Game 71 - Father's Day at the IronPigs; Phillies Game Skipped

2019 Chachi Ballpark Visits #17

2019 Chachi Ballpark Visits #11

2019 Chachi Ballpark Visits #15

While Jenna took Ben to a family graduation party in Quakertown, Doug and I travelled a little further north to take in an IronPigs game in Allentown.  The rain held out until after the game was over, and it was a wonderful way to spend Father's Day.  Doug continued his minor league ballpark tradition of (a) getting many autographs and (b) getting a ball tossed to him at some point during the game.

Unfortunately, starting pitcher Enyel De Los Santos gave up a trio of home runs (two to Bobby Bradley) and the Clippers, the top affiliate for the Indians, won the game 3-1.  Following the game, the IronPigs opened up the outfield for a Father's Day catch on the field, which was the highlight of the afternoon for both of us.  The afternoon outing merited another 10 cards in the growing Ballpark Visits insert set.  Our next stop is scheduled for Lakewood in July to take in a BlueClaws game.

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2019 Chachi Ballpark Visits #9

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Meanwhile in Atlanta, the Phillies had a very bad day.

Braves 15, Phillies 1
Game 71 - Sunday Afternoon, June 16th in Atlanta
Record - 39-32, 2nd place, 2 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The bullpen game concept completely backfired as the Braves demolished each Phillies pitcher presented to them.

What It Means:  With J.T. Realmuto and Jay Bruce out of the line-up with minor injuries, and no reliable fifth starter in sight, this was a massacre of a ballgame.  Moves will need to be made if the Phillies hope to catch the Braves, and they'll enter the week looking up and two and half games back.

What Happened:  Only utility player Sean Rodriguez, who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, escaped without allowing a Braves run.  Vince Velasquez (2 1/3 innings, 4 runs), Cole Irvin (3 2/3 innings, 6 runs) and Jerad Eickhoff (1 inning, 5 runs) were all torched.

Transactions:  Pat Neshek was activated from the Injured List and Irvin was recalled from the IronPigs.  Ranger Suarez and Edgar Garcia were sent back down, but neither arrived in Allentown in time for Sunday's IronPigs game.

3rd Annual Lakewood @BlueClaws Outing (Thanks Herlis Rodriguez!)

2015 Chachi Almost #8

2015 Chachi Almost #9

2015 Chachi Special Edition #6

We made the hour-long trek to Lakewood last night for our third ever Lakewood BlueClaws game.  The BlueClaws play in the South Atlantic League, and they're the Low A affiliate of the Phillies.  Similar to the last two trips, we had an absolute blast and we're already talking about our next trip.

Our sons Doug and Ben both wanted team sets so that they could track down autographs of some of the BlueClaws players prior to the game.  Our biggest challenge was telling who was who on the BlueClaws roster since the team was wearing throw-back Piedmont Boll Weevils jerseys without names on the backs and several of the players were wearing different numbers than the uniform numbers on the 2015 team set or even in the game program.

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #18

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2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #31

Current year draft pick Kyle Martin (now wearing #27) politely handed back the Jason Zgardowski card the boys handed him to sign, since Zgardowski had worn #27 earlier in the season.  Ranfi Casimiro (who autographed a card for Doug last year) was wearing #55 last night, so we had him sign the team set header card not realizing that he normally wears #52 and he did in fact have a card in the team set.

The boys also got autographs from pitching coach Aaron Fultz (again) and local product Matt Hockenberry, as well as from Alexis Rivero.  And they were both handed baseballs by coach Nelson Prada in between innings.

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #3

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But the highlight of the night was interacting with outfield prospect Herlis Rodriguez.  At the end of the top of every inning, Ben waited faithfully for Rodriguez to jog in from right field so that he could give his new favorite BlueClaws player a high five.  Rodriguez obliged each and every time and even reached in to give Ben a high five as the later innings drained Ben's energy and he slumped down into his seat.  Rodriguez is listed as #33 on the team's roster and his card in the team set has him wearing #33, but he was wearing #20 last night.  Ben has started to refer to Rodriguez as "my #20" and his new favorite player.

We were especially thrilled when Rodriguez had a walk-off, RBI infield hit in the bottom of the 10th to give the BlueClaws a 4-3 win.  (The complete game story can be found here.)  The boys have already started asking if we can go back again this summer, and I would say that's a definite possibility.  Thanks again to the BlueClaws and Herlis Rodriguez for a fun, memorable night!

Memory Lane
2013 BlueClaws Game
2014 BlueClaws Game