Phillies Win 4 In A Row And Reid Brignac's Ankle Does A Complete 360 On First Base

PHILLIES – Ryan Howard homered and drove in three runs and rookie David Buchanan pitched into the eighth inning Thursday night, sparking the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Howard, a St. Louis native, has hit safely in 22 of 27 regular season games at Busch Stadium. He has 38 RBIs in St. Louis and a .374 batting average. Howard also has been hot on the road. In his last 15 games away from Philadelphia, he is hitting .350 with three homers and 14 RBIs. Buchanan (3-3) made his deepest start yet, pitching 7 2-3 innings. He threw 105 pitches and kept the Cardinals off balance and off the scoreboard until the eighth. Buchanan allowed four hits and a walk while striking out four. Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth to pick up 17th save in 19 opportunities.

If only Ryan Howard could play in his hometown of St. Louis or against the Braves every game. Guy would be closing in on 1000 home runs by now. But I’ll give credit where credit is due, the man is on a tear. He’s got 25 RBI’s in his last 22 games and the smooth, opposite field swing reminds us all of the glory days of ’06-’09 of his career. You know, before he signed that billion dollar contract. Still strikes out every 2 AB’s but that’s nothing new. But, hey, at least baseball is somewhat watchable again as the Phillies win 4 in a row for the first time in a year! Almost makes up for those couple of 6 game losing streaks we’ve already had in 2014. Almost. Only 5 games under .500 and 4 games back in the embarrassing NL East. Phillies are getting hot just at the right time to make sure they don’t blow up the team at the All-Star break and ensure mediocrity or worse for another season. Fuck.

It looks like we’re going to miss superstar journey 3rd baseman Reid Brignac in the lineup for awhile. Don’t think ankles are supposed to do a complete 360 (video here):

Ouchie. At least Reid’s got someone nice to look after him while on the shelf. Yummy.