Summer arrived on Sunday.
Maybe it was in honor of Mother's Day, although I am guessing my bride would disagree.
After we celebrated the day dedicated to moms, with the mother of my children along with her mother, about 3 o'clock I took advantage of a glorious Sunday afternoon and retreated to the deck.
A confession here. I am not supposed to be in the sun. My fair Irish skin does not take well to it, and we have a history of skin cancer in the family. But it is my favorite thing in the world to do, so there I sat, just me, a brilliant sun, and my best buddies Scott Franzke and Larry Anderson.
That does not count the newest, temporary member of our family. That would be our son Sean's dog, a cairn terrier named Kansas (because he looks like Tot from 'The Wizard of Oz' - get it?) who I have affectionately nicknamed Mr. Scruffy, because of his scraggly beard.
My wife adores this pup. Sean had dropped him off Friday night on his way to take part in a mud run with one of his old college buddies in upstate New York. I don't think he could ever have given his mother a better Mother's Day gift. She doted on Kansas all weekend. I did likewise, although a bit more grudgingly.
So there we sat out on the deck.
All was right with the world.
Then the Phillies bullpen got involved.
Cole Hamels had gutted out 7 strong innings against the Mets and the Phils were on the verge of sealing his 100th career win, along with a rare sweep of the Gothams.
Unfortunately, Hamels was spent after going back out of the 7th inning.
The Phils managed to scrape through the eighth.
The ninth was another matter altogerther.
Closer Jonathan Papelbon was not available.
That left things in the hands of Antonio Bastardo.
It did not go well.
True, Papelbon had pitched two straight nights, but he hadn't thrown that many pitches. Turns out he had some kind of neck ailment.
Bottom line is he was not available.
Of course, the game blew up in Bastardo's face, he surrendered a home run to tie the game, and the Phils ended up losing in 11 innings.
Dennis Deitch has all the game action here.
Jack McCaffery notes the Phillies need everything to go right to win. Any injury will leave them vulnerable.
To say nothing of ruining a perfect Mother's Day afternoon.
Comments