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Wednesday’s Phillies Game a Great Reminder of Why This is an Incredible Sports City
By Nick Piccone
Published:
Heading into Wednesday’s Phillies/Padres series finale, almost every fan knew there was a chance they could witness history. Cristopher Sánchez was four innings away from breaking a 115-year franchise record scoreless inning streak. He sat at 37.2 consecutive innings of holding the opposition scoreless entering his start in San Diego, and it quickly felt like that streak would end.
In what felt like a blink of an eye, the Padres had a runner at second base with no outs in the first inning. But Sánchez did his thing, and got out of it unscathed. There were multiple moments where I sat there watching – butterflies taking full flight inside my stomach – thinking to myself, ‘There’s no way he gets out of this one.’ –
But he did. And he wound up becoming the new franchise record holder with 41.2 consecutive scoreless innings:
He would add three more innings to that total, which now sits at 44.2.
That game perfectly encapsulated why we are an incredible sports city. I was scrolling Twitter here and there and my timeline was full of comments about the game. The doomers were out, completely certain the streak would end before Sánchez could make history. Even the most optimistic fans were starting to waver, thinking maybe it was in their best interest to turn their attention to the upcoming Dodgers series this weekend. “Why can’t we have nice things?” It truly felt that the closer Sánchez was getting to 41.2, the more likely a heart-crushing swing would hurt as much as a heart-crushing swing could in a game in May.
I wrote back in January why I wasn’t poo-pooing the season, and one sentence read, “A win in May can be fun.” And, man, that win was fun. The Phillies have had a few of those fun wins so far this season.
As much as some fans like to admonish others for overreacting to losses, I’m willing to bet those same fans get absolutely hyped for moments like this. The good moments do matter as much as the bad ones, but obviously that does not make or break a season that still has over four months left in it. I think that’s what makes following baseball so much fun. Hell, it’s what makes following sports so much fun. As annoyed as we get at players underperforming and teams losing, or happy when our teams win and players perform great, we do it as a community. We care about a scoreless inning streak in May. We care about the possibility of our guy hitting four homers in a game in August. We care about a rookie pitcher getting their first strikeout. We care about a rookie hitter getting their first homer.
Simply put, we care. About all of it. And that’s what makes Philly such an incredible sports city. Wednesday’s game was just a reminder.
Nick Piccone has covered Philly sports and events for over 15 years with various outlets, including PhillyVoice.com and PhillyInfluencer.com. In 2015, he co-launched the Straight Shooters Podcast, focused on covering the professional wrestling industry. He was a producer at Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia and currently produces broadcast and social media content for the Villanova Sports Radio Network. He grew up in South Philadelphia and South Jersey, and is a graduate of Neumann University. Contact: picconenick@gmail.com