So I have officially decided that Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton should no longer be allowed to pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies. Game 4 of the 2008 and 2009 NLCS ring any bells? Maybe the Liberty Bell.
After seven innings, 9-2 Dodgers. At the end of the game, the score was 10-9 Phillies. Broxton was given another bitter trip down memory lane, and tonight’s latest perpetrator was Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz.
Ruiz provided the crushing blow: a two-run double in the left-center field gap to cap off the improbable comeback. Up 9-6, Broxton came in needing just three outs. He didn’t even make one. A hit batter and two walks later, the bases were loaded and nobody out.
As much as I tried to believe Broxton would be able to get out of this pickle, it only seemed inevitable that the fat lady would not be singing, the Liberty Bell would be ringing, and the Dodgers would lose another heartbreaker to the Phillies.
A routine grounder to third baseman Casey Blake marked the end of any sort of run for the Dodgers this season. The Phillies didn’t need to end the Dodgers’ season in October. They ended it in mid-August.
Blake pulled a Bill Buckneresque play and let a grounder bounce in between his legs, allowing two runs to score to cut the lead to one.
Just like Buckner in the 1986 World Series, this error was uncharacteristic of Blake, who only an inning earlier prevented a run to score by robbing Ruiz’ sure single to left field on a great diving stop.
But Blake was already dealt his fate. The ball that got away will now be the only thing on his mind. A microcosm for a team that always seems to get away from the Dodgers: those darn Phillies.
Three straight years, the Phillies have crushed Dodgers hearts, not breaking them, but absolutely obliterating them, beating them to the pulp that there is nothing left but a dark hole in between our chests. The Phillies have stood us up just to run us over for three years now.
There is always one franchise that always seems unable to beat a particular opponent: the Utah Jazz and Michael Jordan’s Bulls, the Blazers and the Lakers of the early 2000’s, and now the Dodgers–the Philadelphia Phillies.
Sure the season is far from over, but San Diego beat Pittsburgh today. The Dodgers are eight games back yet again, and this will be an unfortunate event that the Dodgers will not be able to shake off.
Four games in Atlanta, followed by a late night flight back home, only to be hosting the Colorado Rockies for another three-game set.
Tonight was the night for the Dodgers to make gain some solid ground; take a series from the Phillies in Philly.
Instead, the Dodgers are at rock bottom with no way up. Blake pulls a Bill Buckner to enable the modern-day Miracle Mets (the Phillies) come back from seven runs down, and Broxton finds another way to blow a save. All signs pointing in the wrong direction.
The Dodgers saw a fork in the road and went straight. Better luck next year. Maybe year four is the charm Los Angeles.