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05/08/2004 Archived Entry: "Phillies Journal - 2004"
Phillies Journal - 2004
by Max Blue
http://maxblue3.tripod.com/darkblue
BIG UNIT DOWN
It was well passed midnight on the east coast when Jim Thome stepped in to face Randy Johnson in the top of the seventh with the Phillies down 1-0. The forty-year-old Johnson was doing what he always does—striking people out and intimidating left handed batters. He already had fanned 10, the 193rd time he had recorded double digit strikeouts in a game. Thome had been one of his victims. Pardon the cliché but it was a classic confrontation. Two future hall of famers facing off. Thirty-three-year-old Thome with 391 career homeruns, led the league last year with 47, more than Barry Bonds. But he is a left handed hitter, chopped liver for the six feet ten inch Arizona southpaw. Another cliché: good pitching beats good hitting. Not this time. Thome launches a low and away fastball into the third row of the left field bleachers. Tie game. As he rounds third the echoes of sleepy voices all around the Delaware Valley filter through the flickering TV screen . . . MVP, MVP, MVP.
Most Phillies’ fans were asleep
When Big Jim took Big Unit deep.
But some were awake
It was no piece of cake,
But our guys made their guys go weep.
Friday May 7, 2004. Bank One Ballpark, Phoenix, Arizona.
Philadelphia – 4, Arizona – 1.
