News Flash: Phillies Beat the Reds

I was hoping they would lose.

Steven, my youngest kiddo, suited up this morning for a playoff game.  His team, the Phillies, was playing against the Reds.  Steven’s friend Blake, was on the other team. 

When the playoffs loomed early last week, I was telling the Phillies coach, Dave, that we had vacation plans.  We were planning to head up to Michigan last Thursday, assuming the Phillies would be out of the playoffs quickly after Tuesday’s game earlier in the week.

They won. 

In the last inning, Steven was playing first base–he fielded a runner out and threw to third for a double play to end the game.   Right after the game, Coach Dave came bounding over.  “You’ll have to cancel your vacation plans!” he grinned.

So when the game began this morning, I was pretty sure we’d be finished with baseball in a few hours.  After all, we were playing a team with one of the best records–they had only lost two games the entire season.

Sure enough, it was the last inning and we were down 8 to 6.  We had two outs and then Steven came up to bat.

Uh oh.  Joe and I looked at each other.  The last time Steven faced the same situation, he struck out and that was the end of that game.  He was pretty bummed out about that.  We were afraid that it was going to end on a bad note.

Steven swung–strike one.  He swung again–strike two.  The third base coach came over to talk to him and told Steven to move in closer to home plate.  I held my breath.  I was so afraid it was going to end on the next pitch.

Crack!

Steven connected with the ball and powered a line drive into center field.  Two of his teammates crossed over the plate to tie the game.

It was the bottom of the sixth and the Reds were up.  They needed just one run to win the game.  Bases were loaded. The Reds popped a fly ball, the Phillies’ pitcher caught it and fired the ball to Steven on first for a double-play.  The inning ended with the next batter.

The game went into extra innings.  The Phillies started a hitting rally and Steven scored a double.  The Reds tried hard to come back, scoring four runs, but it wasn’t enough to catch up.

Final score: Phillies 14, Reds 11.

Coach Dave came running again, but he didn’t have to tell me–by this time, I had caught playoff fever and beat him to the punch.

“Yeah, Coach, we’ll be driving back from Michigan on Tuesday for the Championship game.”