Yardwork: Halladay Strikes Out 14, and a Slew of Walkoff Wins

Also happening last night in Philly was the unveiling of the Harry Kalas statue. The Philly announcers and at least one fan also gave a nice shoutout to Jim Thome.

The following five games were all walkoff wins:

Brewers 2, Dodgers 1 — The Brewers won on a walkoff single from, you guessed it, Mark Kotsay. Unbelievable. Milwaukee’s division lead has stretched to a roomy seven games. Unless a monumental stumble is right around the corner, and that appears doubtful with the way they’ve been playing, the race for the NL Central is looking very much over. Don’t worry, we will still have an enjoyable finish in the clusterfuck that is the AL Central.

Pirates 5, Cards 4, 11 innings — A terrible losing streak pretty much put the Pirates out of the running for the division, but how awesome is it to watch them play spoiler? The Buccos tied the game in the ninth when Neil Walker greeted Fernando Salas with a solo shot, and won it in the 11th when Garrett Jones went deep off the notoriously unreliable Arthur Rhodes. The later the season gets, the more inviting Arthur’s presence becomes for the opposing team.

Braves 2, Giants 1, 11 innings — Randall Delgado for the stretch run? In just his second start, the 21-year-old rookie allowed no hits through six innings, with his only mistake being a solo shot by Cody Ross. There is potential in the NL for some truly fantastic playoff match-ups, let’s just get the D-Backs out of the way first.

Astros 6, Cubs 5 — Carlos Marmol. Wow. His line for the evening? 0.1 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 1 BB. “Atrocious & Hilarious” should really be the Cubbies marketing angle.

White Sox 8, Indians 7, 14 innings — This game lasted over five hours and through the course of it, 16 pitchers were used and the White Sox managed to hit five triples. The question is, who stayed up and watched this debacle?

Red Sox 3, Rays 1; Rays 6, Red Sox 2 — The Red Sox are a half game out of first after splitting a doubelheader, but of greater concern is the news of David Ortiz and his walking boot. He’s had a great season thus far. The Sox absolutely need this fatty healthy for the stretch run.

Nats 6, Reds 4 — Wang was hardly impressive, but he got the job done. At the end of the day, that’s all you can ask of Wang.

Rangers 7, Angels 3 — Tyler Chatwood was certainly ready for a division duel with the Rangers. He lasted two fireworks-infused innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. The Angels are fading faster than LeBron’s hairline.

Batting Stance Guy did multiple impressions of some of the more distinct MLB broadcasting personalities. His portrayal of Tim Kurkjian was by far my favorite:

[Photo via Getty]