Keith Olbermann Acknowledges Phillies Phever!

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was tweeting about the big baseball story of the night, umpire Jim Joyce denying Tigers pitcher Andres Galaraga a perfect game by blowing a call at 1B with two outs in the 9th. The host of "Countdown" said MLB should overturn Joyce's call and give Galaraga the 21st perfect game in MLB history and third this year. So Phillies Phever asked Keith whether MLB should overturn some calls that affected the outcomes of some World Series as well. Of course I didn't expect a response considering how many people send tweets to Keith but after I hit refresh about 30 seconds later, this appeared:

Minor League Monday

Lehigh Valley IronPigs (18-31, 11.5 GB)
It was another tough week for the Phillies' AAA team. The IronPigs went 2-4 this week including a sweep at the hands of the Columbus Clippers over the weekend. The good news is that 1B Andy Tracy is back after missing a lot of time on the DL. Tracy came back on Thursday night and made an impact right away after struggling prior to his time on the DL. In the four game series at Columbus, Tracy hit .500, drove in nine, scored four times, hit three home runs, and walked seven times. The other good news is that all the games have been close so if everybody starts hitting, the Pigs will start winning. Lehigh Valley plays a bad Charlotte team at home this week which gives them a good chance to pick up some wins.
Leaders:
AVG: Rich Thompson (.299)
HR: Cody Ransom (11)
RBI: Cody Ransom (34)
SB: Rich Thompson (10)
W: Drew Carpenter (5)
ERA: Scott Mathieson (0.73)
K: Ryan Vogelsong (50)
SV: Scott Mathieson (8)

Reading Phillies (20-28, 10.0 GB)
The week started off well for the R-Phils with a sweep over the Portland Sea Dogs but ended with three straight loses to Altoona (four game series wraps up tonight). Drew Naylor had the pitching highlight of the week, throwing a three hit, complete game shutout against Portland on Tuesday. 1B Matthew Rizzotti had the hitting highlight of the week after hitting a 3-run walk off home run on Wednesday to beat the Sea Dogs. Rizzotti has been on a tear since being called up from Clearwater. He is hitting .362 with 4 homers and 13 RBIs.
Leaders:
AVG: Rizzotti (.362)
HR: Domonic Brown (9)
RBI: Domonic Brown (28)
SB: Quintin Berry (12)
W: Drew Naylor (4)
ERA: Jason Anderson (2.37)
K: Vance Worley (42)
SV: Sergio Escalona (5)

Clearwater Threshers (29-22, 2.0 GB)
It was a 3-4 week for the Phillies highest Single-A team after losing a three game series to Dunedin and splitting a four game series with St. Lucie. Threshers starting pitching got lit up three times last week. On Monday Jon Velasquez gave up three runs in three innings, Tuesday Heitor Correa gave up nine runs in 3.2 innings, and on Thursday, Austin Hyatt gave up nine runs in 1.2 innings. Hyatt was named to the FSL All-Star game along with teammates Cody Overbeck, Justin De Fratus, and Trevor May.
Leaders:
AVG: Cody Overbeck (.326)
HR: Cody Overbeck (11)
RBI: Cody Overbeck (39)
SB: Anthony Gose (20)
W: Austin Hyatt (6)
ERA: Jon Velasquez (1.50)
K: Austin Hyatt (69)
SV: Justin De Fratus (9)

Lakewood BlueClaws (28-23, 3.5 GB)
Lakewood went 3-3 last week including a series win over Hagerstown. The week was highlighted by a seven inning, two run (0 earned) outing by Matthew Way in the 9-2 win over Hagerstown. 1B Jonathan Singleton continues to drive in runs, he now has 17 this season to go along with a .409 batting average and four home runs. He's played just 18 games for the BlueClaws.
Leaders:
AVG: Jonathan Singleton (.409)
HR: Four players tied with 4
RBI: Leandro Castro (38)
SB: Jonathan Villar (18)
W: Jarred Cosart (5)
ERA: Luke Wertz (1.61)
K: Matthew Way (58)
SV: Joshua Zeid (7)

Phillies Lose 9-3 in Atlanta, Fall Out of First

Beautiful day in ATL but the Phillies lose (Getty)

For the first time in a long time, I had to change the number next to the Phillies in the standings widget of the blog. No longer is there "--" after the Phillies record as that has changed to 0.5 after a 9-3 loss to the now first place Braves. In what looked destined to be another shutout today in Atlanta, the Phillies managed to score three runs on back-to-back-to-back-to-back doubles from Ibanez, Ruiz, Valdez, and Francisco in the 7th.

Joe Blanton (1-4) did not pitch well, allowing six runs (4 earned) over six innings. Of the four pitchers who took the mound for the Phillies today, only Brad Lidge (activated this morning) stopped the Braves from scoring. Antonio Bastardo took over for Blanton in the 7th but gave up a base hit and a walk which forced bench coach Pete Mackanin to bring in Chad Durbin. Mackanin took over for Charlie who was ejected in the 3rd after home plate umpire Larry Vanover overturned a call on the field which was the right decision. Durbin gave up a three run home run to Troy Glaus on the first pitch he threw which made it 9-3 Atlanta. Chipper Jones hit a two run home run in the first.

Tommy Hanson shut the Phillies down over 6.2 innings, giving up one run on three hits.

Naylor, Tracy Win First "Organization Players of the Week" Honors

Every Sunday before the Phils game I will announce the award for best player and best pitcher in the Phillies organization. The award includes anyone at any level, including the Phillies. The first ever winners are Drew Naylor from the R-Phils and Andy Tracy from the IronPigs.

Pitcher of the Week

SP Drew Naylor (Reading) - Naylor pitched a complete game shutout on Tuesday against the Portland Sea Dogs. Throughout the nine innings, Naylor only allowed three hits while walking one and striking out six. Reading obviously won the game, the final score was 6-0.

Player of the Week

1B Andy Tracy (Lehigh Valley) - Tracy missed a lot of time on the DL but returned back to the IronPigs lineup Thursday night in Columbus. In just three games, Tracy, who had struggled before his trip to the DL, hit .545 with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs. Two of those homers came Friday night, one of which was a grand slam.

Tracy bats against Scranton/WB last season

Baseball For Breakfast

Only one thing to say about last night's game: Perfection.

Halladay: 9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K

Minor League Scores
-Clippers: 7, IronPigs: 5
-Curve: 7, R-Phils: 3
-Threshers: 7, Mets: 2
-Shorebirds: 8, BlueClaws: 4

-Angels 1B Kendry Morales hit a walk-off grand slam against the Mariners...and then fractured his left leg during the celebration at home plate.

-Scary moment in the Bronx after A-Rod hit a line drive off the head of Indians pitcher David Huff in the 3rd inning. Huff was carted off the field but X-Rays were negative.

-Quite a day in the NL Central:

• Brewers right fielder Corey Hart hit two more home runs yesterday, one being a grand slam. Hart homered in three straight at-bats including Friday night's walk-off home run.


• Jay Bruce and Ramon Hernandez of the Reds had two home runs each in the win over Houston. The Reds have hit a HR in 18 straight games and they own the major's second best record. They also got 36,000 fans in Cincinnati last night.


• Carlos Silva of the Cubs moved to 7-0 on the season after seven scoreless innings against the rival Cardinals.

Today's Games
Threshers at Mets, 1:00
Phillies at Marlins, 1:10
BlueClaws at Shorebirds, 2:05
IronPigs at Clippers, 5:05
R-Phils at Curve, 6:00

Game Preview

Roy Halladay takes on Josh Johnson tonight in what is a great pitching matchup. But there's another more important game on tonight

Breaking News

The Phillies have scored a run!! Raul Ibanez tripled to center field, driving in Ryan Howard from first base!

Blog News

I will not be posting again on the blog until our Fightin' Phils score a run which is nothing compared to meech.one over at The Fightins who is on a hunger strike until they score. I'm assuming that will be tonight in Florida. If they don't score tonight...I don't even know what to say about that. I think the plane ride and a new team/stadium may be good luck. So until we score, I leave with this:

Rain Delay: Moron of the Year Update

Another nomination for "The Feild" in the "Moron of the Year" contest. To recap: "The Feild" is purposely misspelled. That is how Tom Betz, the man who ran on the field the night after the taser, spelled it on his Twitter when he said, "everybody turn on the Phillies game, I'm about to run on the feild."

So far we have three people up for the award:

Tom Betz: guy who ran on the field the night after the one kid got tased.

Jason Marquis: got lit up by the Phillies and followed with a postgame comment that Ryan Howard has holes in his swing

Kyle Lohse: postgame comments that the Phillies win because CBP is so small

Tonight we have a new entry into the Feild. "Matt" or "Gary" (how do you not know your name) left some stupid comments on the "Ask Charlie" page of MyPhl17's website.

"Matthew's" comment is pretty dumb too.

Game 46: Phillies (26-19) at Mets (24-23)

7:05 PM - Citi Field, Corona, NY

TV: CSN - Radio: 1210 AM

Hamels (5-2, 3.92) vs. Pelfrey (6-1, 2.86)

After two straight wins over the Phillies, the Mets are only three games out of first place in the NL East. Last night's win, the Mets third overall against the Phillies, also put the Mets over .500 and allowed the Braves to pull within 2.5 games. Rod Barajas continued to kill the Phillies last night, driving in three runs in the 8-0 victory. Luckily, he is not in the lineup tonight.

Cole Hamels will face Mike Pelfrey tonight in an excellent pitching matchup. Cole has seemed to figure things out, winning three straight games and lowering his ERA from 5.28 on April 28th to 3.92. His best start of the year was his last one, pitching seven innings allowing one run on three hits against the Red Sox. Cole hasn't faced the Mets this year but he's struggled against them in his career (2-4, 4.12).

Mike Pelfrey has been the Mets best pitcher this season which says a lot when another guy in the rotation is Johan Santana. He's really only had one terrible start all season which came against the Phillies in the Saturday game of the three games series earlier this month. The Phils put up six runs in four innings against Pelfrey in his only loss of 2010. He only allowed one run over six innings against the Yankees last Saturday. Like Cole, Pelfrey has struggled against the team he is facing tonight. He's 4-3 with a 5.43 lifetime ERA vs. the Phillies.

Weather Forecast: 71, isolated t-storms, 50% rain, wind 10 MPH in from RF

Season Series: 3-2 Mets

Mets Lineup

1. Reyes, SS

2. Castillo, 2B

3. Bay, LF

4. Davis, 1B

5. Wright, 3B

6. Pagan, CF

7. Francoeur, RF

8. Blanco, C

9. Pelfrey, SP

Phillies Lineup

1. Victorino, CF

2. Polanco, 3B

3. Utley, 2B

4. Howard, 1B

5. Werth, RF

6. Ibanez, LF

7. Ruiz, C

8. Valdez, SS

9. Hamels, SP