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PHILADELPHIA -- They put the scoreboard in the wrong place at Citizens Bank Park. It's behind the left field stands -- which means that not only is it not visible from large swaths of seats, but it blocks what would have been a really nice view of the Philadelphia skyline that you can see in the photo I took before last night's game. Granted, there were low clouds blocking the view, but on a sunny day, that would have been a really nice vista. From my seat in the LF corner, you have to crane your neck to see the board. They put some of the information available there on other boards, but it's scattered around and hard to fix your eye on one place to find it all.
The board should have been placed in center field, where more people could see it.
Now, on to this afternoon's game, which the Cubs really need to win to complete a successful road trip. (It'd be nice to see the bats get going today, for one thing.)
When Jamie Moyer made his major league debut as a starter for the Cubs on June 16, 1986, coincidentally against the Phillies, the Cubs' leadoff hitter was Davey Lopes... who is now the Phillies' first base coach, and who turned 64 years old a couple of months ago. A couple of Moyer's current Phillies teammates, Cole Hamels and John Mayberry Jr., were not quite three years old when Moyer pitched in that game, a 7-5 win... against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, who is four months older than Lopes.
Site note: I will be leaving to drive back home to Chicago (stopping overnight near Pittsburgh) right after today's game ends... thus this afternoon's recap will be delayed until I can get to my hotel room.
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Jamie Moyer has been around long enough to have a hitter -- Alfonso Soriano -- have 50 career AB against him (.220, 4 HR). Derrek Lee has three doubles against him in eight AB, and today would be a good day to get Milton Bradley back in the lineup -- Bradley is 7-for-20 (.350) vs. Moyer with a double, a triple and 2 HR.
Carlos Zambrano is 3-3, 3.38 in seven career starts vs. the Phillies. Players currently on the Phils' active roster are hitting only .202 against Z (19-for-94) and none of them has homered off him. Z has kept his HR down this year -- only seven allowed -- and as I have often written, Z seems to be most successful when he has his heavy sinker working and gets more ground balls. Hopefully, that will be the case this afternoon.
The Cubs are again on WGN this afternoon. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Phillies site The Good Phight.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 1 pm, 2 pm and 2:45 pm CDT. Apologies for the third overflow yesterday -- it was supposed to post at 8:45 pm CDT, but I accidentally scheduled it an hour later. Thanks to clutch16 for posting the overflow-3 fanshot.
Discuss amongst yourselves.