Werth Every Second

In the past few days, work has sucked especially hard and yesterday took the cake. Due to my insistent procrastination, I went in to work an hour early to knock out some stuff that needed to be done … and wound up having to stay an hour and a half later than usual because my boss wanted to make sure we got everything in on time. I was waiting around for my last piece of work to come to me when my boss calls, tells me it's ready for me and then says, "But you can look at it tomorrow morning if you want." You fucking fuck. I just stuck around an extra hour waiting for this because you told me to, and then you had the nerve to tell me I didn't have to look at it?!? Could I have killed someone last night? No questions asked.



Of course I finished up before leaving. Otherwise, it would have been even more worthless sticking around. But man, that pissed the shit out of me.

To make something of the day, I devoured a 20-piece McNugget order and watched the Phillies. Side note, what the hell happened to the 20-piece nugget box?



Why does McDonald's now insist of giving me two boxes of 10 McNuggets each instead of just putting all 20 of them in one box like the good old days? I don't get it. I ordered a 20-piece, not two 10 pieces. I want my damn big box. But I digress.

If you missed it, former Oakland Athletics teammates Rich Harden and Joe Blanton faced off, and the two were flat dealing. James Calvin Rollins provided the Phils' lone run off Harden with a solo shot in the third, and Blanton's only hiccup came in the fourth, when he gave up a single to Ryan Theriot and a double to plate him by Kosuke Fukudome.

Then the bullpens came in and dominated. After Blanton went 7 strong, Ryan Madson had an insanely easy 8th inning, looking like the unhittable force he was early this year and all last postseason. Then Lidge got through a hitless 9th thanks to an unorthodox 1-6-3 double play. Meanwhile, after going from Rich Harden, who was throwing 95-plus in his seven innings, Carlos Marmol took the reigns and provided no letup. He routinely hit 95-97 on the gun, throwing filthy slop through the 8th and 9th. This game was going to extras.

That's when Chan Ho Park stole the show.



In three extra innings of relief, Park pitched absolutely the best I have ever seen him pitch in his entire career. In three perfect innings, Park struck out five Cubs and was just plain filthy. His ball was moving all over the place, giving Chicago fits. Hats off to Chan Ho. He earned it. Too bad he couldn't earn the win. The guy deserved it.

This war of attrition was just getting ridiculous. Through 12 innings, the Cubs' bullpen had given up just one hit and the Phils' none. Clay Condrey made it six hitless innings of relief for the Phils with a perfect inning in the 13th. That's when this happened (after a peek at that odd 1-6-3 DP I was talking about):



Thank you, Jayson Werth. Thank you so very much. I was beginning to think this game would never end. I was tired, cranky and just wanted to sleep and magically wake up to have it be Friday. Work was shitty, the game was going on forever and all it would take was one swing of the bat and another shutdown inning for the Cubs to take it. But none of that happened. Werth made sure this game wasn't going past the 13th, crushing a three-run bomb off a guy who is proving he was much better at catching footballs than throwing baseballs (though again, along with Harden, Marmol and Angel Guzman, the guy was throwing 95-97, that's sick).

Watching that blast to give the Phils their 10th straight win made all the horrible happenings of the day melt away. I was happy. Sadly, when I woke up, it was not Friday. I'm no longer happy. Hopefully the Phils will help change my mood for the better yet again this afternoon.