I hate weather

I thought I was going to reprise the hurricane post by saying that it was all worth it because Christine and I allowed Trent to play hooky and attend his first Phillies game.

But with a good chance of rain, which increases exponentially when we go to the ballpark, we sent him to school so we could get cold and wet at Citizens Bank Park. Well, it was clear for a couple of innings, as you can see.

The game started off well. Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez settled down after a two-run first inning, giving up only a hit and a walk over his next five innings. Kyle Kendrick, making his first appearance since Aug. 24, was dominant. He didn't give up a hit (one hit batsman) for four innings before giving up a solo home run in his 5th and final inning. Pete Orr made several outstanding plays at second. Chase Utley pinch-hit for him in the 8th.

But as the relievers came, the weather worsened and the game dragged. Each team had lengthy threats but didn't do much to change the score - just enough to make it miserable for those of us in the stands. The Phils held on to win 3-1.

Observations from the stands: We were surprised so many made it to the park for this Hurricane Irene make-up. Many scattered under cover once the rain and wind hit. We were in the last row, so we didn't have to head for higher grand like most of these people did. ... We saw many youngsters in the crowd. We wished Trent were with us, until the cold and wet kicked in. ... Rest in peace Negro League Star Bill "Ready" Cash. ... The Central Bucks West High School Choir, directed by Joseph Ohrt, did the anthem. Not bad, but we've heard it before. And before that. And even before that.

Antiquated shirts: Bobby Abreu (not at the park but at a store before the game), Jayson Werth, Jamie Moyer, Pedro Martinez (Phillies) and Jim Thome, whose 600th homer got a salute in the Phillies program. Not yet antiquated, but Christine spotted a Wilson Valdez shirt in the crowds.

So, we're home. My scorecard made it through the rain. Trent's asleep, and we're waiting to see whether the Phillies will hold on for the sweep and whether the Red Sox can come back against the Rays.

We're going to one more game this year. Disappointingly, we won't see much of it because it's Sunday night. With a baby, we don't do night games on school nights.

But given our track record, we can expect a win (4-0 when we've gone this year) but finally a better starter (Cole Hamels - we've seen Kendrick and Roy Oswalt start the other four games).

Most expensive cheesesteak and blog post ever

It's a cliche, but ...

Two tickets: $56

Parking: $20

Toll: $5

Pre-game cheesesteak: $9.50

Two tickets for Sept. 15 for which we've already spent about $100: worthless

Holding tickets to Sunday's game, we dreaded the worst of the impending hurricane. We were relieved when the Phillies announced a proactive double-header for Saturday.

We knew we would get wet, but we figured they would be able to get the game in. And, we would have a good story about watching a game during a hurricane when in reality the weather could not compare with Game 5 (part 1) of the 2008 World Series.

The Phillies and Marlins would have been able to play today, especially if they had bumped the start time up from 1 p.m., but no. We stood around in the rain for nothing. And, to top it off, they announced the makeup game will be on a weekday afternoon. Thanks, Phils. That means another pair of our tickets will go to waste, and we spent $100 to eat a cold cheesesteak with half-melted provolone to fetch a story for the blog.

Fish'n'Phils: While waiting out the rain in the concourse, an old-school teal Marlins hat caught my eye. It was even better than I first thought. The dude was wearing a Dontrelle Willis jersey, and his mate was wearing a Phillies Jayson Werth jersey. Classic.

I may be forgetting other scenes from the ballpark, but I didn't have anything to take notes on. I did see a great jersey of a current Phil: bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer.

Oh, and Christine spotted a guy wearing a Dodgers hat with a Derrek Lee Orioles T-shirt. That was an odd one.

So, now we're back home taking advantage of Trent's afternoon nap to post this and clean the house while waiting for Hurricane Irene to blow over.

Stay safe and dry.

Early spring lessons

This week, Trent learned the most important thing about spring training: The games don't matter.

The Red Sox lost to the Phillies 2-0 on Thursday, getting only one hit in the game, off Cole Hamels, in the first - and least important - of the games the two teams will play in 2011.

We also learned that you should take advantage of nice early March weather. We took Trent to a local farm/zoo on Saturday. It was much more fun to watch Trent look at roosters, chase lizards and try to grab a fish than to watch a rare spring Red Sox broadcast. They lost to the Marlins 11-2 (see my first paragraph).

Reprise

There are a couple of updates today about things I've written about recently.

I speculated about Jayson Werth going to the A's in the offseason, but Ruben Amaro says don't be so quick to run J-Dub out of town to the Yankees, Red Sox or a wild card team like the A's:

"As we've talked about before, we'd love to bring Jayson Werth back, and he obviously plays rightfield," Amaro said. "Nobody's giving Domonic Brown the job in rightfield next year."

Even though Werth is finishing up a second straight career year heading into a free-agent market that has paid similar players more than $15 million per year?

"It's possible," Amaro said, "Again, these are issues that we'll deal with in the offseason."

I don't buy it, but a part of me thinks there may be some super-secret convoluted plan in the works, similar to jettisoning Cliff Lee to get Roy Halladay. Could next year's outfield be Raul Ibanez, Werth and Brown?

On a cheerier note, New England native and Carlos Quintana fan Rich Hill not only got to pitch for his favorite team, but earned a win for the Red Sox against the Mariners Tuesday night:

"The big thing for me is being back at this level and able to pitch well," said Hill, who had shoulder surgery a year ago. "But it's a cool thing to get a win with the Red Sox in my first game"’ said Hill, a Milton native and Boston resident.

Today's games: Behind ace Roy Halladay, the Phillies lead the Marlins 10-4 in the 9th. If they hold on, they would have a three game lead over the Braves. ... Behind ace Clay Buchholz, the Red Sox finished a sweep of the Mariners with a 5-1 win.

Q'd up

It gets monotonous when baseball players are asked to name their favorite players. They always pick the same handful of stars - Cal Ripken, Nolan Ryan, Ken Griffey Jr., etc. Sometimes you'll see somebody who was ingrained to a certain region - a Don Mattingly or Ryne Sandberg. Or, you'll see homages to players with significant historic importance beyond the game - a Jackie Robinson or Roberto Clemente.

For a game played by more than 16,000 major leaguers, it seems only a few dozen are mentioned frequently as being someone's favorite player.

That's why New Englander Rich Hill's answer for his favorite players was so refreshing. Hill, a former top pitching prospect for the Cubs who has become a journeyman minor leaguer, was called up by the Red Sox, his hometown team.

Instead of naming Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens or Mo Vaughn as his favorite players, he named venerable Dwight Evans, who would fit into the geographical category, and little-known Carlos Quintana:

Here's how much of a Red Sox fan Hill is: when asked to name his favorite players growing up, he first said Dwight Evans and then mentioned Carlos Quintana, a first baseman and occasional outfielder from 1988-93.

If you know who the Q is, you're a real fan.

I guess I'm a real fan. I remember when Q burst onto the scene. He seemed to claim the first base job out of nowhere. (I was a kid living several states away before the Internet.) He was an anchor of the 1990 team - one of my favorite seasons - and a player who always seemed better than he actually was because he wasn't overhyped.

His career was cut short because of an injury in a car crash, but thanks to Rich Hill, he'll be remembered today.

Today's games: It's up to Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge to hold onto the Phillies 2-1 lead over the Marlins. I wonder if this is going to be another time when Cole Hamels misses out on a win because of no run support. ... The Red Sox are just getting under way in Seattle.

Will J-Dub move up in the alphabet?

Everyone assumes that Jayson Werth - who has become right fielder non grata to Christine - will be a Red Sox or Yankee next year.

But what if Reggie Jackson is a double agent and was working for another one of his former teams, the A's, when he went recruiting the bearded wonder this spring?

Sports Illustrated had a piece talking about how young, good and cheap the A's pitching is and speculated that Billy Beane may have money - and spend it - to upgrade his offense this offseason. J-Dub, whose wild looks would have fit right in with the Jason Giambi A's of the 2000s, was mentioned.

I was intrigued by that, especially with Peter Abraham's random note last night:

Don't sleep on Oakland. Give that team a hitter or two and they have the pitching to do some damage.

If Werth is done with the Phillies, I'd love for him to go West instead of setting up another stale bidding war between the Yankees and Red Sox.

Tonight's games: The Phillies lead the Marlins 11-1 in the 8th. I think this one is safe. ... The Red Sox play late in Seattle.

More scoreboard watching

During last night's game, there was a lot of talk about scoreboard watching as the Phillies win, coupled with the Braves loss, sent the Phils back to their customary spot atop the NL East.

The fans cheered every time the scoreboard revealed another run for the Pirates against the Braves, and the announcers noted how Mike Sweeney, who has never been to the playoffs in his 16-year career, acknowledged that he has been scoreboard watching.

Christine and I like to scoreboard watch at the ballpark. Well, we like to note the different screens they have for players' photos.

Here's what caught our fancy from Sunday's game, starting with Amoroso's. Jimmy Rollins had been slumping, but he's been on a roll since moving to the 5th spot in the batting order two games ago. (Ed's note: I wrote this before J-Roll left tonight's game because of a tight hamstring. I'm too tired to change it.)

Charlie Manuel likes the new lineup, so he's locked it up. Too bad that Steve Urkel, err, Ben Francisco can't crack it.

Of course, the Phillies scoreboard operators seem to have it locked in their minds that Jayson Werth is still clean-cut. They really seem to be in denial about the various wild looks he has sported in 2010. Or maybe they're just helping J-Dub audition for a job with the Yankees.

It's not just the home team that participates in these screen shots, although I doubt the visitors get any say whatsoever in what happens with their mugs.

It also seems like more of the nonprofit billboards go to the road team. I wonder if the Phillies give them a discount.

Casey McGehee demonstrates the Please Touch Museum advertisement.

Prince Fielder, with a very cheesy smile, has gone artsy, advertising the Cleopatra exhibit at the Franklin Institute.

We actually saw the Cleopatra ad at our previous game but didn't get a picture. It worked out well anyway because we really like Prince Fielder's big grin.

His squishy eyes remind us of the first studio pictures we got of Trent last weekend. The kid wouldn't smile for the camera except one shot where his eyes are half closed.

Of course, as soon as we left the store, he wouldn't stop smiling for the rest of the weekend.

Tonight's games: The Red Sox are done. I'll lead with them because they are done. I don't like admitting that prematurely, but Terry Francona has waved the white flag and started Tim Wakefield, scotching plans to start the league's ERA leader Clay Buchholz.

It doesn't matter, but the Sox beat the Rays 11-5. Should I have rooted for them to blow it so the Rays didn't lose ground to the Yankees?

The Phillies held on to their half game lead over the Braves, beating the Marlins 10-6. (The Braves beat the Pirates 9-2.)

The Phillies led 10-0 in the 8th, but Nate Robertson's mop sprung a leak, allowing six runs and making the game much closer than it needed to be.

There's only one Phanatic

We got to the park early for Sunday's game. We always get there early, but there was actually something special going on - a whole bunch of Phanatics, on display, in art form.

It was so cultural.

We snapped a bunch of random pictures of the various examples of Phanatics that were fashioned by local artists. They were on display before being auctioned off this month.

Here's a listing of the Phanatics in our pictures(except the first picture). I'm pretty sure the one on the far right is P. Phanatic Star Voyager, but I'm not sure which golden Phanatic is next to him.

1. The Phanatic Paints A Mural

We really liked this one. "It's so meta," Christine quipped. "It's a Phanatic painting on a Phanatic."

2. Ben Phranklin Phanatic

I'd hate to see our electricity bill if this guy and not Benjamin Franklin flew the kite on that infamous night.

3. Key to Golden Love Phanatic

We don't get it.

4. Phanatico Latino

That's a tribute to all the Latin Phillies stars including Ruben Amaro, Juan Samuel and Carlos Ruiz.

5. Yesterday Today and Tomorrow

That's a tribute to all Phillies - past, present and future. It's one of the five statues that the Phillies are keeping.

6. (Not pictured) PhanaTrent.

More info about the rest of the real Phanatic statues can be found here.

Forgotten from yesterday: I didn't mention this in yesterday's recap of our experience at the park on Sunday because it happened on the walk out of the ballpark after I stopped taking notes on my scorecard.

Some guy saw my Red Sox hat and said, "Yeah, Red Sox," and punched me in the arm.

It was random and confusing. I'm not sure if he was sarcastic or not, but even if he were the punch did not seem offensive.

My Red Sox hat elicited another comment today when Trent and I dropped off his application for a local baby parade. We're not going Little Miss Sunshine, just thought it would be a nice little campy thing to do with the little guy.

Anyway, the woman at the counter saw my hat and told me her fiance loves the Red Sox.

Today's games: It was a SoxandPhils double header on the tube tonight. MLB Network was supposed to show the White Sox and Tigers, but the Red Sox and Rays were on instead.

I wish they stuck with their original broadcast.

I thought I'd have an enjoyable moment with Trent and the Sox. They were up 2-0 when I flipped it on.

But then Daisuke Matszuka blew up, giving up eight earned in 4.2 innings. The Rays won 14-5. I'm still holding out hope, but I'm not sure Terry Francona is: "Every player in the Sox starting lineup has either been replaced or changed position," reports Gordon Edes.

The Phillies, despite Jose Contreras and J.C. Romero's efforts to blow the game, beat the Marlins 8-7 to reclaim first place.

The Phillies led 7-4 in the 8th, but Contreras gave up three runs. J.C. couldn't clean up the mess.

In the bottom of the inning, Placido Polanco drove in a run, and because the Braves lost to the Pirates, the Phillies have a half game lead.

Lots of things amiss

You're never happy seeing Kyle Kendrick give up a three-run home run in the first inning, but once he did, there was still a sense Sunday's game could be a classic Phillies comeback - especially when Ryan Howard came up in the bottom of the inning with two men on.

But when Howard couldn't match Prince Fielder's big blast, Christine knew the Phillies weren't going to come back.

The Phillies showed some spark at times, but the offense kept sputtering against Randy Wolf, and there were just too many things - besides Kendrick - that were amiss when we were at Citizens Bank Park yesterday.

Observations from the stands: The first sign that things were off-kilter was the fact I forgot a writing utensil and had to use the little stubby pencils for scorekeeping. Using a Trent-sized pencil wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and they accidentally gave me two scorecards in my program, so that's $2 I'll save at my next game.

Another thing askew was that there were way too many Phanatics at the park. We like the big guy, but the park was getting overrun by creatures from the Galapagos Islands as part of the Phanatic Around Town Auction (we'll have more on this later in the week).

After getting our lunch and settling in the stands, the next odd sight was Jamie Moyer on the field. It's become a running joke whether it's too soon to include a Moyer shirt in our "antiquated" listings, but the injured old-timer was on the field Sunday to award the winners of the Phillies home run derby.

The moment gave us a sense of deja vu. Probably because we saw this in 2008. Pat Burrell handed out the trophies then, but it was noted that J-Moy had won the home run derby in his younger days. The Phillies also played the Brewers on that day in 2008, part of the big four-game sweep that resuscitated their playoff drive. They also trailed in that game, but Howard was able to come through with a game-tying home run to set up a big Phillies comeback.

Musical entertainment: The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club, directed by Dr. C. Erik Nordgren, did the anthem. "Oh my god, they sound just like a glee club," Christine said. "And they look like it, too."

They never said who he was, but Joseph Goldberg sang God Bless America. I'm rarely a fan of GBA singers, especially when I don't know why they were selected.

Christine was miffed that for our second consecutive game the Phanatic mid-game skit consisted of a troupe of random dancers. Sunday's episode featured girls from the Dance Team from The College of New Jersey, which is our alma mater.

I'm still shocked because I thought the dancers looked like they were 12 years old.

The Phanatic's dugout dance was Minnie the Moocher, which made me happy because it's a song Trent and I like to sing.

There were lots of youngsters in the crowd to get the free Jimmy Rollins tee. We wanted to bring our little guy, but we know he's not ready for the big leagues yet.

Scoreboard glitches: The players weren't the only members of the Phillies that were off-stride on Sunday. There were several scoreboard glitches as well.

For the "Ask a Phillies" segment, they flashed the question "Do you like to cook?" but the video was asking for their first concert.

Then, in the "Who am I?" segment, they flashed Roy Halladay's name immediately after the first clue - that he was born in 1977 in Colorado.

Finally, in touting Carlos Ruiz as a star of the game, there was a bunch of jumbled, overimposed words, and we weren't able to read any facts about Chooch.

PhilsandBrews: Zack Braddock, the local kid whose family was in full force as he pitched in Philly for the first time on Saturday, did a little better in Sunday's game.

He was summoned to pitch to Chase Utley after Wolf allowed a single to Rollins in the 7th. Braddock got him out for the hold in front of his family and friends.

While we didn't have a TV, we knew his family was back for Sunday's game because we saw them and their clever "Phillies by choice, Brewers by blood" shirts as we walked back from Bull's.

Nice touch with Braddock's name and number on the back.

Funny moment of the day: Leading off the 7th inning, Chooch was robbed of a hit by a great catch by Ryan Bruan. "Chooch was robbed," Christine said, before noticing that he was standing on first base.

Chooch was out, but apparently he didn't think so.

Antiquated T-shirts: The best of the day was of the day's winning pitcher, but it was from Wolf's Phillies tenure. We also spotted Cliff Lee, Scott Rolen, Mike Lieberthal, Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu, John Kruk, Mitch Williams, Hal McRae and Jim Thome.

Today's games: In the afternoon game, Vance Worley pitched well in his first major league start, but the Marlins' Adalberto Mendez had a more impressive big-league debut in the 7-1 Marlins win. In the nightcap, the Phillies survived a so-so Roy Oswalt start and split the double header with a 7-4 win. They are now 0.5 games behind the Braves.

The Red Sox, fielding a team of minor leagues as if they've given up on the season, beat the Rays 12-5. The miracle starts tonight.

Jon Lester is a wuss

It's hard for me to say that about our beloved cancer conqueror and World Series hero, but I think I can be critical of a fellow newly minted first-time father:

In the real world, a first-time father returns to work after a day or two off and eases back into the routine while showing everybody photos of his pride and joy.

Jon Lester's task last night was to climb the mound at Fenway Park in drenching humidity and to try and pump pitches past the Cleveland Indians.

Sleep had come sparingly since the arrival of his son Hudson on Saturday and after a few innings his left hamstring started to ache. Errors, a passed ball, and the other residue of a season going steadily awry only made things worse.

“He'd had a long three or four days," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

OK, I took off four days (not including the weekend) and I returned to work in a climate-controlled building. But...

I'm just glad that Lester didn't become the 16th Red Sox to be DL'd after hearing last night that the trainer made a couple of visits to the mound.

Tonight's games: Kevin Youkilis' injured thumb will cost him the rest of the season, but the gimpy Sox forged ahead. Daisuke Matsuzaka went 8 strong innings (?!?!?), and the Sox lead the Indians 6-2 in the 9th. ... Roy Oswalt pitched much better than in his debut and left with a 2-0 lead in the 7th, but J.C. Romero allowed the runners he inherited to score and the Phillies trail the Marlins 4-2 in the 9th. They might be attempting a comeback now with two on base and no one out.

15 X 2 = Lots of injured SoxandPhils

Yesterday, Todd Zolecki noted that Ryan Howard is the 15th Phillie to land on the DL. Today, Amalie Benjamin noted that Kevin Youkilis is the 15th Red Sox to make this dubious list.

Thirty injured SoxandPhils. You could literally make a team of gimpy 2010 injured SoxandPhils.

Peter Abraham noted that 10 Red Sox have made it unscathed from Opening Day. That's out of the 48 who have been on the big league roster so far.

Meanwhile, the Phillies traded for Ken Griffey Jr.'s friend, Mike Sweeney, because of Howard's injury.

Today's games: Jon Lester stunk up the joint. In the 9th, Indians 9, Red Sox 1. Phillies lead the Marlins 5-2 in the 7th. There was a rain delay.

Mike Lowell almost was the next Mike Stanley

Good news: Mike Lowell is in the starting lineup, which means he wasn't traded to the Yankees.

Bad news: Mike Lowell is in the starting lineup, which means Kevin Youkilis is on the DL.

The last time the Yankees and Red Sox swapped players, Mike Stanley was traded back to the empire and we got Tony Armas Jr., who was included with Carl Pavano in the Pedro Martinez deal. So I guess dealing with the devil isn't necessary all that bad.

Joining Youkilis on the DL is his fellow SoxandPhils first baseman, Ryan Howard. Unbelievable.

Tonight's games, aces up: Roy Halladay and the Phillies lead the Marlins 6-1 in the 8th, and Josh Beckett has the Red Sox ahead of the Indians 3-1 in the 7th.

East Coast bias

Baseball will never catch up to football in popularity if it keeps using a marketing strategy that relies on focusing on one team and alienating fans of every other.

Yes, fans of the Red Sox and Phillies are getting hosed once again to the big-city flavor-of-the-month. The finale of this weekend's SoxandPhils series was supposed to be on national TV, but it got the boot so baseball could once again use a marquee broadcast to feature the Washington Nationals and Stephen Strasburg on TBS:

TBS announced today that it has switched its Sunday telecast away from the Phillies-Red Sox game, to a Nationals-Indians game it would have absolutely no interest in if not for Strasburg.

I'll turn off the sarcasm now, especially because tonight's games would throw a serious monkey wrench into my little tongue-in-cheek argument. The Phillies were supposed to be tonight's MLB Network game, but because local broadcasts pre-empt MLB Network, we got the Red Sox game as a bonus.

Phillies: Any thoughts of perfection in the much-anticipated rematch of Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay ended in the first inning for each pitcher, but they locked horns in a good one. Each pitcher went eight innings; Halladay gave up a run in the 1st inning, Johnson gave up none. Johnson's line: three hits, one walk and five strikeouts. Doc's: one run, six hits, one walk and eight strikeouts.

You have to love when a pitching duel lives up to the hype, although Christine will disagree tonight because the Marlins beat the Phillies 2-0.

Red Sox: Jon Lester didn't have it tonight, giving up six runs in six innings. In the 8th, Indians 6, Red Sox 5.

Rain forces our attention elsewhere

The Phillies and Marlins were rained out long before the game was supposed to start, postponing the perfect rematch of Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay.

That's OK, because it will allow us to focus on hockey to see whether the Flyers can avoid elimination and force a Game 7 in Chicago. (Full disclosure: I've been more interested in hockey than ever before, but I still feel like I'm listening to another language when I try to watch a game. Christine's interest is legit.)

Even if the Phillies were playing, our attention might have been a bit diverted, and Charlie Manuel might have blamed our lack of focus on the fact that it's our contract year, like he did with Jayson Werth. This incident is going to cause some hard feelings. It's hard for me to take a side, so I'll just blame it on Reggie Jackson.

Without the game, we can take a moment to salute Tim Wakefield for pushing Roger Clemens out of the Red Sox record books for most innings pitched. Congrats to Mr. 2777.

We also have the opportunity to look ahead to this weekend's rematch of the Red Sox and Phillies - this time in Fenway.

It has always seemed like the Red Sox have had the Phillies' number despite a fair number of close, spirited games. The stats backed up my hunch. All time, the Red Sox have a 24-16 record against the Phillies in interleague play. (That doesn't include the 1915 World Series in which the Sox beat the Phils 4-1.) But if you look at the run differential, the Red Sox edge is a bit closer, 223-206. That equates to a .539 winning percentage, not the .600 winning percentage they have had against the Phillies.

A Phillies sweep this weekend would go a long way toward evening up the series. I think the pitching matchups will be Jamie Moyer against John Lackey, Joe Blanton against Daisuke Matsuzaka and Cole Hamels against Tim Wakefield. That's not official yet, so don't be surprised if something changes.

It's too bad that the old guys will miss each other and that three of our team's aces (Roy Halladay, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz) probably won't pitch.

Tonight's game: We were missing a good one in Cleveland that pitted Clay Buchholz against former Red Sox Justin Masterson, who has fallen on some hard times since being traded for Victor Martinez. But he seemed on tonight, two hits and two walks with six strikeouts in eight shutout innings. Clay pitched well too, just not as good - three runs on three hits and four walks in seven innings.

But then Boof Bonser made his Red Sox debut. It didn't go well. It's now 11-0 Indians in the 8th.

Hockey: Flyers and Blackhawks are tied 2-2 in the 2nd period.

Drafting a core

OK, I didn't want to get sucked into the hype, but man, Stephen Strasburg's pitches have some movement to them. I don't think Christine is going to like watching him square off against the Phillies for the next decade.

But it's nice to see the Nationals have some real hope for the first time in a long time. Because the Red Sox and Phillies continue to be successful, they won't have the chance for such a highly touted draft pick as Strasburg, but they each seemed to do well with their first pitching pick last night.

With the 27th pick, the Phillies took a local kid, Jesse Biddle, who is excited to be a Phillie and is being compared by scouting director Marti Wolever to the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw:

"They're about the same size. Jesse's arm might work a little easier, quite frankly, than Clayton's did. But I think ceiling-wise and stuff-wise they're very comparable. We think Jesse has a chance to be that guy in the big leagues."

With the 39th pick, their third of the draft, the Red Sox took a moose of a pitcher, a Jersey guy, Anthony Ranaudo. That was after they selected and have nearly signed two decent bats:

"That was as excited as we've been in the draft room since I got here," general manager Theo Epstein said. "We felt the draft broke our way. Hopefully in five years we can look back and still feel as good about this draft."

This is from a guy who in 2005 drafted Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury and Michael Bowden.

While we wait for this year's crop of draft picks to hit the bigs, here's how the current big leaguers are doing:

Red Sox: Behind a good Tim Wakefield (Pirates draft of '88), the Red Sox lead the Indians 3-2 in the 8th.

Phillies: Kyle Kendrick (Phillies draft of '03) struggled, but the bats are actually battling tonight and lead the Marlins 7-6 in the 7th. For the first time in weeks, the Phillies have multiple home runs - Shane Victorino (Dodgers draft of '99) and Ryan Howard (Phillies draft of '01).

Strasburg: Wow. The phenom (Nationals draft of '09) lived up to the hype tonight - seven innings, two runs, four hits, no walks and 14 strikeouts. Oh, and he needed just 94 pitches to accomplish that gaudy line. Thanks to homers by Ryan Zimmerman (Nationals draft of '05), Adam Dunn (Reds draft of '98) and Josh Willingham (Marlins draft of '00), he left with a 4-2 lead.

Reliving perfection

Because the Red Sox spent their Memorial Day off, watching Casey Kelly pitch for Portland and the second-place Phillies continue to struggle (9-3 loss to the temporarily first-place Braves), all we can do is bask in the glory that is Roy Halladay.

This morning we watched his perfect game. Six whole minutes of it:



Tonight, we may watch the extended version as Comcast SportsNet is replaying the game. Our apologies to the Flyers, playing Game 2 of the finals tonight. It's scoreless in the first period.

We're also considering buying tickets to Roy Halladay's big game. No, we're not. We think this idea - the Marlins are selling unused tickets for Saturday's game at regular price - is stupid. You were either one of the 25,000 who were there, or you weren't. At first I was considering ripping the Marlins over this, but Christine convinced me that they're just taking advantage of people's stupidity. Go capitalism, I guess.

Today was for the children

Today was our day to cook for the families at the Ronald McDonald House. We think it went well, even if we grilled non-Mickey D's burgers at a house named after the burger icon.

With our meal preparation, there was minimal thought of baseball today, except for the Hatfield Phillies Beef Franks we served. (Yes, the brand was intentionally selected.)

Before we left, we did see that Jamie Moyer was not perfect. He pitched well, but he needed to be nearly perfect because the Phillies offense is still struggling. The Marlins beat the Phillies 1-0.

Jon Lester had another strong start in an 8-1 win over the Royals. He's going to win the Cy Young.

Perfect day

A week ago, we, well, I was disappointed that Daisuke Matsuzaka didn't pitch a no-hitter against the Phillies. But it was an odd no-hit attempt. He struggled, and it was just kind of boring and uncomfortable.

There was none of that uneasiness tonight. Harry Leroy Halladay III was efficient and dominant as he pitched the 20th perfect game in major league baseball history, joining Jim Bunning as the only Phillies pitchers with perfectos.

Congrats to the Doc. Is there anything he can't do, besides handle the Red Sox?

We were able to watch, or at least listen to, just about every one of Halladay's 115 pitches in the 1-0 win over the Marlins. (Josh Johnson also pitched well, giving up an unearned run in seven innings.)

Before Halladay took the hill, we spent the day running to a bunch of stores and boiling enough macaroni to feed the SoxandPhils (we were preparing for dinner tomorrow at the Ronald McDonald House).

Among good but not perfect highlights of the day:

At a pet store, Christine saw a bulldog checking into their little hotel-esqe kennel. She thinks he smiled at her and that he looked like the currently unemployed Elvis - err, check that. Elvis is now a West Coast doggie because Pat Burrell signed a minor league deal with the Giants.

Later, we couldn't decide whether to take a walk because the Phillies game was coming on. We decided to walk and broke out the portable radio for the first time. It was neat listening to the game, although the houses we passed seemed more focused on the Flyers game than the Phillies. Understandable at the time, I guess.

Other games: Clay Buchholz was not perfect but pitched pretty well and beat Zack Greinke and the Royals by a 1-0 score. (The run was earned.)

The Flyers are losing to the Blackhawks 5-4 in the second period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.

Lee Arthur tips his hat to Sarge

Driving to work this morning, I got a treat because Lee Arthur Smith was a guest of Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason's WFAN radio show. I always liked the big guy and thought the Red Sox should have kept him instead of Jeff Reardon in 1990.

He talked mostly about closers because he's plugging a book, Fireman: The Evolution of the Closer in Baseball, for which he wrote the foreward.

The conversation turned a little SoxandPhils when he was asked about the 1984 NL East Champion Cubs.

"It was like a family," Smith said. "And the one guy for me that held the ballclub together was Gary Matthews."

Everybody loves Sarge, even one of the nastiest closers of my generation.

Smith didn't feel as bad about losing with his only other playoff team, the 1988 Red Sox. "'84 was tougher for me," Smith said.

He was also asked whether there was one hitter he couldn't get out. His answer? Mike Schmidt, who killed the Cubbies. Michael Jack had a .986 OPS against Chicago, his third highest against any team, and a 1.048 OPS at Wrigley, the highest mark he had in any park.

I like it when a player's memory reflects reality.

Today's games: After 30 innings, the Phillies finally scored a run. For days, Christine was convinced they would not score another run all season. At first, I thought she was just being melodramatic, but I was starting to wonder ...

The Phillies weren't satisfied with that run and scored another, and then one more to give them their first lead in a week. It was a pure offensive onslaught by the Phightin' Phils who held on for the 3-2 win against the Marlins, despite a nervous 9th by Jose Contreras.

If the Phillies night was an onslaught, the Red Sox offense was firing on all cylinders with five runs. But the Royals bats put both teams to shame, knocking out Tim Wakefield in the 3rd inning with nine runs. They embarrassed the once-again deflated Sox 12-5.

Weddings, memories and a giant weed

We went to a wedding yesterday and had a good time as Christine got to see some high school friends and classmates she hasn't seen in years. This morning, Christine mentioned that it has been some time since we've attended a wedding - June 24, 2006, to be exact.

I was able to determine the precise date because I remember listening to a SoxandPhils Saturday afternoon game as we drove up to North Jersey. Curt Schilling struck out 10 in six innings, but Manny Delcarmen blew his 3-2 lead. David Ortiz ended the game with a two-run homer in the 10th off Tom Gordon. Brett Myers started for the Phillies. He struggled in the game, but had a worse day off the field.

When Brett Myers made his debut on July 24, 2002, we were honeymooning in Niagara Falls. The next year, we took a nicer honeymoon in Hawaii. We bought a little souvenir - a little twig that was supposed to grow into a hibiscus. It grew, and grew, and grew. It never bloomed until last year when we finally planted it outside. Sadly, those were its only blooms. It did not survive this miserable winter. I had to throw it out today as I did the yard work I usually do on Saturdays, but had to postpone a day because of the wedding. Farewell, Hawaii, we'll miss you.

On the plus side, I did not fall off any ladders this weekend, but I bought that taller one.

You might have noticed I didn't write about today's games. What's to say? The Red Sox are off to their worst start since 1996 after dropping their third straight to the Rays, 7-1, and on a day that Cole Hamels channeled his 2008 mojo against the Marlins, the Phillies offense continued to channel the 1996 Phillies offense's mojo.