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Posted 08/06/2007 at 11:25 AM
The beauty about betting on baseball as opposed to football and basketball is, there's no clock. If you needed a comeback, no matter what the score, it's possible, because the winning team must record 27 outs. With all the games I have watched this season, and seeing all types of situations, twice in the last four days have I been given hope when it looked like all hope was lost.
Take you back to Thursday night in Atlanta, the Braves looking to sweep the Astros. Atlanta had destroyed Houston the first two games, by a combined scored of 24-7. Woody Williams pitched in the finale at an underdog of +147 against rookie JoJo Reyes. Williams had career good numbers against the Braves, so why not? The Braves take an early 1-0 lead, then the Astros knock out two homers to capture a 5-1 advantage. Looking good. However, this is the "sick" Braves lineup that just added Mark Teixiera days earlier, a comeback was in order. Two runs here, a Teixiera homer here, two more here. All of the sudden, Atlanta had a 9-5 lead going into the 7th. Good try, we'll give it another shot tomorrow.
But, wait. Mike Lamb knocks out a pinch-hit grand slam off Rafael Soriano to tie the game at nine. We have new life? Go to extra-innings. Nothing in the tenth. In the eleventh, Carlos Lee scores on a sac fly, 10-9 Astros. An error by Kelly Johnson, another run scores, 11-9 Stros. We got this in the bag. Umm, Astros bullpen, more specifically Brad Lidge has something to say. Runner gets on in the bottom of the 11th, Matt Diaz, contact, you know it's gone before it's gone. Tie game, 11-11. Let's review, up 5-1, down 9-5, tied 9-9, up 11-9, now tied again 11-11. Ripped away, taken back, then ripped away again. No more damage from Atlanta in the 11th. Braves threaten in the 12th and 13th, no runs. 14th inning, Phil Garner is down to his best hitting pitcher, Jason Jennings to grab a bat and hit. Jennings laces a ball into right field, run scores, 12-11 lead, Astros shut the door in the bottom of the 14th, Houston wins. Wheh.
Didn't think lightning would strike twice, three days later, but it did. The Phillies had just given up the lead and lost to the Brewers Saturday night, so revenge was in order Sunday afternoon. Not the case, at first. The Brewers rough up Adam Eaton for four runs in the first. There goes that idea. Hold on, it's early, time's not running out, outs are running out. Two more runs for the Brew Crew, 6-0 advantage. Okay, time to give up. But, the Astros came back with that offense Thursday, and Philadelphia's offense is tops in the NL, they can do it. One run in the sixth. Now 6-1, at least they're not getting shut out. The waiting pays off as the Phils put up five in the ninth to tie it.
Quick flashback to last week, the Brewers hold a 5-0 lead over the Cardinals only to see St. Louis score nine unanswered to win it 9-5, so the bullpen meltdown by Milwaukee was expected.
The Phils tack on two more in the 11th to win it 8-6 and complete the improbable comeback. Moral is, you never give up when watching a game, but crazy things will happen and have happened, and hopefully you're on the right side of the comeback and not holding the bag of goods in Meltdown City.
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