The Suprising Part is That it Wasn’t Qualls: Orioles Walk Off 6-4

We are not used to this.  The Phillies are playing like the last place team in the division…..probably because they are in last place.  There were times in the past when the bats seemed to go cold simultaneously.  That is certainly frustrating, but it always seemed that the team could catch the ball.  Right now, there is a guy in the minor leagues who shows more patience at the plate than any of the healthy players on this roster.  He is a power bat, which may be able to help a team with no power.  The entire reason that he is not in the major league is the commonly held notion that his defense is substandard.  After a game like today it is hard to understand why he would be any different from the rest of the team.  They are just bad at baseball right now.

A recap would do no justice to the shit pile that today’s game became.  The first run of the game for the Orioles scored on a play that Mike Fontenot should have made.  He made another two errors along with an error for the usually sure handed Jimmy Rollins.  Granted, a bunch of guys hit home runs today and Vance Worley threw pretty well in his second start after being activated from the DL, but the fact remains that is this incarnation of the team can’t catch the ball, they are in big trouble which was evidenced by an extra innings game that should have been over after nine but for some shoddy defense.  It is really hard to watch.

The moment that everything went wrong today was when Vance Worley was getting the Orioles to ground the ball to infielders who were repeatedly kicking the ball into the outfield.  Mike Fontenot made us all miss Freddy Galvis and his broken back by botching three plays that were certainly not impossible.

The most attractive play of the game was Jim Thome’s opposite field home run to tie the game at three in the top of the fifth inning.  For the second game in a row Thome has looked really comfortable batting clean up and serving as the DH.  This is also the second game in a row that I am left questioning as to why the guy didn’t stick around in the American League.

The hero of the game for the Phillies was Jim Thome.  He tied the game up twice today.  Once with a homer and once with an RBI single.  He ended the day 2-4 with a homer and two RBI.

The villain of the game is Adam Jones.  He hit a walk off two run home run in the twelfth inning.  There really isn’t too much else to add to that.

Tomorrow Cliff Lee looks for his first win of the year against former Rocky Jason Hammel.