Seven years

Since July 21, 2002, the Red Sox and Phillies have played 2,258 regular season games going 1,270-988, a .562 winning percentage.

They've made the playoffs seven times, going 11-4 in 15 series, with three World Championships.

Yes, we've had a nice run of baseball since then. We've had a pretty nice seven years of marriage as well.

While researching this post, Christine insisted that she remembered that the Phillies won on our wedding day. They didn't. Kevin Millwood (then a Brave) beat Randy Wolf 2-1. Maybe she just looks back on that day with rose-colored glasses.

I don't remember a thing about the Red Sox game, but there's no sugar-coating (even retrospectively) SoxandPhil felon Ugueth Urbina blowing a 9th-inning lead against the Yankees.

Today: Tim Wakefield has been DL'd, temporarily solving the rotation's logjam. Josh Beckett takes aim at the Rangers in hopes of ending this three-game skid. After Rodrigo Lopez kept himself in the Phillies rotation with another strong showing, this time against the Cubs, Joe Blanton looks to extend the team's nine-game winning streak.

Two Brads didn't get the message

When I fell asleep, I thought the Phillies had the game in hand. So did Todd Zolecki, whose postgame post allowed early-risers like me to relive the roller coaster ending for Brad Lidge and the Phillies:

Sometimes I get the feeling something is going to go terribly wrong in a baseball game, and I get ready to rewrite my game story. I got that feeling when Steve Bartman interfered with Moises Alou in left field in the NLCS in 2003.

But last night was not one of those games.

Even after Brad Lidge put a couple runners on base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium, I still felt like Lidge was going to get out of the inning and preserve the Phillies' 3-2 victory.

I'll spare you the drama. Lidge didn't come through. Zolecki, however, pins blame on Pedro Feliz, who botched a ground ball with two outs in the 9th. "I just missed it," Feliz said. "I've got nothing more to say." Dodgers 4, Phillies 3.

Red Sox: There was no miracle comeback last night. Julio Lugo continues to draw ire from the fans and media. I don't see the games so I can't weight in. I do believe we need to upgrade defense at shortstop (isn't that what sealed the deal in 2004?) and remove Brad Penny from the team. He was outpitched by Kevin Millwood last night:

Penny pitched under odd circumstances. Roughly 90 minutes before the game, he sat on a clubhouse couch and watched a college game on ESPN. Every couple of minutes along the bottom of the screen, Penny could read about how the Atlanta Braves are reportedly discussing a trade for him with the Red Sox.
...
"That's been my whole career," Penny said. "I don't look at that at all, really."

While Penny couldn't last through the sixth, Millwood dominated. The Red Sox managed six hits in the first seven innings. Millwood struck out five, and his final victim was Lugo.

So despite the fact that both Brads were hurt by their defense, I still say they should have read the memo that this was supposed to be the week of good pitching news at SoxandPhils.

Maybe J-Moy doesn't trust the young'ins: I just like this note in David Murphy's story:

Chris Coste was behind the plate last night for the third time in Jamie Moyer's last four starts. Moyer entered the night 4-1 with a 3.90 ERA in five starts with Coste at catcher, compared to 0-4 with a 10.52 ERA in five starts with starter Carlos Ruiz.

You ask, we try to answer

Since the Red Sox and Phillies are off to rest up before pushing the Florida teams out of first place, we're going to answer some of the questions we've received since starting this blog.

1) Is Jayson Werth married? Pat Burrell? Werth is married with two children, but he doesn't list their names in the Phillies media guide. Burrell is married to Michelle Fonseca with a bulldog named Elvis, who gave his owner a stiff neck this week. It's unconfirmed whether there's a second bulldog named Priscilla.

2) Who was the guy who painted a birthday portrait of the Phanatic this month? He's Dan Dunn, a Paint Jam Artist.

3) What does Daisuke Matsuzaka's Japanese stamp look like? Here's the Dice-K that sends mail (found at the Japanese site Garbage News):


4) When was the Phillies last no-hitter? Kevin Millwood, 1-0 against the Giants, April 27, 2003. The last current Phillie to be involved in a no-hitter is Brad Lidge, who combined with five Astros to blank the Yankees 8-0 on June 11, 2003. (We were vacationing in Hawaii at the time.)

5) What is the intro song for (fill in the name of just about any ballplayer)? This is the most recent list we could find, but some are dubious. Burrell used to rock to Dio's Holy Diver, but now comes out to Don Henley's Dirty Laundry.

Manny being Manny: While the Red Sox dropped a 1-0 game to the anemic Mariners last night to fall 1.5 games behind the Rays, Manny was glad he didn't hold up the team and media with a post-game press conference for his 500th homer.

The press conference would be too late and it would delay us getting into Baltimore.

Great, that's much more important than tying or taking a lead in a game against the worst team in baseball.