The Annexation Of Philadelphia

The Phillies had every chance to put a big hurting on Jacob deGrom in the first inning on Monday night. They had a 2-0 lead and threatened for more with one out. With the Phillies having scored 12 runs in the first inning off Jeremy Guthrie on Saturday, this had a chance to get very ugly very fast. But deGrom got Brock Stassi to ground into a double play to end the inning and shut them down from there.

We got a reminder that the Phillies were still the Phillies in the seventh. Jerry Blevins came in for Josh Smoker in the 7th … weird in and of itself. And with runners on first and second with two outs and the score tied 2-2, Travis d’Arnaud tried to set the game on fire with a very wide pick off throw to second base after a pitch that almost got away. But then Howie Kendrick saw d’Arnaud’s wide throw and raised him a terrible baserunning play as he was picked off first on the same play. Just as they drew it up.

https://twitter.com/EliteSportsNY/status/851607734743179265

We call this play, "The Annexation of Puerto Rico" https://t.co/qeA6TC8hRl

— Jerry Blevins (@jerryblevins) April 11, 2017

Hey, remember this play from last season?

Well Edubray Ramos does, because he was the one on the mound.

So guess what happened tonight:

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Yup. Edubray Ramos decided that a good time to send a message about a bat flip and throw at Cabrera’s head was in the eighth inning of a 2-2 game. Smart. Philadelphia Typical, right? Dispensing justice for having fun. (Though I actually think Ramos was on his own on that one.) Then he walked Cabrera and that turned out to be the winning run as this happened after Ramos left the game:

[mlbvideo id=”1270744183″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]

Yup, Jay Bruce’s second home run of the game was the difference maker. Bruce, who I thought would have a great April, is hitting .304. Best part of the whole thing was that Larry Bowa was the acting manager for that as Pete MacKanin was ejected after the beaning attempt. He got to see Bruce stare at a long home run which would eventually beat the Phillies and one would wonder if he’s going to promise to put one in Bruce’s ribs as he did to Daniel Murphy. It’s honestly all so delicious. And this was only Game 1 against the Phillies this season.

Today’s Hate List

1. Edubray Ramos
2. Larry Bowa
3. Brock Stassi
4. The Cardinals Bullpen
5. Bryce Harper’s Belt