The way the weekend was unfolding, it appeared to me that Saturday would be the best day to go down to the Vet for a Phillies game. Friday and Sunday just weren't good, and I was happy that I didn't have to sit through the rain and the awful 7-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Friday.
I had a couple of ideas in mind and conducted a few interviews on Saturday for feature stories that I was interested in exploring, one of which was supposed to be what you are reading now. Everything changed on Sunday.
Not only did I miss a great game on a glorious afternoon for baseball, but I passed for the second time on what turned out to be a chance to see a no-hitter. Of course, there is no way of knowing ahead of time that one is coming, but I had to be content with watching the last few innings of Kevin Millwood's 1-0 gem on television.
In July 1999, I drove to Boston to see the Phils play a couple of games against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The decision to drive came after passing on a bus excursion that was a little too expensive, although it did have an added attraction.
The Phillies-Sox series was played on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The bus left Boston on Sunday morning, and the package included tickets to see a Yankees game in New York on the way back to Philadelphia. On that day (July 18), Yankees' hurler David Cone pitched a perfect game against the Montreal Expos.
Getting back to Millwood, Sunday's game was a direct result of a decision made by manager Larry Bowa earlier in the week. I was also at last Tuesday's game, and the announced starter was Brett Myers. Just hours before the game, Bowa decided to go with Millwood for a few reasons.
As the staff ace, Bowa thought that it would be better to keep Millwood on his five-day schedule. The younger pitchers would be better able to adjust to a disruption in their routines, surmised the manager, and an added advantage was that Millwood would get another start at home before the team left for the West Coast trip.
Coming into the season, the right-hander had started eight games at the Vet against the Phillies. His stats showed six wins, no losses and an earned-run average of 1.99.
Furthermore, Millwood was coming off his most disastrous start as a Phillie, during which he gave up seven hits and seven earned runs in less than four innings against the Florida Marlins on April 17. Two games at home seemed like a pretty good idea to Bowa. Now the manager looks like a genius for making that decision.
On Tuesday, Millwood was effective in a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. He went six innings and gave up just three hits and one run.
The pitcher also has had fairly good success against the players on the Giants' roster. Going into Sunday's game, Barry Bonds and Neifi Perez had .300 lifetime averages against Millwood. Benito Santiago has a .400 average against the pitcher (two hits in five at bats), but Brandon Duckworth plunked the catcher on the right elbow in Saturday's game, and Santiago could not play on Sunday.
Other than those guys, Millwood has pretty much owned San Francisco's hitters. The way he was pitching on Sunday, though, it probably wouldn't have mattered who was in the lineup. The Giants entered the game with an 18-5 record— one of the best in the National League— but Millwood just mowed them down.
Incidentally, one of the players that I interviewed on Saturday was outfielder Ricky Ledee, who is off to a good start this season. The only run that Millwood needed on Sunday came on Ledee's solo home run.
Coincidentally, the outfielder was playing for the Yankees in 1999, and he blasted a two-run shot during Cone's perfect game. We'll catch up to Ricky some other time. Sunday belonged to Kevin Millwood.
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