Scott Graham lost his can rarely blame him. For four hours and 45 minutes, Graham, his fellow broadcasters, and 35,512 fans inside the soon-to-be-demolished Veterans Stadium had actually seen the Phillies and Red Sox take part in a back-and-forth battle that pinned the win span meter to both sides of the extremes throughout the latter innings of a phenomenally stressful baseball really felt like a playoff game so, yeah, it's easy to understand the normally scheduled Graham went berzerk when back-up catcher Todd Pratt struck a bomb to dead center area to give the Phils a thrilling 6-5 success. For those that were about and following the team of that era very closely, this is a reasonable concern.. The last wonderful game at the Veterinarian? Franzke LA whose fate would certainly be to inevitably lose in heartbreaking fashion to the Yankees in the American Organization Champion Collection a couple of months was the preferred entering the quick two-game collection at 41-30, with the Phils at 37-33. In today's wild card era, those03 Phils would have remained in a fine position for a wild card area for mid-June yet, 20 years back, there was aggravation and panic that the team wouldn't be good in mind, the buildup to this series in Philadelphia was tremendous https://www.bostonredapparelstore.com/Jimmie_Foxx_Jersey. Boston fans made certain to take a trip southern and occupy a few of the many vacant seats at the Veterinarian, and the ambience was electrical. The video games snapped with stress and, for the Phillies, it was a true measuring stick they reputable playoff challengers? They aimed to confirm they protested a Boston lineup packed with the heroes that would certainly damage the 100+ year World Collection curse the following season: Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, and Nomar Garciaparra. On paper, the Phils' schedule of Thome, Bobby Abreu, Mike Lieberthal, Placido Polanco and a very young Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins, merely weren't on the same level keeping that Boston yet, the Phils brushed up that two-game series in brilliant Saturday, the beginning throwing match-up featured an in-his-prime Pedro Martinez who, in 29 starts, installed a league-low 2. 22 ERA over 186. 2 innings. He also led the league in age+, FIP, WHIP, H9, HR9 and K9, and completed 3rd in the AL Cy Young voting. For the Phils, left-hander Randy Wolf took the pile. It was a mismatch theoretically, with Wolf finishing 2003 with a 4. 23 ERA over 33 begins and 200 innings, although he did get a group best 16 victories on the season, and was pitching wonderful at that time of the now, Wolf was practically like Pedro. He went 623 innings against a stacked Boston schedule, enabling two earned operate on 6 hits with 2 strikeouts and 4 walks. Those 2 runs were solo dingers to Todd Walker, in the third inning and once again later in the sixth. Martinez went 7 innings and surrendered just one earned work on four hits with seven strikeouts and two strolls, the only run he permitted was a solo blast by Bobby Abreu in the bottom of the second. From the 7th inning on, it became a battle of the bullpens. In those days, that was a losing fight for the Fightins, nonetheless, Turk Wendell, Rheal Cormier, Terry Adams and Dan Plesac integrated to throw 413 scoreless innings, keeping the Phils in the video game with the later truly started to obtain insane in all-time low of the 8th. Tracking 2-1, Boston right-handed reducer Mike Timlin dealt with Jim Thome with 2 out. As he did so usually throughout his Hall of Popularity profession, the hulking initial baseman provided in the clutch and released a monster home run deep into the right-center area seats to amaze the group and tie the game 2-2. The teams traded scoreless innings in the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings, but in the 12th, an RBI triple by Kevin Millar off Phils' closer Jose Mesa moved Boston ahead 3-2. Down to their final out, Red Sox reliever Jason Shiell did something he definitely shot not have done.. provide Jim Thome something to hit Johnny Pesky Jersey. And strike it he did. Thome's opposite area homer linked the game 3-3, sending out a delirious fanbase into the 13th. Right here are both the Thome home runs, in all their Thome's heroics, it appeared Boston would certainly not be denied. In his 2nd inning of work, Mesa started out Trot Nixon and Freddy Sanchez, however permitted a two-out single to Damon, an RBI double to Walker and an RBI single to Garciaparra before getting Ramirez on a groundout. Depressingly, the Phils currently tracked 5-3 heading right into all-time low of the 13th. Yet there was a bit more magic left. Facing Shiell momentarily inning, Abreu led off the 13th with a stroll. Liberthal was retired on a fly ball to right, however after defensive indifference enabled Abreu to take 2nd, David Bell tied an RBI dual to center, making it 5-4 https://www.bostonredapparelstore.com/Chris_Murphy_Jersey. Supervisor Grady Little changed Shiell with Rudy Seanez to deal with Pratt, in his 2nd go-around as the Phils' back-up catcher. What followed following is engraved for life in Phillies remarkable as Pratt's crowning achievement was the telephone call by Graham, that practically never went this crazy. But hey, most of us got it. It was a crazy game that no person thought the Phillies were going to win as soon as Boston scored twice in the top of the 13th. It is such an iconic call that a bottle screw was made to celebrate the high off that win, the Phils swept the collection by winning on Sunday 5-0 behind Brett Myers and afterwards after a loss to the Braves, continued to win 7 in a , a late-season collapse in the final two weeks in which they lost six straight and 7 of their last 8 dropped their document to 86-76, 5 video games behind the Marlins in the wild card race. Naturally, in today's playoff structure, the 2003 Phillies would certainly have made the postseason as the third wild card, but I think the03 Phils were a little in advance of their a few months later, Veterans Arena would certainly be torn to shreds, changed by People Bank Park, and I think it's reasonable to see this video game, 20 years ago today, was the last, terrific Phillies game ever before played at that old, decrepit arena.