking home run season. Think powder blue for the Phils.

Wheels and T-Mac are wearing one of the ugliest neon green shirts I have ever seen.

1:42 PM EST: The game is getting started a little late due to the civil rights ceremony. Although the Phils uniforms are brilliant in their powder blue, but the edge may have to go to the Braves with their old school unis. All white with blue sleeves and the lower case cursive a hat.

1:48 PM EST: Rollins does a great job of working the count and pops up on the first pitch. Not frustrating at all. I have never seen him do that before.

1:54 PM EST: Phils go 1-2-3 in the first. Prado stays hot and of course beats out an infield single. At least they scored it that way. Rollins had a tough play up the middle but could not throw him out after doing his patent spin movie.

2:00 PM EST: Doc gets through the first rather easily. After Prado's infield single the rest went in order.

2:15 PM EST: As you can imagine, no score through two. Both pitchers have faced one batter over the minimum. Halladay has two strike outs through two. He was tied for the league lead entering the day with 59.

2:20 PM EST: After much deliberation. We settled on a serious platter from Fingers Wings and Other Things. Plenty of people in attendance in the Consh for today's game. 50 wings and 20 fingers coming this way. Although for some reason they do not deliver so a dispatcher will be sent out.

2:22 PM EST: Halladay fails to get a bunt down and strikes out after Chooch singled to center. Of course Martinez singles 2 batters later and it is now first and third for Polanco with 2 outs rather than 1-0 Phils. It's the little things. Roy needs to get that bunt down.

2:27 PM EST: Bud Selig, commissioner of baseball, and overall pushover who kept his job as the steroids scandal unfolded over his watch, is in the booth with Wheels and TMac. Even he thinks Wheels is a know-it-all.

2:33 PM EST: Still scoreless through three. Phils offense limp. Doc allowed two baserunners in 3rd but ended the inning by getting professional Phillie-Killer Brian McCann to fly out to Michael Martinez in deep center. Martinez looked good coasting under the ball and was there in plenty of time.

2:36 PM EST: Howard grounds to Uggla deep in the shift for the second straight time. CSN just showed a graphic displaying how much further ahead of the pace for home runs he was compared to Bonds and Aaron. As far ahead he is in home runs, he had 3 x as many strikeouts as Aaron and 2x as many as Bonds. You win some you lose some with Howard. I'll take the production.

2:40 PM EST: If you have an extra $100 lying around and are a big Muhammad Ali fan, fathead is doing the damn thing.

2:45 PM EST: The food has arrived. Signing off for a bit. Enjoy the game. 2 outs Mayberry up in the top of the 4th at current time. Still no score.

3:17 PM EST: And I'm back. Food was marvelous. The Braves took the lead in the 4th on a series of broken bat flares and a ball that glanced off Halladay's glove that may have been a double play ball. Polanco has led off the 6th with a walk currently. 1-0 Braves.

3:21 PM EST: Howard pops up a massive fly ball on a 3-0 green light. Just missed it or this game would be 2-1 Phils. Ibanez now at the plate and Polanco still at first.

3:27 PM EST: The Phillies are on the board! John Mayberry hit a line smash home run into the seats in left field. Polanco scored ahead of him to make it 2-1 Phils. Mayberry has been making the most of his start this afternoon. He has 2 walks as well as a stolen base to go along with his go ahead 2 run shot. There were 2 outs when he sent the blast out of the park.

3:35 PM EST: Morgan Freeman in the booth. Best voice in there since Harry left us. Wearing all Braves gear, I'll grant him a pass.

3:39 PM EST: A walk and more bloop hits followed by a sacrifice fly by Freddie Freeman tie the game at 2. Roy cannot be happy. In other sports news game 7 of the Western Conference Finals just began. Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma Thunder are at home taking on the memphis Grizzlies.

3:50 PM EST: Best saxophone version of America The Beautiful I have heard in a while...

3:58 PM EST: Doc gets through the 7th stranding who else? Prado, on second. Howard caught a ground ball and could have thrown to second to try and get Prado but he hesitated, thought better of it, and took the out at first. His track record on throws to second is not the best. Doc then got McCann on one pitch.

4:08 PM EST: Doc comes out to start the 8th despite having over 100 pitches. He gives up a grooved 3-2 fastball home run to Dan Uggla. The leadoff home run puts the Braves ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th.

4:26 PM EST: Well. For the second time in a row Roy Halladay has pitched a complete game and lost. Ben Francisco led off the ninth with a walk but nothing could be done. The Phils were in this game the whole time and Roy Halladay will tell you he blew a lead, and then blew a game that was tied in the 8th. In reality, the Phillies need to score more runs for him. He cannot be taking losses and pitching complete games. That's bass ackwards. Give him three runs we win 75% of time. You give him four runs and we win 90% of the time. All figures guesstimated.

4:30 PM EST: The Phils drop two out of three to the Braves for the second week in a row. The Phils remain in first place. Thank you to everyone who read and who posted. I had a lot of fun with this. I hope you enjoyed it. Here is one of my favorite movie clips from youtube to brighten your mood after the tough loss.