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.