Reading advances to Eastern League Championship Series

JP Crawford, image- Tug Haines

The Double-A Reading Fightins are headed to the Eastern League Championship Series for the first time since 2001 folowing a sweep of the Binghamton Mets in the opening round of the playoffs.

Top prospect J.P. Crawford led the offense, slamming a solo home run and reaching base three times via a walk. Outfielder Nick Williams, acquired in July's Cole Hamels trade, slugged a two-run homer, his second of the series.

Infielder Angelo Morda plated the other Reading run with a sacrifice fly.

Right-hander Ben Lively notched the win, tossing five innings while allowing two earned runs on four hits, striking out six and walking one. The 23-year-old was acquired last off-season from Cincinnati in a trade for outfielder Marlon Byrd.

The bullpen tossed four scoreless innings, capped off with a save by All-Star closer Stephen Shackleford, who led the EL with 30 saves, a team record, in the regular season.

Reading will open the championship round against the Bowie Baysox (Baltimore affiliate) on Tuesday night at home.

In the Class A short-season New York-Penn League playoffs, the Williamsport Crosscutters and the West Virginia Black Bears were rained out on Saturday. The deciding game of their best-of-three division series will be made up on Sunday at 5:05 PM with the Cutters as the host.

This post was originally published on Phillies Nation.

Comments

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

Michael Taylor Q&A

Michael Taylor is currently leading the Reading Phillies' offense and is near the top of the Eastern League in most stat categories (3rd in batting avg- .342, 3rd in HR- 14, tied for second in RBI- 55, 2nd in OPS.- .994, tied for 1st in runs scored- 49, tied for 1st in hits...). The 23 year old Taylor is 6 feet 6 inches tall and has quickly grabbed the attention of phans and media alike as a top prospect to watch. I spoke with Mike Taylor over the weekend, and here is that interview. With all the big stats and being among the league leaders in so many categories, do you think you're ready for the next step? It's kind of a difficult question. Do you have anything left to prove here? There's always something to prove. There's stuff to prove every game. I mean that's one thing that's very interesting about this game. It's such a numbers oriented game. You're only as good as your last "whatever statistical category that someone's valuing". ...

Jealous Ones Envy

Joe Blanton continues to excel and prove his worth in the Phillies pitching rotation. In his latest outing on Sunday, Blanton threw 8 strong innings, striking out 6, while walking just 1 and surrendering 2 earned runs, improving his record to 7-4. This season in July, Joe is 3-0 over four starts with 22 K's, 5 walks and a 1.21 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Joe's ERA is 1.94. As a member of the Phillies, Blanton has a 3.84 ERA after the all star break with a 5-0 record. The Phillies are 20-12 (.625 winning percentage) in games that Blanton has started, since being acquired last July. Combined this season against other National League playoff contenders St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles, Blanton has a combined 1.67 ERA in 4 starts with a 2-0 record. Blanton is on such a sizzling run that the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a Tampa Bay Rays farm team, will host a Joe Blanton bobble head give away tomorrow. Bowling Green will host Joe's mother, father and sister for the event, as Joe...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog