With the game tied 5-5 in the top of the ninth, Ryan Howard hit a sacrifice fly to score Jimmy Rollins. In the bottom of the ninth, Phillies fans had to pray. Brad Lidge, Philadelphia’s closer who had a 7.21 ERA and an 0-8 record in the regular season, was able to record the save despite giving up a pair of hits.

In Game 4, the pitching matchup will be fantastic. The Phillies will send Cliff Lee to the mound, while the Rockies will go with Ubaldo Jimenez. The Rockies will need to win to stay alive, while the Phillies will attempt to move one step closer to back-to-back World Series championships.

Ryan Howard - Philadelphia Phillies

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Monday’s win came against the Florida Marlins. Winners by a final score of 4-0, the Braves got five strong innings out of starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens. Jurrjens went seven innings and gave up only five hits and one walk to improve his record to 14-10 and lower his ERA to 2.61.

At the plate, Chipper Jones went 1-for-2 with two walks and a solo home run. It was only Jones’ second home run in the month of September, as the hitting star has been slowed by injuries.

While the Braves don’t have much time to close the gap in the 2009 NL Wild Card race, the good news is that they play the Washington Nationals in four of their final six games. The Rockies, on the other hand, still have to face the Los Angeles Dodgers three more times.

Jair Jurrjens - Atlanta Braves (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Not so fast.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Giants began the inning with three straight singles. Eventually, Nick Schierholtz was at the plate with the tieing run at third base. However, Rafeal Betancourt struck out Schierholtz to end San Francisco’s rally.

The Rockies MVP of the game was undoubtedly starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa. He went eight innings, giving up only three hits while striking out nine. He improved his record on the season to 15-9 and lowered his ERA to 4.17.

With the win, the Rockies now lead the Giants by 3.5 games. The Giants now begin a series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while the Rockies begin a set against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Colorado Rockies are trying to hold off the San Francisco Giants (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Obviously, this is potential very bad news for the San Francisco Giants. Although manager Bruce Bochy thinks that Lincecum will be ready after only a couple of days, any type of setback would likely doom the Giants’ chances in the NL Wild Card race.

As it stands, the Giants trail the Colorado Rockies by three games for a spot in the 2009 baseball playoffs. The Rockies have won five games in a row, while the Giants have lost four of their last ten ballgames.

On the season, Lincecum is 13-5 with a 2.34 ERA. The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner has a chance to win that award for a second straight year if he has a strong finish to the 2009 campaign. However, this back injury will likely slow him down enough to take him out of the running. Now the Giants need to hope that the injury doesn’t take them out of the NL Wild Card running.

Tim Lincecum - San Francisco Giants (Image: Zuma Press)

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In 8.1 innings, Barry Zito gave up only one earned run while striking out seven batters. On the season, he has a record of 9-11 and an ERA of 3.94. His ERA is lower than any point since leaving the Oakland Athletics following the 2006 baseball season.

Pable Sandoval provided the offense for the Giants. He went 3-for-3 with two runs and one RBI. His big hit was a second inning solo home run.

With the win, the Giants closed the gap in the NL Wild Card race to only one game. The Rockies would get in right now with a 72-58 record, however the Giants are right behind them at 71-59. The two teams play again on Sunday. The Giants can tie the Rockies with a win.

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In the top half of the 14th, Eugenio Velez hit a two-run triple and later scored on a ground out. Up 4-1, the Giants had to be confident. But after a bases loaded walk made the score 4-2, Spilborghs hit his game-winning grand slam that ignited a while celebration in front of the home fans.

The win by the Rockies was huge in the NL Wild Card race. If the Giants would have won, they could have cut the Rockies’ lead to two games. But because Colorado won, they now lead San Francisco by four games.

Expect many more exciting contests as the NL Wild Card race goes down to the wire.

Ryan Spilborghs - Colorado Rockies (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: Knuckle Curve

On Tuesday, he added another chapter. With the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies tied at 2 in the bottom of the 11th inning, Tejada hit a solo homer to give the Astros a 3-2 victory.

And that wasn’t Tejada’s only big hit of the night. The native of the Dominican Republic tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a single.

Tejada finished the game 4-6 and is now hitting .362 on the season, which leads the National League. To go along with his impressive batting average, Tejada has six homers, 32 RBIs and 29 runs.

With the win, the Astros improved to 22-28 on the season. A recent three-game winning streak has started to give Houstonians hope that this might not be a lost season. As it stands, the Astros are seven games behind the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers.

Here is the video of Miguel Tejada’s walk-off home run:

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Times are changing. On Friday, Colorado fired manager Clint Hurdle — the same manager who guided the Rockies to the 2007 World Series. In the history of the franchise, that was the first and only trip to baseball’s biggest stage.

Going into Friday’s game, the Rockies had a record of 19-28. In the National League West, the squad was already 14.5 games in back of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

To replace Hurdle, the Rockies named Jim Tracy as the manager for the rest of the 2009 baseball season. Tracy had been acting as the Rockies bench coach.

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The total value of the contract is believed to be approximately $17.5 million. There’s also a potential third year of the deal that will be enacted based on performance.

Fuentes will definitely have big shoes to fill. Last season, Rodriguez set a Major League Baseball record with 62 saves. He broke the record previously held by Bobby Thigpen of the Chicago White Sox.

The good news for the Angels is that Fuentes should be up for the challenge. Last season with Colorado, Fuentes had a 2.73 ERA to go along with 30 saves and 82 strikeouts in 62.2 innings. It was his fourth straight season with at least 20 saves.

Fuentes will join a solid group of relievers in Los Angeles that includes players such as Scot Shields, Jose Arredondo and Darren Oliver.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

This week we return to the current era. Outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds starred at Stanford from 1990 to 1992, playing alongside Mike Mussina, among other, less notable future big leaguers.

The Baltimore Orioles selected Hammonds with the fourth pick overall in the 1992 draft, two slots before the New York Yankees nabbed a high-school shortstop named Derek Jeter. Perhaps pushed too quickly, Hammonds made his big-league debut on June 25, 1993, against those Yankees, after just 257 minor-league plate appearances. Hammonds singled twice and walked in three trips to the plate that day, and hit .305/.312/.467 in 33 games with Baltimore in ‘93.

The next three seasons saw Hammonds battle injuries and ineffectiveness, but in 1997, he finally started to deliver on his potential. That season he hit .264/.323/.486 for the Orioles in 118 games. The Orioles rewarded Hammonds by trading him to Cincinnati midway through the ‘98 season.

In 1999, Hammonds hit .279/.347/.523 in 123 games for the Reds. Again, he was rewarded with a trade — this time being shipped to Colorado for an aging Dante Bichette.

Hammonds took full advantage of his new situation, hitting .335/.395/.529 in 122 games for the Rockies. That winter, the Brewers, perhaps unaware of his gaudy splits (.399/.465/.651 at Coors Field, .275/.325/.415 on the road), inked Hammonds to an ill-advised 3-year contract worth roughly $22 million.

In a development that surprised nobody outside of the Milwaukee front office, Hammonds’ numbers regressed. Actually, that’s a tremendous understatement: he hit .248/.321/.398 in 187 games for the Brewers before being being released on June 4, 2003.

A few weeks later, the Giants signed Hammonds. He spent most of ‘03 and ‘04 in San Francisco, then played 13 games for the Washington Nationals in 2005. Now 37 years old, and presumably retired, Hammonds owns a .272/.338/.449 batting line (99 OPS+) in a tick over 3400 big-league plate appearances.

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