Valdez Pitching, Lee at Plate Power Phils' 2 Wins

Valdez on Mound, Lee at Plate Power Phils to 2 wins in 28 innings in 16 hours

Wed. : Phils Win 19-inning Marathon

The Phillies pitcher electrified the crowd, sparked a late rally and led the team to victory. Only it wasn't defending Cy Young Roy Halladay, who started the game, but lasted only one-third of it. The hero on the mound, who enabled the Phils to maintain 1st place over the Florida Marlins (who were chomping at their heels and would've overtaken them), was 2nd Baseman-pitcher Wilson Valdez.

He had never pitched professional baseball before being asked to beat the team the Phils started the 2010 playoffs against. The 1st batter Valdez faced was defending NL MVP, Joey Votto. Valdez had never pitched in the minor or major leagues. It was such a bizarre and implausible confrontation that it lit a fire in the home crowd, many of whom were sleeping at the time-- literally.

“Let’s go, Wilson!” chanted the remaining fans, nearly 6 hours into the contest.

"I put him right down the heart of the order to see what he's got," manager Charlie Manuel would say later. "He passed the test."

Valdez threw 88 mph fastballs and 84-87 mph change-ups. At one point, he shook off the sign from catcher Dane Sardinha, which led to Ryan Howard laughing convulsively into his mit, while trying to play professional baseball, if that's what it was still being called after 2+ games of innings and no dinner.

"I was like, ‘What is he going to throw? What does he have?’" Howard said, after the game. " It was funny, but he got it done.”

What he had was a 90 mph fastball, which got Votto to fly out to center. Why did he challenge Votto, he was asked after the game. “If he hits a home run, they’re not going to say anything to me,” said Valdez, laughing.

Then, although by mistake, he gifted the home crowd by hitting Scott Rolen with a pitch. With that crowd-pleasing inadvertent beaning, it looked like the game might get away from him.

However, he calmly checked the sign and got the next 2 men out, routinely, for a 10-pitch 19th inning, which the Phils would make good on in the bottom half, enabling them to secure 1st place for one more day and giving Valdez (1-0) the win. He became the 1st position player to win a MLB game since 8/'00.

"He's such a great athlete," Raul Ibanez, who had the game-winning sac fly, said after the game.

Before he took the mound as the Phils' 9th pitcher in the game, Valdez made the most of each at-bat and eventually finished the game a team-best 3-for-6. He seemed locked-in, prompting ESPN color commentator and former infielder Nomar Garciaparra to say, earlier in extra innings, "Valdez has been my MVP of the game today. He's hit every ball hard." Little did he know, the best Valdez had was yet to come.

The Phillies collected only 13 hits over 19 innings, while Halladay allowed 11 hits in 7 innings, a far cry from the postseason no-hitter he had recorded against the Reds in October.

They played a full game, then another, then played some more. By the 19th, it felt like the 1st 3 games of a series-- all at once. The game lasted 6 hours and 11 minutes. It was the Phils longest contest since a 21-inning game in 1918. It was played during the Phils longest stretch of the year without a day off (20 games in 20 days) and the 2 teams had to return to the ballpark for a Thursday day game a few hours after completing their 19-inning extravaganza early Thursday A.M.

"What were you thinking with Valdez on the mound?" a reporter asked Ibanez.

"Right now, I can't remember much of anything," Ibanez said. "I'm hungry. I'm sure you are, too."

At one point, late into the night, Garciaparra said to the National TV audience after a commercial break: "If you're just joining us, where have you been?! We were worried sick!"

Charlie Manuel was asked why he chose Valdez, when he has said in the past he's against using position players to pitch. "It's the 1st time I ever did that," he said, bluntly. "I hate doing that."

Jimmy Rollins put on a highlight show in extra-innings, making one improbable play after another at Shortstop. It was further reminder that whatever Rollins is hitting, or not hitting, he belongs in the lineup for his fielding majesty. Rollins has a career .983 fielding %, and he, fittingly, had the winning run in the 19th inning Thursday morning.

It was a complete mystery what manager Charlie Manuel was thinking in the bottom of the 18th, when he pinch-hit for pitcher Danys Baez with nobody warming up in the bullpen. The best the ESPN commentators could come up with was the assumption that pinch-hitter Dane Sardinha was going to pitch. They hoped however, along with every Philly fan watching, that Manuel was finally removing Ruiz for pinch-hitting catcher Sardinha, especially since Ruiz had caught every Phillies pitch of the 18 innings, despite having just arrived from the DL for back pain.

Turned out Sardinha did stay in, but not to pitch. That would be ridiculous. Can you imagine a catcher pitching? Absurd. Manuel kept Sardinha in the game to catch the 19th. And, yes, Ruiz was finally going to go upright and salvage whatever was left of his knees and back. Manuel moved him to 3rd base. (You read correctly.) Meanwhile, 3B Polanco moved to 2B, a position, after all, he does have a .993 fielding % in over 1,000 games and 2 Gold Gloves playing. A position he played for the Phils, before (in '05) they traded him to make room for a young, charismatic 2B named "Chase Utley."

Ruiz took his assignment seriously. In his 2nd-ever game playing 3B, Ruiz chased a foul ball so far that he ended up spread like butter on toast across the dugout along the 3rd base line. It was comical, although cringe-worthy in context of his recent physical ailments. You had to respect the guy. Chooch being Chooch, giving everything he's got.

The Reds sensational 24 year-old RF Jay Bruce (wouldn't he look good in a Phillies' uniform right now?) nearly ended the game prematurely. Hours later, after the game, he would lament:

“It’s definitely the strangest game I’ve ever been a part of,” Bruce said. “All that effort and time-- and you lose. It’s tough.”

In the top of the 10th, the game appeared decided when the Reds took a 4-3 lead on Bruce's league-leading 13th HR to off Antonio Bastardo. Bastardo had been unhittable by left-handers until that point this season. Lefties were just 2-for-22 against him and his overall ERA was 1.04. Bruce tagged him and the game appeared decided. However, Ryan Howard changed all that in the bottom half of the inning with a monster HR that was replayed every couple innings for the next 9. It was a 434 foot HR to straight-away center that meant business and provoked many more hours of baseball.

Lucky Wilson Valdez. For him, it must have been some surreal dream-come-true. Can you pitch in the big leagues? 'Yeah, I think I can. Too bad we'll never know.' Well, Charlie Manuel changed all that with one flick of the wrist Thursday after midnight. Wilson Valdez can not only pitch in the big leagues, but he has. And he retired the side-- in order. And it's an order that leads the league in runs for the 2nd-straight year. And he started off big, as big as it gets: with defending MVP Votto. He got HR leader Bruce to fly out on 2 pitches.

"You'd like to get something going against him, but we didn't," Bruce said. "He actually had okay stuff."

"I told myself I had to go to the mound and throw strikes. I guess those guys were just too excited. I just moved the ball outside and they were chasing it," said Valdez. "It's something I'm never going to forget."

Valdez is 1-0 as a major-league pitcher. Maybe, if Utley really is back to stay, Valdez will get more work as a reliever for the Phils. Or, more likely, he'll retire knowing that he can and did, and that his pitching record is, literally, immaculate.

Thur. : Utley Homers, Lee Drives in 3

The Phils got as many hits Thursday in 8-innings as they did in 19-innings of their previous game against the Reds, a few hours earlier. Cliff Lee led the way with 2 hits and 3 RBI. Why not? If the hitter, Valdez, can pitch scoreless baseball and pick up the win, the least pitcher Lee could do was reciprocate at the plate. Lee pitched to his 4th win, allowing 4 runs in 8 innings. He's now 4-4 with a 3.50 ERA, noticeably just OK. His season is a blank slate, as yet undefined. Of course, he was re-acquired for October, and that's a long way off. If the Phils played every game like Wednesday's, October would be 2,128 innings away.

As stands, the Phils have completed 50 games this year. They lead the NL with 31 wins and the division by 1 game; the Marlins just swept a 3-game series in S.F. (WOW!), where the Giants were 13-5 coming in.

In the 8th inning Thursday, with the Phils leading 9-4, Utley hit his 1st HR in his 14th '11 at-bat on the 2nd pitch of the night from Reds' reliever Jose Arredondo.

Every time Utley steps up to the plate, the Phils' swagger multiples, pertinently. You can feel the potential in the lineup, the championship dream is within touch. After all, Utley inaugurated the '08 title season with 5 HRs in 5 straight games in April that year. Then, in the '09 World Series he hit 5 HRs in 6 games, tying an all-time World Series HR record (with Reggie Jackson, Yankees, 1977).

In '09, amidst Utley's incredible World Series HR barrage, Sports Illustrated wrote: "That swing is so quick. It's rattlesnake quick. Shell game quick. That swing is so quick, it should make a cracking sound, like the tip of a whip. That Chase Utley swing."

The Phils won 3 of 4 against the Reds this week and are on-pace to win 100 games. The 1976 and 1977 Phils won 101. If the '11 Phils want to top that, they'll need a healthy Utley much of the rest of the way. If they want title glory, his October contribution may be necessary.

Meanwhile, it was a crazy Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. It was wild, wacky and victorious. It wasn't lost on Charlie Manuel, who responded enthusiastically when asked where Wednesday's 19-inning win ranked in his managing career:

"To win it, like we did... probably one of the better ones," he said.