Ryan Howard's Walk Off Moon Shot In The 14th Sends Fans Home Happy

That right there is a shot of Ryan Howard up to bat, with the moon above him, seconds before he hit a towering blast off of the second level in right field to give the Phils a hard earned win.

It's 2:00 AM and I'm exhausted from sitting through that game.  Make no mistake about it, if the Phils had lost, I would be one miserable SOB right now.  But alas, Ryan Howard came through.  He delivered and he sent us Phillies fans home happy.

Watch Ryan Howard get the cream pie to the face via Shane Victorino.  Another nice photo of Howard crossing home here.  ESPN has some crappy video of the home run.  And the Inquirer has a photo gallery.  The look on Michael Bourne's face here is priceless.

I'll tell you something, looking up at a baseball going out of the park is an incredible experience.  I was in section 104, row 5, about 1 or 2 sections from being directly under Howard's ball, but I had to look up to see it go over my head and hit the second level.  That's how you end a baseball game.

I'm not going to nitpick at the bad, because there was plenty of it, including Rowand trying to bunt.  Or the blown lead in the ninth.  Nope, not tonight.

I'm going to marvel at the fact that the Phillies were one strike away from losing and Jimmy Rollins pulls off the incredible, a three bagger turned into an all base trip home. Only Jimmy.  A couple more game shots on my flickr page.

That makes five straight wins for the Fightins and puts them only two out of the Wild Card.  Imagine what CBP would be like for a playoff series.  It'd be electric.  Message to Gillick, get something to help that pen out.

The Phillies won tonight on a walk off moon shot by Ryan Howard in the bottom of the fourteenth inning.  You can't really beat that.

Props to my Dad who picked a hell of a game to chose as his first to attend of the year.  And also to Michele, who came over to say hello in the bottom of the 14th.  Yep, it was worth the wait.

Now excuse me, Cole and I are going to bed.

Comments

[Clare]

You're tougher than I am, Enrico: We gave up at the top of the twelfth and headed home, certain that the Phils would lose this one.

And as I predicted, my banner ("Forget diamonds: Cole is a girl's best friend") made Phanavision.

[Jason]

I saw Jimmy round the bases with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth to tie it up, but I fell asleep at around the 12th inning. I woke up at 5am to my dog licking my ear. That's when I knew the Phils won. That's our symbol. She's a big Phillies fan.

[drew]

Every team that goes into the playoffs has that little magical moment, it tells the fans yes we have arrived. We saw that magic last evening in the bottom of the ninth and then it was solitified in the 14th.

[hone]

I was in 135, row 20 and can honestly say the rollins triple/home run was one of the best sports moments I've witnessed. Have to admit my buddy and I got a little rammy and went into McFaddens in the 13th, so I caught Howard's in there. I do love me some ladies in Christmas outfits if I may say...god damn they have some cute girls working in there.

Hyped as hell for this 1:05 game to stare at my computer in work for the remainder of the afternoon...go Phils

[Posterr Nutbag]

i live in new york these days and was walking home from a bar when i decided to stop into this other place for "one last drink". well, it turns out that the bar i stopped into not only was giving hotdogs away, but they had the game on. i grabbed my dog and beer in just enough time to watch jimmy's hit. the bar, from what i could tell, was non-partisan, but mostly everyone was watching the game and the place exploded when he scored. it was really something special to watch.

after the 10th i decided i really did have to go home and watched the rest of the game on gamecast and the second i saw what howard had done i turned on ESPN to watch the highlight, which ran about 5 minutes later on baseball tonight. i think i watched the replay at least 10 times on my DVR before i could actually believe that blast. it was like watching the 2006 ryan howard hit homer after homer. i remember there was a point last season when if he didn't hit one every game, or at the most every other game, i was disappointed.

its good to have that feeling about ryan howard again!

[Tartan69]

Phils longest game of the year...somewhat brought back memories of that 5 OT game against the Penguins.

But as I said in another post...some questionable in-game decisions by Uncle Cholly. Rowand shouldn't have been bunting, and conversely, Clay Condrey *should* have been bunting with the bases loaded and 1 out. But I digress...good win.

[ForTheShorties]

Still get chills just thinking of that inside-the-parker and the blast. Hell even my gf, who couldn't care less about baseball, started screaming "Ry-How! Ry-How!" Good night to be a Phan.

[leonlettisfat]

RHRH is the man hands down. Ryan 'HomeRun Howard' didn't fail to deliver in the clutch last night.

[Michelle]

I'm glad I hung in there until the end last night! Right before Howard's at bat I told my friend we should leave after the bottom of this inning because I couldn't bear to be there after 14 innings and then have them not win. Thank you Ryan Howard for sending us out with a homer!

[Michelle]

So Enrico - where are you going to take Cole on vacation next yet?

[enrico]

Cole and I are still in the planning stages. No overseas adventures appear to be in his immediate future, but he has been begging me to take him to China.

[Chamomiles Davis]

Enrico,

You took all of these pics with your cell phone? Nice resolution! My cell phone pics always turn out looking like crap.

[enrico]

Mr. Davis, no, no, no. I took that one crappy one in the post last night with my camera phone. All of the other ones are with my handy digital camera that I had with me.

[Chris]

E -- Nice work with the camera there!

[the Krisheim]

http://www.ebcl.lib.id.us/ebcl/images/goosebump.gif

[kate26]

man.
i wish i had stayed up for the whole game.
fell asleep in the 13th.
game WOULD have been over in the 11th if they didnt have Rowand bunt.
my dad and i were screaming at the television.
since i live in maryland i was happy to see the last two games on MASN because they cover Nat's games and i really wish i had stayed awake the whole game.