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Open Thread: Phillies @ Rockies, Game 4

OK, Phils and Rockies, you are our last hope for an exciting series. Since 2004, there have been 12 first-round sweeps in 24 series' (counting the one that is still going on), and only 2 have gone the distance. Ugly.

Today's game features a rematch of Game 1 pitchers (Cliff Lee for the champs, Ubaldo Jiménez  for Colorado).

The Phillies advance with a win, the Rockies try to extend their season.

0 recs  |  447 comments

Comments

I'm not speaking with you til you acknowledge the song.
What song?

I generally hate music.

...

ahem

How in the

blue fuck did I miss that?

I don’t even know what to say. Well, not without making a whole bunch of bloggers feel very uncomfortable.

Just know my rawr volume is all the way up. Wait, that’s not my rawr volume.

Thank God there's a game today

I might have to do something till six!

Wait game 4?

I thought these playoff series were only allowed to go 3 games.

That's just 'cos the Angels, Yankees and Dodgers are killjoys.
super, forgot about it and I got the day off.
that was quite a shot, that one

I’d be swinging at that pitch about now, i feel

oh damn, George Lopez. gad
surely the "what a play" part of that was that he broke up the double play?

or am I just being stupid.

probably that.

I'm too stupid to know if you're being stupid
You know,

I’ve been thinking lately that George Lopez is very funny. I’m not sure why.

Are you using cough syrup again Bloom?
"again"?
Actually George Lopez has made me laugh a few times

with some of his antics at the AT&T Pebble Beach tournament. He’s actually not a bad golfer for a celeb.

....has he ever hurt himself in public?
"Jim Tracey is close to arguing for the cycle"

now that’s good announcing

I don't think I'll ever not miss Carlos Gonzalez
Rich Dubbe..... all right, if I could, I would burn one.
9-for-14?

That Carlos guy is pretty decent.

Guillen?

Yeah, but his team didn’t make the playoffs.

CCCCCCAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I'm not entirely positive, but I think some low down

mother fucker has absconded from my domicile with my wedding ring.

Strip-search your monkeys tomorrow morning

Or whenever they drag themselves into the shop.

That's when I reach for my revolver

(non Moby version)

hey guys

here for at least a bit, but then my eyes might shrivel up and turn into chewing tobacco after watching so much baseball

Wireless Keyboard

Man, this thing is smooth.

do you have it connected to a HTPC?

or HTMac Mini?

Time for CarGon to prove one of two things

He is a superstar.
or
He learned too much while playing in Oakland.

Or that he's rubbish and Holliday is the devil.
Jayson Werth

I heard he hit a home run or something.

How's Russell working out for ya?
Russell

He earned my friend -1.50 points in fantasy football.

Can't believe anyone defended him - he's so bad.
Russell

He had a passer rating of over 91 in his last eight games last season, finishing the season with a 3-3 record with all six games being against teams that were at least .500. He looked fine in the preseason. If someone said they saw this coming, they’re lying because they had no evidence that this was going to happen.

I saw it coming.

We had a discussion about it if you recall. I’m a good judge of talent (for some unknown reason considering I’ve played less than 8 games of American Football) and can generally tell a good player when I see one. Russell isn’t a good player.

Russell

You saw it coming based on what? His good games down the stretch of last season is what led you to believe this? Was it his poor play in the preseason? Oh, that’s right. He didn’t play poorly then, either.

Search it, I'm positive I said he was rubbish way back when.

It’s his general play – the good play down the stretch last season was him managing a hugely scaled back offence. Couple that with rumours about a lack of work ethic and what I’ve seen with my own eyes and you come to the conclusion that he’s not a very good QB.

Scaled Back Offense

Well, yeah, of course it was scaled back. That was his first year as a starter.

It was his second year in the system and the offence

was basically ‘scan that half of the field, throw it to option 1 or dump it off’. That’s a huge red flag for a second year player.

He won't give up, OldhamA.

I love the kid, but he just won’t.

"Second" Year Player

He missed all of training camp, preseason and the first half of the season due to his holdout. He was practically a rookie last season.

His holdout was his own damn fault for being a greedy bastard

Face it – Russell sucks flaming donkey gonads.

Russell

I’m not saying he isn’t a bad player now, but I’m saying that nothing coming into this season really pointed to it. See my comment from above for the reasons why.

Quick Elaboration

Nothing coming into this season would have suggested that Russell would play this poorly.

News just in from Nothing Towers

I just fixed my iPod

USA! USA!

Todd Helton has nothing on Jack Cust, pace wise
Tiny bit of excitement here

I know, I know — TWSS.

That wasn't really TWSS worthy.

You just have a one track mind.

Ibanez rocks in the outfield.
Cust is a better fielder than

Ibanez

But doesn't have a guitar named after him
Thats why some were against signing Abreu last offseason

that Cust was just as good and taking away playing time from Buck LOL

Gotta feel for the Rockies - they've faced Cliff Bloody Lee twice this series.

He’s awesomely good.

To celebrate more stellar Raul "defense"

Not entirely sure that was worse than what he just did.
let's go Rockies! We want a Game 5!
what? it's the 8th already?

I thought all playoff games were supposed to last 5+ hours.

Seems to me this Cliff

is a peak even the Rockies can’t tame.

Boo intentional walks.
+1

Ibanez is pretty good against lefties too. Man all this bad playoff managing makes me sick…

Ooooooh, MNF!

Now I’m torn.

I swear to god I thought Marc Anthony was a black woman.

I have the MNF game on in the background and heard what sounded like a very soulful version of Star Spangled Banner. I clicked it on and did a double take.

So, I'm going to a SxSW mixer down town

This might involve people who potential might want to employ / work with me at some stage in the future.

in short, i have to dig through my cupboard for the pair of pants with the smallest crotch based rip.

I’m all class.

You got the job then I take it?

I’ve no idea what SxSW is though.

south by southwest?
Never heard of them.
Its a music and film festival in Austin.

Pretty rad, lots of parties/ people.

It's a music industry shindig in Austin in the spring time.

Lots of fun, lots of work.

I don’t know about the other job yet, but the interview went fairly well, I think; we’re due to meet in person later in the week.

Fingers crossed!

Good work.....they didn't HAVE to meet you in person!

seems like a good sign?

i thought it was more about programming and stuff

shows what i know

are they next to the cans of beans and instant noodles?
I can only dream of such luxuries
HI y'alls

Been listening on my way home……how’s the game been?

I see Happy Peter hasn't changed since leaving the Gnats
I'm back

Go Rocks!

Hey it's a relative summer day in Denver! 46 degrees!!
Oh god, the ref is talking in Spanish.

You guys go overboard on your heritage days/weeks/months.

please tie this up - already - so I can haz mui mui baseball
This!!
"Muy"

That’s the correct spelling, by the way.

Or wouldn't it be mas?? muy = very I think
Carlos mojo

N-iiiice!
(and yes, I know this is a defensive, not an offensive, picture but it was the first thing I could find)
Good thing.

Posting offensive pictures is a CGV.

Thanks, oblique. I appreciate your concern.

(and I anticipated some comment about “offensive” when I typed it… this is why I should edit my comments…)

What ever happened to the rookie hazing photos this year?

Just curious.

I looked for them two different days....couldn't find them
"just curious"? you know you wanted to see the guys in drag.

Anyway, I never found any photos. I guess they don’t exist on the interwebs. Hmm, if there are no photos, did the rookie hazing ever happen? We do have SuSlu’s word for it, and she’s reliable, so I guess it did happen…

Too many rookies to haze!

They revolted.

Damn it. She's on to me.

That’s more what I meant, btw, did the hazing happen at all? But yeah, if she said so…

she kept them for her personal collection
Christ he can fly!
I wonder if I should make a religion joke.....nah, probably not.
That was funny by itself.
I always laugh at the "hung like this-" joke, never gets old.
He crushed one last night.
Needed a few more feet on that one.
I thought Fowler was a little guy
Looks like a beanpole to me!
little like Rafael Furcal
Rally woot!

God I hope they last another game.

I like series that go to the max # of games
I like ballplayers with beards

Yet another reason to hate the Yankees.

I'm not usually partial to beards but Helton is pretty attractive!
Raul Ibanez probably doesn't make that play
I was thinking it was gonna drop - but I didn't know they made a switch
in this game

the indians might beat the rockies single-handedly: francisco and lee

Daaaang. Good catch! Darn it
son of a gun
Caught off guard by Giambi's existence in this moment
And, so were the Phillies!
Not to mention

that stuff growing on his face.

GIAMBI!!!!

I bet that felt good

It did, now he needs a nap.

did he just go opposite field?

Hit like an All-Star!
+ a billion

Nice time for a hit!

Man I hate Denver
I called up my friend LeRoy on the phone

I said, Buddy, I’m afraid to be alone
‘Cause I got some weird ideas in my head
About things to do in Denver when you’re dead

I was working on a steak the other day
And I saw Waddy in the Rattlesnake Cafe
Dressed in black, tossing back a shot of rye
Finding things to do in Denver when you die

You won’t need a cab to find a priest
Maybe you should find a place to stay
Some place where they never change the sheets
And you just roll around Denver all day

LeRoy says there’s something you should know
Not everybody has a place to go
And home is just a place to hang your head
And dream of things to do in Denver when you’re dead

You won’t need a cab to find a priest
Maybe you should find a place to stay
Some place where they never change the sheets
And you just roll around Denver all day
You just roll around Denver all day

YES!

vintage G right there

I am Gumby, dammit!!!

Gumby and Pokey

Awe I miss that.
The cartoon or the players?

Cos I don’t miss the players.

The cartoon, well and A's games in general.
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, anyone?
If only teletransporting was a reality.....
ROCKIES!! YAY!!!!
Crowd going bonkers...
WOW!!!!!!

hi

and WOW!!!!

Who's this Giambi character?
Well - maybe no extras....but another game is possible!
I would not have thought

that a key come-from-behind rally would be successfully executed by Jason Giambi and Yorvit Torrealba.

Cliff Lee looks angryface
Has to suck after 8 of pretty brilliant pitching.
Yeah - he was pretty much on auto control for the win!

Thanks, BUllpen – NOT!!

sweet!

But Giambi had to run the bases — now he won’t be able to play for a week.

I like the fan who's literally jumping up and down
I often think, if I had remained in the Denver area

I would be, right now……

reclined on the couch blogging along whilst watching TBS.

And the A's take the lead against the Indians!!

LOL

LOL LOL!!!
Wow

Just wow.
Blown open.

so Gumby ties it and Street will save it

A’s well repped in this contest, I’d say.

Oh god, can Street please blow it.

The Rockies can still win, I just dislike Street.

He was broken often but didn’t seem like a bad guy.
I mean his Dad wasn’t an assh_le either.

I met him one time - he was very nice....down to earth. Interested in talking to us (the fans).
I expect at least four more fANposts tomorrow about how bad a trade Street/CarGo for Holliday was
Two of them appearing on the Cardinals' site
If the Rockies dont surge and

make the playoffs no-one gives a rats patootie.

Leaving the Bases Loaded Twice

Does not shine well on the Baseball Gods.

Leave the A's, remember how to hit.

Nice job, G.

he sure didn't swing at the first pitch like that

when he was here, hmmm.

Let's go, Huston!
I guess we'll see Stairs at some point?
Na na na na na na na na na - STREET!
Good to see all those dudes that used to play for us fueling Rocktober
+1

Its hard to root for Swish in that uniform.

unless he pitches
OMG So true- w/ a sh_t eating grin and a K no less!
Hole Camels tomorrow.
street "smoke and mirrors"

he got hit hard more than often with that changeup in oakland…that durham walk off in sf was killer

Not a 1-2-3 inning

Got away with a meatball already. Offers a bad pitch to like every batter he faces,

smoke and mirrors is right

Go Rockies this series

the fan in the red hat was livid over that call
Make the pitch HS
Key-rap!!!
Typical Street save.
OK, this is getting scary.
jesus now it's the big man

Huston is such a drama queen sometimes.

bailey would be taking a shower by now
Nice!

That made me happy.

Uh....

And not because of Bailey being in the shower.

Exciting!

(When it’s not your team.)

amazing how one can get a thrill without the stress.
No whammies No whammies!
if street was wearing green, i would foresee a dinger by howard.
Huston... this isn't a nice thing to do to the Rockies fans...
behind in the count... again...
Gotta throw a strike sooner or later Huston
Huston Street how I don't miss you.
2012 alds

this would be wallace and carter in this situation

with Andrew Bailey closing

and not coughing it up like this, omg Huston.

Howard is a beast
oh noes.

Bad Huston!

:(

(to the tune of The Clash's 'I'm So Bored With The USA')

I’m so glad… he’s not on our team!
I’m so glad… he’s not on our team!
The Rockies are screwed!

OMG!!!!

Our trade for Holliday was brilliant! Beane is a genius!!!!!1

heh

What a case.

Serious, he's lucky he's not down 5-4
ESPN announcer

seemed to think it was outta there, Howard just missed that shit, Huston is so lucky he didn’t just tank this game completely.

He soon rectified that.

Mwahahaha.

He is down 5-4

Now.

Huston Street outdoing Madsen

And still imitating Brad Lidge.

God, does he suck

Failure in big games.

Thank God he is not on our team.

Worthless.

who's better

him or Fuentes?

Beane is a genius

Do we forget the magglio walk off in 06?!?!

some of Beane's best work
not Street's fault that was after 3 innings

now on the other hand, this game IS his fault

What's it matter? All that did was finish the sweep
never forget

fuck huston street.

LOL, short, sweet and to the point.
Does Jason Werth

remind anyone of The Rated R Superstar Edge?

Oh boy.

I picked an interesting time to turn on the game.

so, about now...

does anyone think that the Rox would be better off this year with Holliday+no name closer than Street+CarGo?

holy shit, poor ol street.
Well

At least Lidge will come in for the 9th

Rockies fans will want to trade street now
If they have any sense
We'll take patrol craft for him
Hey, stop picking on Huston

CarGon sucked too.

not by comparison
Huston Street, you're breaking my heart.

[well, not really, but you’re making me very sad for you and your team]

You're tearing up my heart.......
Oh my goodness.......
OMFG

Huston Street wears mighty horns tonight, OMFG to the OMFG power.

Hey, stop picking on Huston

He doesn’t suck as badly as Papelbon!

By the way, what ever happened to Greg Smith anyway?

Nibbles? Where are you?

picking some guy off in AAA

And then giving up 3 bombs

what happened to eveland?

4.09 FIP in 08, serviceable for a back rotation sp

he's vacationing

in the bermuda triangle somewhere

Mr.Smith: /floats

Bailey would be headed home right now

game over

well Street might be heading home soon
No way Bailey passes up the post game spread.
right now, I'd like to interrupt this all-time playoff meltdown by a closer


                  with some totally awesome thoughts

Beimels Gameday pick looks somewhat Pleistocene.
Hey black taco

I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish but mini sirloin burgers had one of the best ads of all time! Of all time!

Heh.

I know I’m going to be in the minority on this one…

But I hate the mini sirloin burgers commercial. Absolutely loathe it. Especially the stupid song.

have you seen it in spanish?

it’s funnier/worse

I'm not sure I remember that ad

How does it go again? Oh yes, something like
WAY OUT WEST

How long's that 'Imma let you finish' going to be around for?
Hopefully not much longer

Kanye is a putz.

Ha I thought that right after I posted...

I’m done with it!

Damn I wanted to see Stairs
bye bye, Huston. :(

at the Dark End of the Street

tonight is not-a-so-good for him.

"Sir Fucks-It-Up"

rides again….

Seems like a few minutes ago

everyone was all hyped up on Street.

I still like him.
me too!
that's quite a buzzcut he has
really? I'm not watching.

That’s kind of sad. He has good hair, he shouldn’t shave it off.

yeah, I was a bit surprised when I saw him take off his hat
Yes, it's nor a cute look for him
he builds you up, just to let you down

closers in the playoffs…well well well

this NL stuff

each team is trying to lose the opportunity to lose to the yankees

It's finally over...
not yet
two words: Brad Lidge
An Eyre I think.
yes

i wouldn’t take my chances with his ass either

Well the big red slugfest.

We will get to see Cargon at least.

At least we can enjoy Ethier in the NLCS!!
Now there's a guy with some good hair!!
Jimmy Rollins is so badass

don’t forget he legged out that squibber to get this party started.

he had a nice at bat last night too
dig JR
isn't he from out here somewhere?
very much so
yeah, i looked

JR is Oakland born-n-raised!

On the playground is where he......ahhh forget it.
And Colorado said, "yo Huston, smell ya later!"
During the 06 playoffs

he was doing TV commentary and he said he was rooting for the A’s. I was an instant fan.

he grew up an A's fan
for me

he’ll always be better than jeter

Agreed on badassness

Toolsy players playing smart baseball is a good formula for badass.

I'm sorry, but if you're too thick to figure out not to use Huston Street against five consecutive lefthanded hitters

you don’t deserve to win a playoff series.

Where's the "like" button?
but but but

he had 25 1-2-3 innings!!!!!

Carbomb would be nice.
Hey, a single's not bad either
Bloop hit. C'mon then kid, let's see if you can steal 2nd.
Oh wow, that giant Barney look-a-like behind home plate is annoying.

How long has that been there? I just turned on the game after following on Gameday.

Is Stomper even around

playoff time?

Someone channel Dante Bichette

and take this game home!

I can't get over how many ex-A's are in the playoffs
I'm going to make a post tomorrow about that
you gotta be impressed with how Carlos G has played in his 1st postseason series

very poised, very effective, solid D, tons of hits, I am impressed.

amazing...who saw that coming?
You gotta be impressed with how Carlos G has played period.

Hell of a season.

Oh, come on, getting rid of Huston Street was so totally worth giving him up

[/AN]

HA

they won’t even put lidge in.

Todd!

Save us!

mr. rockie comes through
walkoff home run pls

kthx

Lidge?

oh my this could get weird.

okay, whoever got the mini sirloin burgers song stuck in my head is evil.
This game is not boring!
I really wanted COL to win this game, but seeing Huston blow it was awesome.
Really?

I hated seeing it.

I wanted someone else to feel my pain.
why are you such a cold-hearted person?

I sad for Huston.

Because Huston burned us a million times.
Exactly.
I dunno.

Usually I remember all the times a player does something awful, but with Huston it’s pretty much the opposite. The good outweigh the bad, IMO.

whenever I think...

Yeah well, he DID win ROY, after I then say to myself….

“Yes, but so did Bobby Crosby”.

Yeah i kinda felt a little

I dunno if vindicated is the right word, but…yeah i enjoyed that as well.

Next person to say "come off the deck" is fired
Here's why in the A's situation

its better to have wallace than cargon. It much easier in recent yrs for A’s to produce and find serviceable OFs either through draft or trade. Trading cargon looks worse due to the A’s treatment and use of cunningham/buck who i think can be solid/above avg type players if given a chance.
3b has been nothing the last 3 yrs and good 3b are scarce in the trade market. Also maybe blame the A’s for not making it a draft priority. Unless you want to resign kennedy or still have hannahan/baisley as the best options we’ve seen

Come on Gameday Audio

don’t die on me now

Me too crap!
Just got it back...
oh geez...nasty pitch
I got here just in time

Go phillies!

Sorry, I think I’m in the minority here.

Booooooooooo!

 :-)

Dangit!

Why can’t the A’s get past the first round!!!

LOL
Beane:

My sh*t don’t work in the playoffs.

Beane to O'Dowd:

This here’s some goooood sh*t.

And that's all she wrote...
so....when is the next playoff game?
Two weeks from now

Am I wrong?

Thursday!!!
gad, that long.
I KNOW!!! What are we gonna dooooooooo????????
what is i gonna do?
learn how not to speak in

LOLcat.

:)

houston is in ur doghouz

eatin ur bonz

3 days without baseball?

what is this, the offseason?

the luke warm stove season
I didn't think about that

I guess I would not have minded the series going longer. Oh well.

So it's YOUR fault!!!

LOL

blame my wife

she wishes all the series were sweeps so she could get back to watching her shows on TBS.

Oh yeah {laughing} I think you mentioned that!!
isn't the next round on playoff games on Fox though?

what about the WS?

Not sure _ I was wondering the same thing.

NLCS is still on TBS and the ALCS is on Fox

According to MLC.com website
major league cricket.com?

:-)

Little typo.....sorry

MLB.com

I hope Street

was watching that VERY closely.

those were some nasty sliders
Well, apart from the one that was right down the perfect center of the plate
guess he got away with one

but it buckled tulo enough

Since all four division series have ended...

…tomorrow I’ll do a little summary of what ex-A’s did so far.

Yay......It makes watching fun when we see how our used to be guys are doing!
Huston, we have a problem

That was an epic game, poor Huston clammed it maximally, oh noes for him and I am so fookin glad Bailey is our guy right now, ahhhhhh yum.

and another brutal loss

are there normally this many blown saves in the playoffs? feels like there’s been one every game.

that huston blew one is not crazy

that nathan blew one is

Oh, well

I’ve got nothing against the Phillies. I just wanted more baseball.
Hope Huston is okay.

my thoughts exactly.
Why

did he get hurt or something?

Oh right…

Damn...

Now I have to root for Philadelphia. Can’t I just root for injuries?

never root for injuries
Not even injuries

to Jeter? A-Rod? Mike Sciocia?

Jeter has enough rings and A-Rod has enough money

I’m not rooting for them to be injured but I wouldn’t be upset if the DL gods picked on the yankees a little instead of the A’s.

maybe I want Scoscia to trip

going into the dugout and maybe tweak and ankle or something.

…but thats about it.

Maybe A-Rod can catch one in the ribs in some kind of late retailiation. That would be nice to see.

I was trying to think of what kind of injury I'd want for him......

only pain I could think of involved hemmoroids…..

The George Brett injury
not even them
you are a good person :-)
I am a superstitious baseball addict ;-)
I was rooting for the Phillies so I'm happy

although I wouldn’t have cried if we had a game tomorrow.

Go Phillies!... and... umm... uh...

F**k Anaheim!

Nononono :-)

Boo Yankees! Yay Phillies.

Baseball wise

I think these are two of the best series matchups…

Yankees/Angels and Phillies/Dodgers?

Involves both coasts, big teams, I think it will be exciting.

As much as I hate to root vs California teams

I’m kinda hoping for a Repeat this time.

Having a Freeway Series would the be worst possible scenario

I would have to pray for an earthquake. And I live in SoCal. Shit.

Never

Ever pray for an earthquake…if you live in California. I think you could be kicked out for that! ;)

I experienced the 1989 quake

I wouldn’t wish that on anyone

I slept through the 1994 Northridge quake...

in Northridge so… nevermind.

I was in Hawaii during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

Yeah, nevermind.

So one thing I love about these series - is the games are close and see saw back and forth.

In my fannish way I think it means they are pretty evenly matched and either team could have won….the way it should be!

So who has the better chance of beating either the YANKEES OR Angels??
Dodgers I think

Stronger bullpen. That was the twins’ biggest failing.

I have not been terribly impressed with the Phillies bullpen. Just a gut feeling.
your probably right

But if Cliff Lee keeps pitching well the Phils won’t need a bullpen as much. He can’t pitch every game though.

He could concievably

pitch game 1 on Thursday.

But I’m hoping for Pedro. Did I just say that?

LOL

Pedro vs. Vicente Padilla. That would be funny.

Game 1 starters?

I doubt it.

yeah no

it’ll be hamels and i think it said billingsley

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