It was a great Game 3, and I have plenty of thoughts. Hit them up after the jump.
At 45 years old, Jaime Moyer pitched a hell of a game for his hometown Phillies in Game 3 last night. His best moment came in the seventh inning, when he made a spectacular diving catch/scoop to get Carl Crawford out at first base. In the play, Moyer scooped the ball with his glove and then dove towards first. While in the air, he flipped the ball out of his glove and into the bare hand of Ryan Howard just barely before Crawford made it to first. Awesome play. Watch it here.
Problem is, first-base umpire Tom Hallion was not in position to make the correct call. So he dropped a Palin on the Phils and called Crawford safe. Crawford would go on to score later in the inning.
This is the third call to go against the Phils, with the first two being terrible moves by Game 2 home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley, who missed Jimmy Rollins getting hit by a pitch in the 9th. And then there was the baffling checked swing call. The checked swing, mind you, was so close that if you watch it in slow motion you can see the bat come just about as close as possible to breaking the “plane” and being a swing as you can get without it being a swing. The more I watch that play, the more on the fence about it I become. I still think the correct call was made in the end, but I am not as confident about it as before, and I am giving the umpires the benefit of them not being able to watch it in frame by frame slowmotion on their computer monitors like me.
Let us all hope that Game 4 gets a better showing from Blue. I will say that Hallion admitted he blew the call, and from his angle (and he was trying to get into the best possible position for the call) there was no way that he could have seen Crawford getting beat by the throw. Fox did not miss the call, as they were super annoying about it the rest of the game with their freeze frame shots of the play that they must have revisited three or four times over the last three innings.
Also, I have to give Shane Victorino credit for defending Hallion to his teammates. Fox showed a quick clip of Rollins, Victorino and another Phil (I think it was Utley but I am not sure) talking during a pitching change, in which Victorino stood up for Hallion. As someone who is not a big fan of Victorino, I have to give him credit where it is due. If I could find the transcript for the exchange I would post it.
Moving on, it is time to focus a little bit on BJ Upton. How huge were his three stolen bases last night? When Upton plays hard, he is one of the best players in baseball. The problem is, he loafs sometimes. Look at Game 1, where he hit into two double plays. Had Upton ran hard out of the box, he could have beaten one, if not both of those throws to first. We saw him also make a rather lackadasical play in center in Game 1, but luckily Rocco Baldeli was there to back him up. When BJ turns it on, look out. Maybe his Game 3 performance is a sign that he is waking back up from his slumber.
Evan Longoria is disapointing me. If you have been following this blog, you are well aware that I have been touting Longoria all year. It is time for you to show up at the World Series, Evan. By the way, calling him Eva isn’t clever or funny. Philly Fan can do better than that. I fully expect to see them raining Eva bobble heads on him in the on-deck circle in tonight’s game.
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Keep your idiot politics to yourself you dumbass!!!!
I’m not sure what you are talking about, Ray, but I like your style. Are you referring to the Palin reference? Allow me to explain.
I figure that when McCain chose Palin as his running mate, he took a huge, steaming shit on his campaign. You might not see it that way, but me and my fellow Independents (along with some Repubs that I am close with) felt that way. So from here on out, whenever someone gets shat on, you can count on me saying they got Palined, or had a Palin dropped on them. Enjoy!
Maybe,to some degree..but he could have run with Joan of Arc and still lost. Guess I’m just a little sensitive about having all my “wealth” redistributed. On the bright side, I hear Barry’s bringing back “guvmnt cheese”!
I liked McCain in 2000, but now I felt he was getting a little old, which made his Veep choice important to me. Palin was not the direction I wanted to see him go in. I’m hoping that you can appreciate the humor in “dropping a Palin”.
The redistribution of wealth is a little misleading. People are acting as if he is going to take from the rich and give to the poor. He isn’t. He is just going to tax the wealthy more than he is going to tax the middle and lower classes. I’m fine with that, and so is McCain. As a matter of fact, in 2000 (I think, my date could be wrong) McCain had an extremely similar tax plan. When it is the other color proposing the plan, however, it is socialism all of a sudden.
I don’t want to talk politics on Thee Blog, but I’m more than happy to discuss it this once, as long as it’s civil.
You are right. This isn’t the place to discuss politics. By the way, am I being paranoid or does the word (change) in blue no less, appear beside everybody’s name?
I am not sure what you are talking about, Ray. Take a deep breath and count to ten, then repeat after me:
“It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay…”
Come on…lighten up. If you look under LEAVE A REPLY it says “Welcome back “name here” (Change). Wow, every time a Conservative trys to joke around everybody thinks he’s going to pull a Colombine!
I don’t see that, Ray. Must be different for those not logged in as admins.
Me lighten up? No problemo, sir. You can joke around here as much as you like. I was merely joking back, but I refrained from doing a complete Stewart Smalley on you.