Philadelphia Phillies: The March to 100

Win #1: Phillies 8, Nationals 7
Well this pre-season Jimmy Rollins boldly predicted that the Phightin's would win 100 games. In honor of his prediction, after each Phils' win I will recap the game on here. The Phillies finally won their first game of the season after blowing a lead in the opener and wasting a gem by Cole Hamels last night. Today, it was the Nationals that would blow the lead. Jamie Moyer and the Phillies' defense was a little slow to get into the swing of things today. The Phillies committed four errors and staked the Nats a 5-0 first inning lead. The Phillies and Nationals traded runs until the bottom of the 6th when the Phillies hit 8 consecutive singles to score six runs and take a 7-6 lead. The bullpen couldn't hold the lead though, as they gave the run back in the top of the 8th inning when Rollins couldn't stop a grounder from squirting through to the outfield. The Phillies managed to load the bases in the bottom of the 8th, but Jayson Werth grounded out to end the threat. Charlie Manuel proved that he's either really thick skinned, or he's an adrenaline junkie by rolling the dice and sending Tom 'I-Lost -My-Flash' Gordon on the mound after he gave up 5 runs to the Nats on Monday in a tie game. This time Gordon managed to walk a couple of batters and give up a single to load the bases, but he escaped the jam by getting Willie Harris to ground out to end the inning. In the bottom of the 9th, Geoff Jenkins gave the Phillies hope by smoking a double to right field, but the threat ended after Carlos Ruiz grounded into a double play to end the inning. Clay Condrey pitched a solid 10th inning by striking out two batters. He would eventually earn the win. Jesus Colome would get the loss in the bottom of the tenth. After allowing a lead-off single to Rollins, Shane Victorino laid down a beautiful bunt, and Rollins made a heads-up base-running play and went from first to third on the bunt. Colome then intentionally walked Chase Utley and Ryan Howard to get to Werth, but he couldn't find the strike zone again and walked Werth on four pitches to allow Rollins to score the game winning run. One win down, 99 to go.

Phillies in '08!