Geriatric Night at Petco Park

When the Phillies travel to San Diego's Petco Park tonight, we'll be rooting for the traditional suppression of youth by age. The 45-year-old Jamie Moyer takes on whippersnapper 42-year-old Greg Maddux in front of a smattering of a Padres fans and some sleeper cells of rowdy SoCal transplant Phillies fans, probably drunk from pre-gaming at Plum Crazy (although it's a hike to PB; if you head out that way, I recommend Firehouse too).

I had the pleasure of seeing the Mets lose at Petco (they were ultimately swept in a four-game series) in June, and it's a really nice stadium in a downtown, bar-filled setting. If you're lucky enough to be reading this from San Diego, I'd like you to know that the weather's great here right now too, ass.

At 47-74, the Padres have been an abysmal disappointment this season. The Phils need to win this series, if not sweep it, to keep pace with the Mets, who are in Pittsburgh.

Comments

[Schmidt]

I am here. On my way to game. Weather is perfect. Go phils.

[David]

Boy I was going to make the trek down to San Diego (I live in Orange County), but after attending 2 of the 4 games against the dodgers (including the bullshit nomar walkoff debacle) I don't think I can take much more mediocre baseball.

Any Phils fans in San Diego should start booing J-Roll though; give him a taste of what's waiting for his ass back home.

[MikeY]

Tonight's Line-up:

J-Hole
The Flyin Hawaiian
ChUtley
RyHo
Brett Favre
The Brunt
Chooch
Grampy Moyer

It's good we got Victorino back with Dobbs being hurt and Bruntlett having to play now.

[MikeY]

J-Hole...haha

Do ya get it?...huh?, do ya?

...Cuz it rhymes with his nickname, J-Roll...but it also rhymes with A-hole.

..Sorry.

[Liam]

Bruntlett needs to stop being oh so productive

[MikeY]

WTF?

1st and 3rd with one out...and no runs.

Bruntlett and Ruiz are artocious.

[Liam]

I'm also a tad confused why Howard was held up at third. For his size he has pretty decent speed. Doesn't help that the throw ended up being offline (though the coach would've never known that) and the continued lack of production from ruiz and bruntlett. And to think rollins also defended bruntlett getting booed when he called back into the best damn sports show.

[Stevek]

We lose this game 2-1.

[Liam]

I'm not really sure they even get one at this point

[MikeY]

Yeah Pat!

Theres the 1 run.

[Hummer]

jesus christ this team is terrible

[David]

That bottom of the lineup is our achilles heel.

Glad Gillick addressed that at the trade deadline. /sarcasm

[Liam]

That was some real nice clutch hitting. How the hell do they continually manage to not score in these situations? This is why this team is unable to win games lately, they can't put teams away when they have the chance

[Phils Phan]

Liam:

I assume you're referring to the 1/2 with no outs. I was going to post the same, but decided to turn off the game and watch these damned endless thunderstorms outside. It's at that point where almost anything is more entertaining than watching the Phillies.

[Liam]

Yep that would be exactly what I was talking about. I feel like I saw this happen countless times in their close losses lately. I would really love just a few insurance runs, especially with the way the pen has been shaky lately. Hopefully lidge is available and is ready to shut the door.

[Jason]

Its nice to run into a team whose offense is as enept as the phillies.

[Liam]

Good to see lidge working that filthy stuff again. Finally back to the winning ways, though not in an impressive fashion at all. Good thing they didn't waste this gem by Mr. Moyer

[Argive]

I suppose it's too much to ask for this team to have good hitting and good defense at the same time. Sure does my heart good to see Lidge's nasty slider again. Still, this was one ugly win.

[DSD]

This team sucks...end of story

[Phils Phan]

Agreed. Even a win feels like a loss.

[Dan]

Just got back from the game. There was a strong Philly presence at the game, almost to the point that we were louder than the home crowd. Rollins was, in fact, booed when he was introduced. Hard to get down on the guy when he makes two web-gem worthy plays though. Saw one fan holding a sign that said something to the effect of "front-runners don't follow their team across the nation." Regardless, good win. Petco has nothing on the Bank though.

[Stevek]

Some of you amaze me with the negativity, EVEN AFTER A W. Did he hitting suck, again? Yes. But Moyer+bullpen =superb, Ryan and Jimmy had great D, Lidge is still perfect. I'm annoyed with the lack of hitting, but a win is a win, whether it's 1-0, or 10-0.

[MPR529]

I second the strong Philly presence there tonight. J-Roll got what he deserved tonight but it'll be nothing like what happens when he goes back home

Ryan Howard and a guy with an orange sign regarding the comments were chatting for a few minutes about the situation. RyHo thinks we should cut Jimmy a break.

Ugh.

[GM-Carson]

Please help me spread the word on Campaign Cheer.

[joe l]

We're #2!!

[Brotherly Scrote]

@Stevek

The negativity stems from the fact that this supposedly great offensive juggernaut of a team is having difficulty scoring more than 6 runs on this road trip. The majority of the time, if you score one run in the game you will lose. The only reason they won tonight is because Moyer, Madsen, and Lidge were outstanding. You know as well as I do that the pitching is not going to hold the opposition to 1 run or fewer ever night. Hell, this win might of been a tribute to the Padres' offense being more inept than the Phillies'.

A win's a win and I'm happy about it, but in the long term this team can't get complacent when they win games by this margin given their recent offensive struggles.

[Brotherly Scrote]

Here's some food for thought.

Since June 13th, the day they beat the Cardinals 20-2, the Phillies have scored 10 or more runs TWICE. And both games were in the same series against the Atlanta Braves. Before and including June 13th, the Phillies scored 10 or more SEVEN TIMES.

Compare that to the Mets who scored 10 or more FOUR TIMES up to and during June 13th, and FIVE TIMES since then. The Phillies have a better offense than the Mets. They just need to find a way to get back to whatever it was that worked for them before June 13th. That includes not trying to hit home runs every at-bat.

[Jason]

The offense sucking so bad has been an head scratcher. I could understand with the loss of Rowand and the loss of an MVP season from Rollins they wouldn't be as good as last year, but they were on a tear the first 2 1/2 months of the season and then its just like they completely forget how to play and have been going through the motions.

Yeah, it was easy to shrug it off at first as "oh they were facing good pitching" or "they're just in a slump, they'll come out of it." Slumps don't last for two months. And seeing a player like Utley go from hitting .320 at the beginning of June to .285 by mid August is more than just a slump.

And no, I'm not happy about last nights win and don't agree that a win is still a win. Scoring one run isn't going to beat most teams, they got lucky that they were playing the Padres who have the worst offense ever and were able to make Moyer/Madsen/Lidge all look like Cy Young candidates.

[Stevek]

I am in agreement that for some reason, the offense had sucked for the most part since early June, but after being swept by the fucking Dodgers, I'm trying to pull out the +'s from last nights win. They're facing some minor league scrub tonight so you know what that means for the minor league guy: 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 SO