My night at Citizens Bank Park

It was cloudy all day and rainy in the afternoon but by the time I got to the ballpark, it seemed as if the rain had left. My fiancee and I got near our seats and watched the Dodgers score three runs and bat through the order. Citizens Bank Park is set up pretty well as I could see the infield pretty well despite being so close to the right field foul pole. We were able to watch Clayton Kershaw do his thing, going 6 and 2/3. We saw Joe Blanton struggle, Chad Durbin give up a home run to Matt Kemp. Jose Contreras came in and gave three more runs away.

Going into the bottom of the 8th, the Dodgers were up 9-2. I was still at the game because these aren't the 2009 Dodgers. These Dodgers are more than capable of making this interesting. I told my fiancee that I thought the win probability was pretty high (it was above 99%). Enter junky Belisario. He comes in and gets shelled. Kenley Jansen lets one of Belisario's runs in. When George Sherrill came in I was thinking that this could be the end but despite walking his second batter, he actually took care of business.



It being 9-6 at the bottom of the 9th, I was glad and miffed at the sight of Broxton taking the mound. With every ball, I was less glad and more miffed. The game had went on long, should have been over and instead of watching Broxton slay his Philly demons, he lets in the tying and winning runs off of a Carlos Ruiz double. We left immediately and I was persecuted like Jesus Christ as I went to the car. I had to wonder, with all the taunting from Phillies fans, what the reaction would have been if the Dodgers had won. Phillies fans, I can confirm, are the worst. I wish the worst for the Phillies. If the Phillies and the Cubs were in the NLCS, I would root for the Cubs and that is saying something.

There has been a lot of vitriol projected on this blog by me but last nights game made it all the more real. I am going to keep watching (at my leisure of course) but there is a team on the South Side of Chicago that I am going to pay more attention to. i am glad that I declared the Dodgers dead before the Phillies series started because it would have been worse if I would have went in to the game thinking that the Dodgers still had a chance, Joe Torre can take his slappy-ass players, finish out the season and ride off into hell. Manny and Furcal are going to stay away and the rest of this season is going to be a shitshow. I defy anyone to say otherwise.

Win Probability Graph courtesy of Fangraphs