As the year comes to a close it’s time to look back at some of the top moments from the Philadelphia Phillies 2010 season. While the team came short of their ultimate goal of winning a World Series championship, there were still several great memories from the past year. It’s time to look back on the top moments of 2010 leading up to the number one memory which will be unveiled on New Years Eve.
#11 The Slide – August 27th
“That was one of the most athletic slides I’ve ever seen,” said closer Brad Lidge.
“That was fantastic. Unbelievable,” added winning pitcher Chad Durbin. Like a scene from the Matrix, right?”
All of the talk after this game was about Jimmy Rollins slide to win it for the Phillies. In a game that should have never made it to extra innings, Rollins found a way to contort his body and give the Phillies a 3-2 victory in 12 innings over the National League West leading San Diego Padres.
An incredible slide by Jimmy Rollins wins it for the Phillies
Rollins started the top of the 12th with a leadoff double into the right field corner. 3rd baseman Placido Polanco followed with a single up the middle and Rollins broke for home. Padres center fielder Luis Durango charged the ball and made a strong throw to catcher Yorvit Torrealba at the plate.
Rollins was dead to rights.
“It’s not good,” said Rollins about his thought process as he approached home plate. “It’s really like two words and the first one is ‘oh.’ You can guess what the second one is. There’s a lot that goes through your mind when you know you’re out.”
Except somehow Rollins wasn’t out.
As Torrealba swung his glove to his left to tag Rollins, the Phillies shortstop slid past home plate and dropped his left hand on the tip of the base at just the right moment to score the game winning run.
With the victory the Phillies took sole possession of the Wild Card lead
“I got my whole hand on it,” added Rollins. “It was quick. It was my Karate Kid fly catcher. I do that slide all the time, but usually it’s before the tag. This time Yorvit had the ball and I was really just trying to avoid him. It’s a bad feeling. He started swinging the glove around, and by the time I looked back, he was behind me. I somehow ended up in front of him. I don’t know what I did. Then it just happened quick.”
Rollins slide seemed to impress everybody except his manager.
“It ain’t tough,” Charlie Manuel said. “Heck no. Not if you know how to slide.”
As incredible as Rollins acrobatic play was, the Phillies never should have been in a position for it to matter in the first place. Roy Oswalt was absolutely dominant on the mound once again for the Phillies. The former Houston Astros ace acquired just before the trading deadline allowed just one run on five hits while striking out six over eight innings of work.
After throwing just 11 pitches in the bottom of the 8th, Oswalt was prepared to go back out for the complete game victory. Although he had thrown just 102 pitches (78 strikes), Manuel decided to turn things over to closer Brad Lidge.
“I wanted to go back out,” Oswalt said. “He wanted to hit for me because we only had a one-run cushion. I feel like I probably could have finished the game. I understand as far as trying to get the leadoff man on, maybe trying to score another run. If I go out there and get in trouble and thrown 10 or 12 pitches, I’m up around 120, 130 and it gets iffy. But I feel like I had good enough stuff to go back out there.”
Roy Oswalt was 3-0 with a 1.24 ERA in his last 4 starts
“Oswalt already had done good,” Manuel said. The Phillies manager went on to explain that he wanted to score more runs and was hoping pinch-hitter Domonic Brown would get on base to set things up for the top of the order.
The Phillies offense didn’t come through and they handed a one-run lead over to Brad Lidge. Lidge had been outstanding throughout the month of August. In his ten previous appearances, he had allowed just four hits and struck out 11 batters while going seven for seven in save opportunities.
However the Phillies closer allowed a leadoff single to former teammate Matt Stairs. After David Eckstein bunted pinch runner Jerry Hairston Jr. to second, Lidge got Miguel Tejada to ground out for the second out of the inning. He then intentionally walked All-Star Adrian Gonzalez to set up a 1st and 2nd with two out situation.
After getting ahead 0-2 against Ryan Ludwick, Lidge let a fastball get away from him and drilled the Padres outfielder in the back to load the bases.
Lidge then inexplicably stopped midway through his delivery to Chase Headley for an obvious balk call which allowed the tying run to score.
“It’s a bizarre thing,” said Lidge. “The ball hit my glove as I was taking it to my glove to get my grip. It started coming out and I had to look down to get the grip otherwise the ball probably would have fallen out of my glove. By that time my momentum was taking me forward, so basically I had to step off or I would have fallen on my face. It’s kind of hard to explain. It happened pretty quick. Suffice it say I wasn’t thrilled about that, and probably in a million more windups, something like that wouldn’t happen. Fortunately, we won the game.”
Fortunately for Lidge, Rollins transformation into Gumby let him off of the hook. With the victory the Phillies moved one-half games ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the Wild Card race and to just two games back of the Atlanta Braves in the division. But on this particular night, an awful 9th inning was offset by an incredible slide from the Phillies spark plug.
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