Jesus that took forever. Just before midnight, the San Diego Padres'
went ahead in the 13th inning of the NL Wild Card play-in game, with
Scott Hairston taking one out against Colorado's 9th pitcher of the
game. Most Phillies fans have been hoping the Padres would be the team
they'd face in the first round, as Colorado has been on fire lately
(including against the Phillies), and San Diego had to use Cy Young
shoe-in Jake Peavy tonight, taking him out of the rotation until
probably game 3.
Then Colorado came back, with MVP candidate Matt Holliday taking the RBI lead from Ryan Howard (needing an extra game to do it), and scoring the winning run—or did he? On the replay, Michael Barrett looked to block the plate, with Holliday missing the plate and doing a full-on face plant. (note: Sager is a loser) Holliday went 2-6 in the game, putting up 3 huge Ks before coming through with a huge liner that would have left CBP in a hurry.
The Rockies have won 14 of their last 15, including slaughtering the
Phightens at home in September. Both teams win by slugging, and both
play in run-friendly stadiums, so we're probably in store for some
football scores this week (we need them from one of our teams).
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I hate to say it, but the Rockies are for real. Troy Tulowitsky may
be the Rookie of the Year, Holliday is admittedly one of the best in
the game, Garrett Atkins snapped a first-half slump to finish over
.300, and they've gotten solid pitching from the top half of their
rotation. Sure we would have preferred the Padres, but that's why they
just choked got eliminated. We jokingly hoped this
game would go to extra extra innings, and it did, causing the Rockies
to go deep down their bench and wear out some relievers, which could
really play a factor in the series vs. the Phillies.
It looks like it's going to be a helluva series any way you slice it, with both teams on fire heading into the postseason.