The Phils made franchise history last night, winning their 102nd game of the regular season for the first time ever as they beat Atlanta 4-3 in 13 innings to knock the Braves out of the post-season.
The Phillies end the year at 102-60 and winners of four straight games. They swept Atlanta in the three-game set and the Braves fell short in their Wild Card bid with the combination of last night’s loss and an 8-0 win for the Cardinals against Houston.
Blanton started the game for the Phils and allowed a run on three hits over two innings, dropping his ERA on the year to 5.01.
The Phils went up 1-0 in the top of the first when Pence’s two-out walk was followed by a Howard double. Michael Bourn led off the bottom of the first for Atlanta with a single, stole second, went to third on a ground out and scored on a sac fly to tie the game at 1-1. Dan Uggla hit a two-run homer off of Cole Hamels in the third, putting Atlanta up 3-1.
The Phils still trailed by two runs when they hit in the seventh. With one out and men on first and third, Ruiz smashed a ball to short that would have been a double-play ball if Jack Wilson could have handled it cleanly. He couldn’t. Ruiz reached on an error and Ibanez scored from third to cut the lead to 3-2.
Craig Kimbrel came on in the ninth to try to save the game for Atlanta, but couldn’t get it done. The Phils loaded the bases on a single by Polanco and walks to Francisco and Rollins before Utley delivered a sac fly that tied the game at 3-3. With two outs in the top of the 13th and men on first and third, Pence broke his bat delivering a single into shallow right field with Schneider scoring from third to put the Phillies up a run. Herndon kept the Braves off the board in the bottom of the ninth, walking Uggla with one out but getting Freddie Freeman to hit into a double-play behind him to end the game, to earn his first career save.
Hamels didn’t look strong pitching in relief, allowing two runs on four hits over three innings, and again was hurt by the home run on the two-run shot by Uggla. In 38 innings in September, Hamels allowed nine home runs (2.13 per nine innings). Only one pitcher in either league, Bronson Arroyo, allowed more than nine home runs in September. Three others besides Hamels also allowed nine (Anthony Vazquez managed to allow nine in 20 innings pitching for Seattle). Coming into September, Hamels had allowed ten home runs in 178 innings (.51 per nine innings).
It was a fantastic night for the Phillie bullpen. Blanton and Hamels combined to allow three runs over five innings. After Hamels left, Worley, Lidge, Madson, Stutes, Schwimer, De Fratus and Herndon combined to throw eight shutout innings in which they allowed three hits and four walks.
Madson, Lidge and Stutes combined to go three innings in the game in which they struck out four without allowing a hit or a walk.
Michael Schwimer threw two scoreless innings in the game, allowing just one single. He ends the season having thrown four scoreless innings over his last three appearances.
Rollins was 0-for-6 with a walk in the game. He goes 11-for-25 to end the season.
Utley 2-for-4 with two walks. He goes 4-for-8 in his last two games of the regular season.
Pence 2-for-4 with three walks. He’s 7-for-his-last-16 to end the season. 324/394/560 in 236 plate appearances with the Phils this year.
Howard 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. 6-for-14 over his last four games. Ends the year at 224/286/347 against left-handed pitching.
Mayberry 1-for-5 with a walk and started the game in center with Victorino resting with a (hopefully slightly) sore back. Mayberry is 3-for-his-last-15 with four walks. He slugged .576 in the second-half of the season, which led the Phils and was seventh in the NL among the 117 players with at least 150 plate appearances. . He hit ten home runs in 144 second-half at-bats. He has hit 302/356/611 over his last 177 plate appearances.
Victorino is 6-for-his-last-21 after going 0-for-1 last night, but hit 179/257/321 over his last 149 plate appearances to end the season. After going 2-for-5 with a triple and a home run against the Mets on August 23, Victorino was hitting 314/389/551 for the year. He ends the season at 279/355/491.
Ibanez 1-for-6 with two strikeouts and six men left on base. 5-for-17 to end the year. He walked in just 33 of his 575 plate appearances this year (5.7%), which is his lowest rate since 1998. He ends the year at 211/232/353 against lefties.
Polanco 2-for-4. 4-for-24 with no walks to end the year. 243/304/287 in 409 plate appearances since the end of April. He had ten extra-base hits in those 409 plate appearances.
Ruiz 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and an RBI. He has on-based .376 over 1,284 plate appearances the last three years. His power was down this year — he registered extra-base hits in just 6.1% of his plate appearances. Over the last two seasons he had delivered an extra-base hit in about 9.0% of his plate appearances. He slugged just .337 against lefties for the season despite posting a .265 average against them. He’s 1-for-his-last-13.
Martinez went 0-for-3 in the game and left seven men on base. He ends the year 1-for-his-last-21 with a 196/258/282 line for the season.
Games one and two with St Louis are Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia. Three and four in St Louis Tuesday and Wednesday. Game five would be here on Friday.


September 29th, 2011 on 1:24 pm
What a thrilling season for the Phils and might I add what a crazy end to the MLB wild card races. I couldnt believe what I was watching on MLB Network. Amazing stuff.
Congrats to the Phils on 102 and Manuel for his personal lead in the W catagory.
Stutes looked like he had his stuff working last night. Looked damn sharp.
So here come the Cards. I cant wait to get this thing started. Lets go Phils!!
September 29th, 2011 on 1:50 pm
That was just a wild night of games. Pretty fun. I’m ready for the post-season to start now.
September 29th, 2011 on 2:07 pm
Well, 2011 Phils have now made their case for best Phils team ever. All they need to do is back it up with a WS win, and I don’t think there’ll be much of an argument.
September 29th, 2011 on 2:47 pm
any news on Victorino’s back?
September 29th, 2011 on 4:08 pm
I haven’t heard anything new, but my impression is that it’s a minor issue. I was surprised to see as many regulars on the field as we did last night. Pinch-hitting is a good sign.
With you, Jim, on winning the World Series would go a long ways towards making this the best Phillies team ever. The sad fact is that the thing the other teams in franchise history that won at least 100 games have in common is that they did not even make it to the World Series.
September 29th, 2011 on 6:36 pm
I think I saw somewhere recently that only one or two teams in history who won 100 games during the season made it to the the Series. is that so?
September 29th, 2011 on 8:36 pm
I don’t think so.
This says that of 20 100-win teams since 1995, two have won the World Series.
http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/phillies-talk/post/Are-100-wins-a-playoff-curse?blockID=568270&feedID=10156
So I’m not sure how many 100-win teams made it to the World Series, but I think it has to be a lot. Just took a quick look — 1976-78 a 100-win team won three in a row. 1967-70 four in a row.
September 29th, 2011 on 9:39 pm
Geez. That’s good. Glad I asked.
September 30th, 2011 on 9:10 am
There is some truth to the idea that building a team for the regular season is different than building it for the postseason – and that’s especially true if you have only 1 good pitcher and get by on a high-powered offense (see also: 2011 Yankees). Thankfully, the 2011 Phils look like they’re built for the postseason.. now they just need to execute.
September 30th, 2011 on 11:30 am
Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Oswalt. Bastardo. Stutes. Madsen. Just a little crucial.
BTW. Anyone see the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated. Lee and Madsen have the SI cover curse hung upon them. The editors must be from NY.
September 30th, 2011 on 11:48 am
If Lee and Madson are cursed the Phils are in a lot of trouble. I think the Phils can get by without Stutes, Bastardo and even Oswalt. But they’re going to need all of their first three starters and Madson.
Oh yeah, and they’ll also need to score some runs.
October 1st, 2011 on 6:38 am
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