Midnight Celebration

It was a nail biter at the ballpark last night, as the Phillies won 5-2 over the Dodgers in extra innings thanks to a Pedro Feliz walk-off 3 run home run.  The fans that stayed until the very end were certainly glad that they did; this game, originally scheduled for a 1:35pm start, was moved to 8:05pm for ESPN and with the extra innings, continued until past midnight.  Parents wandered back to their cars with half-asleep children strung over their shoulders, their lifeless arms dangling freely, as thoughts of getting up for school the next morning put only a slight damper on the evening.  Lack of sleep or not, they were all happy to have witnessed this comeback.  Here are some photos of the post game celebration for you:

Before Pedro’s 11th inning heroics, he was also responsible for tying the game back up earlier after JC Romero and Ryan Madson combined to blow a 2-1 lead in the 7th inning.  Jimmy Rollins had the chance to put this game to bed early in the 9th inning: Andy Tracy (up to replace Geoff Jenkins who is on the DL), in his first Phillies major league at bat, drew the walk to follow a Shane Victorino single and then Pedro Feliz singled to score Victorino and tie up the game; but with 2 runners on base, Rollins grounded out softly to first base.  The crowd went absolutely insane on him.  Rollins is in a MAJOR funk right now; he went 0 for 5 last night and has not had a hit in a very long time.

Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless 9th and Chad Durbin followed to pitch two scoreless, although eventful, innings.  At one point, he had loaded the bases with no outs, but thanks to great defensive plays, he managed to escape unscathed.  And I almost forgot to mention, Joe Blanton (see I spelled his name correctly), did pitch 6 innings and only gave up one run, although he looked very sloppy and had a lot of base runners.  Thank the defense again for helping him out.  Speaking of great defense, Greg Dobbs and Chase Utley turned an amazing double play in the 3rd inning and I happened to get a shot of it.   This picture is so awesome, even I can’t believe I shot it!  Look at how Utley just gives himself up to make this play – amazing!  So, we all know what happens next; Feliz whacks the big homer and we all got to go home and sleep!  After the game, Charlie Manuel spoke to the media: “We hung in there and we deserved to win,” Manuel said. “Games like this, if they don’t inspire you and give you a lift, I don’t think you like to play. This was good for our team. It would be better to win [Monday] night and take four.”  Well, we certainly would love a sweep here to return the favor after the drudging this team took in Los Angeles.  Brett Myers takes the mound tonight at 7:05pm – Go Phillies!