Anybody who thinks that baseball is boring should have been at the Vet last week. The Phillies were on fire while winning seven straight games and eight of the nine matches during the just-completed homestand.
After the team compiled a 9-18 record during April, I was about to write this season off because I saw too many parallels to the 2000 team. That club won just seven games in April and never recovered from the slow start.
"We had a meeting before the homestand, (and I said) you can't pick up ten or eleven games just like that," manager Larry Bowa said. "You have to try to win two out of three (in each series). That was our goal."
The much-maligned bullpen and bench contributed mightily, and starting pitchers Randy Wolf and Vicente Padilla flirted with no-hitters.
The only blemish was Saturday's loss to Arizona, but Diamondbacks fireballer Randy Johnson did not beat them. Even though the home team spotted the Big Unit a 5-0 lead, the Phillies still evened the score in nine innings before losing the game, 6-5, in overtime.
I normally listen to the radio broadcast on a headset while watching the game from the press box. The combination of photo night, which enabled fans to take pictures of the players, and Johnson's start brought out a crowd of 32,634 on Saturday.
Announcer Chris Wheeler was describing the electricity in the air and the four-time Cy Young Award winner on the mound and said that Johnson "is a lot of fun to watch — from up here," meaning the radio booth.
Then Wheeler added, "Of course, the view from the batter's box isn't much fun."
In addition to pitching gems and fine fielding, the Phillies also presented some last-minute heroics. Last Wednesday, the team was tied (3-3) with Houston when Ricky Ledee belted a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 5-3 victory.
Ledee was hitting .118 at the time and was probably one or two at-bats away from the waiver wire. That round-tripper might have bought him some time.
If Dave Hollins returns from the disabled list (knee infection), a roster spot will have to be cleared to make room for him, and my guess is that outfielder Jason Michaels is here to stay. Michaels came up from Triple A when Hollins went on the DL.
I'm nominating Tomas Perez for MVP — most-valuable Phillie. The infielder got off to a slow start after missing time with an injury, but he hit .636 during the homestand to raise his average to .370. (Statistics are through Sunday's game.) He played in four of the nine games, and of his seven hits, three were doubles and one was the game-tying home run in the ninth inning on Saturday.
"Tomas has been coming up big lately, so nothing that he does surprises me anymore," said Bowa.
Perez credits others for helping him during his slump.
"Everybody told me that I could do it if I just kept going, so I worked hard every day, and good things are happening to me right now," he said.
Doug Glanville's inside-the-park home run on Friday was the 20th by a Phillie in Veterans Stadium history. Most of the names on the list are legitimate runners, but one player caught my eye, so I sought out Larry Shenk, the Phillies vice president for public relations.
Former catcher Bob Boone — a three-time all-star in the 1970s — did a lot of things well, but he could not run. There must have been some kind of freaky play involved to allow Boone to circle the bases, I insisted.
"There was," Shenk said with a straight face. "Three outfielders died."
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