[pauwoo]

The Philadelphia 76ers are on pace to finish with a .409 winning percentage. In 72 years of play, they’ve only finished below that once. Let that sink in for a minute. Two seasons ago, after 12 straight playoff appearances and 1 championship their GM blew the whole thing to smithereens... a reimagining he called it, after working with his marketing team to come up with a clever way to say, “we’re tanking”. In a city where being good and occasionally excellent doesn’t cut the mustard, the audacity of tanking isn’t just received poorly - it can be hazardous to your health. Let’s just say that the team-building stylings of one Mr. Johnson have not been met with kindness - not even a curt nod and shoulder shrug. There is no chill in a Philly fan. It’s win now or we hate you, everyone you know, and no opportunity to tell you all about it will go unused. If the city of brotherly love can chase the Fresh Prince all the way to Bel Air, then the future of Mr. Johnson most likely includes a stop in Fargo.

137 of 162: A nice parable for our season – we are either firing on all cylinders and over the moon or we are face down in the dirt wondering what happened… today we get the latter when in the 9th inning after Frosty Dillard loaded the bases on walks, RF-sub Preston Wallace flubbed a routine one-hopper in right to allow an unearned run that brought the score to 5-3. In total 2 of the 5 runs scored by Philly were unearned as we reintroduced our fans to our lack of fielding acumen with 3 errors on the day.

138 of 162: Cam Murphy gets his first Major League to start today – and gave up his first career grand slam in the top of the 4th. Fun times. File under cool: C Norton Manning managed to get a well-timed pickoff throw over to first for an out. File under not cool: We made two throwing errors on the day, struck out 10 times, got caught stealing twice, and lost a home series to the worst team in the National League. Hi dirt, meet face.

139 of 162: Throwing error on our first play of the game charged to SS Maddox Whalen – coming out hot! Patrick Keith gives up 1 earned and one unearned run in the first – we’re on fire. We give up 5 runs in the 4th, 6 Philly batters have earned 2-out RBI’s for the game – we are a phoenix rising from the ash. 11 K’s, 4 errors… good grief. Even Jules Winfield got an RBI in this one. Swept in the Malibu, don’t know what to do… Note: Patrick left early with shoulder inflammation – he’ll be DTD for 5.

What wickedness this way comes… we are now 3rd in the NL West, 2 behind San Francisco and 3 ½ behind San Diego.