Phillies At Reds Live Blog

Video of Jimmy's lead off homer and Burrell and Jenkins back-to-back blasts after the jump.

Sorry for the late start... went out for lunch and got attacked by a bunch of red birds. Okay not really but there was traffic. I flip on the game about 10 minutes late and the Phils are up 3-0.

Rollins led off with a solo shot followed by a Howard double and a Pat the Bat blast. 3-0 Phils.

Hamels starts off by letting the first two batters on base. Maybe they shouldn't have given him a 3 run lead. Then Freel steals third as part of a double steal. Nice.

Cole goes to a full count with Brandon Phillips before the Reds get a fielder's choice to knock in a run. 3-1 Phils.

Dunn pops up behind home plate and Jeff Keppinger knocks in another run with a single. Hamels gets out of the shaky first with a lead intact. 3-2 Phils after one.

Alright, the chicken breast club has been devoured and now my typing and amazing wit shall improve going forward. The final 8+ frames after the jump.

Top 2nd: Pedro leads off the second. While I'm not sold on his bat, I definitely enjoy having a man named Pedro on our squad. As I typed that, Feliz strikes out.

Ruiz pops out to center and Hamels knocks a single up through the middle. Hamels batting average is probably better than Pedro's.

J-Roll gets another single. Victorino comes up with 2 men on and strikes out to end the inning. I'm not feeling Shane's shades. Maybe he needs new eye wear to get out of his funk.

Here's Jimmy's lead off HR:

Bottom 2nd: Did anyone hear the other day when Wheels said "I love that Dick Pole"? Anyone?

SICK play by Carlos Ruiz on a perfect bunt by Ryan Freel. Incredible throw by Chooch to end the inning.

Top 3rd: Chase has a weak at bat, falling behind an grounding out with a "swinging bunt." Whatever that is.

BURRELL GOES DEEP AGAIN. Pat's second home run of the game. 4-2 Phils. As the Sarge put it, "Wow."

Bronson Arroyo may want to consider that rock career as he just gave up back-to-back homers to Burrell and Jenkins. 5-2 Phils. (Pedro ruins the fun by popping out.)

Bottom 3rd: Nothing interesting. No runs scored, which is good.

T op 4th: Nothing interesting here either. Sorry, got side tracked by seeing Freddie Mitchell's name in a weird news story.

Bottom 4th: Cole seems to have found a nice rhythm after that shaky first. Encarnacion goes down swinging.

Bako got a double but Arroyo failed to get a good bunt down. Inning over. Phils still up 5-2 and this one is moving along pretty fast.

Top 5th: Hey, there's Johnny Bench. That guy just exudes baseball.

Shane comes up to lead off the inning and loops in a single to right. Alright Shane! Now steal second.

W ow. Very nice play by second basemen Brandon Phillips to get Chase at first. +1 Phillips. Shane advances to second.

Ryan Howard likes the K.

Bottom 5th: This live blog really fizzled. I got caught up reading about Glen Macnow's cheesesteak list.

Hamels has been cruising since that bad first inning. Also, I think Tom McCarthy has been a real nice addition to the TV crew.

Top 6th: Jenkins grounds out to start of the inning.

Oh man. Pedro Feliz ALMOST hit a HR. So close... he ends up with a double.

Carlos gets hit by a softball to bring up Cole Hamels with two on and one out. Hamels gets a nice sacrifice down to move the runners to second and third to bring up Jimmy. And that will do it for Mr. Rockstar Arroyo.

Young James gets walked on four pitches to load the bases for the struggling Shane Victorino. Shane will bust out of his slump right here.

Damnit. Shane gets some good wood on a ball but it goes right to the thirdbaseman. End of inning. No runs.

Bottom 6th: Oh no. Cincy does that "Everybody clap your hands." Ugh.

Video of Burrell and Jenkins back-to back blasts:

The final out of the sixth was a bit scary. Howard fields a sharply hit grounder about 8 feet back from the bag and instead of taking it himself he makes Cole work for it. Scary. But Cole gets through six with a nice lead.

Top 7th: Chase leads off with a strange at bat in which it looked like he may have rolled over on his ankle. Someone get that man an icepack, pronto.

Howard and Burrell go down without much of a fight to end the inning.

/stretches

Bottom 7th: The Phils have Rudy See-An-Ez up in the pen. Harry and Wheels keep talking about how Cole doesn't have his best stuff today but he's still leading anyway. They are correct.

So Taguchi has replaced everyone's newest favorite Phillie, Pat Burrell. So caught a pop up for the first out and Feliz fields a ground out for the second out.

Hamels gets through the 7th with a 1, 2, 3 effort. If the pitchers spot comes up next inning I think Hamels will be done for the day. Solid outting from our ace.

Top 8th: Jenkins pops out, Feliz singles, and it looks like Hamels is done as Dobbs has a bat in the on deck circle.

Wheels informs us that Charlie has been sick the past few days and is not feeling well. When Charlie doesn't feel well, nobody feels wel.

Ruiz gets Feliz over to second and Dobbs is up with two outs. Dobbs hits it right back to the pitcher. End of inning.

Bottom 8th:

In to pitch the 8th:

Flash gets the first out with a pop to center. Dunn comes up and gets sent walking back to the dugout with a nice K. Wheels calls the pitch a "snap dragon." Hmm. And the inning ends with a pop up to Jenkins. Alright Flash!

Top 9th: Jimmy grounds out. Shane swings at some bad pitches for out number two. And a pitching change/double switch to face Utley. This game makes me want to take a nap.

Utley gets some wood on it but right to second. It's Brad Lidge time!

Bottom 9th: Lidge gives up what looked to be a bomb to left, but Encarnacion must have just got under it for a very long fly out.

Christ. What the hell is going on here.  This game should be over. Taguchi couldn't catch a pop to left that would have ended it. They give him an error. Shit, here's Ken Griffey Jr.

Lidge is clearly not giving Griffey anything to hit. !@#!@$@#$@#%@# bases loaded.

Javier Valentin comes up with the bases loaded.

As Harry points out, "just five minutes ago this game was really comfortable." Yeah, not anymore.

AHHHHH. Wild pitch or passed ball or something and the tying run now stands on second base.

It looked as if he threw ANOTHER wild pitch but the guy at third decided to stay put. Full count.

STRUCK HIM OUT. Phils win. Phils win. Phils win.

Final: Phils 5 Reds 3

Did they really need to make us sweat like that? Anyway, big win leaving Cincy with a split and heading into Shea with some momentum.

High fives!