October 9, 2014

The 2014 Season in 9 Innings: 2nd Edition

October is movin’ right along and so are we in the next installment of our Phillies top moments countdown. Aaaaaand go!

4th Inning: Chase. Utley.

He’s a Dad, husband, Phils’ second baseman and The Man, according to the great HK and many Phillies fans alike.

This year he was also an All-Star for the 6th time. Chase won the fan elections each season from 2006-10 and tallied over 2.8 million votes. Not too shabby. The Phillie with more All-Star nods? Michael Jack Schmidt with 9 – the most in Phillies history.

5th Inning: Revere’s Ride

That Ben Revere. Not only did he let fans pick his walk-up music with #RevereTheMusic – and Benny and the Jets, no less – but he also hit pretty well this year too. He finished the season with 184 hits – tied for most in the National League with the Nationals’ Denard Span. He also finished 5th in the NL batting title race with a .306 average. Want more Revere facts? OK.

He stole a career-high 49 bases – that was 4th-most in the majors and most by a Phillie in a single season since since Juan Samuel stole 53 bags in ’85. Pretty good.

6th Inning: Can I make that a Combo Meal, please?

On September 1, 2014, the Phillies recorded their first combined no-hitter and the 11th in Major League history in Atlanta. That was also during the 132nd season and 20,105th game of the franchise. Thanks to Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, Ken Giles and Jonathan Papelbon – history was made. Hamels threw 6 innings before passing the baton to relievers Diekman, Giles and Papelbon who each pitched a perfect inning to close out the 12th no-hitter in Phillies franchise history and 284th overall in Major League history. Yeah, that happened.

But let’s give the guy behind the plate some props too.

Chooch caught the combined no-no. You may recall that he was also the guy who caught both of Roy Halladay’s no-hitters in 2010. His 3 no-hitters caught, in regular season and playoffs, are tied for 2nd-most in Major League history. Woah.

One more fun fact about the combined no-hitter: Ben Revere. Yes, him again! He drove in a career-high of 5 runs during that game, tied for 3rd-most ever by a player who’s team threw a no-hitter.