Phils Win A Triumph Of Good Over Evil As Utley Says Farewell To Philly

Globs of robin blue were spattered about the stands like a painter’s mistake.

In the first base bleachers, there was chatter amidst fans wearing the wrong colors, with the wrong logo on their hat and alien names printed on their replica jerseys.

“This is a year of inevitably for our team,” said one Blue Jays fan. He’d come down from Toronto with his family to see the game, because he said it was easier to book a hotel and travel to Philadelphia than it was to get tickets for a game at the consistently sold out Rogers Center in Toronto.

“This is their game tonight,” he added.

On the field, the outlook wasn’t brilliant.

Seven of the nine Phillies starters had played at Triple A-Lehigh Valley either this year or the year before.

Maikel Franco was out with a broken wrist.

Ryan Howard had the night off, as did Carlos Ruiz.

And just hours before the game, the Phillies announced that franchise icon Chase Utley had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, meaning one of the final pieces from the historic 2007-2011 teams was gone.

In the stands, it was as if the baseball gods had run out of Phillie red to paint the bleachers with, and chosen to instead dip their cosmic brushes in the sacrilegious hues of the visiting offenders. A cruel irony indeed: not only were Blue Jays fans packed into the front rows in Philadelphia, but they also recently acquired one of the Phillies’ top performers in a recent trade: Ben Revere.

All this, a mere 21 years and 10 months after they crushed the Phillies magical run to the postseason in 1993.

Indeed, something in the universe was out of balance.

But it was Star Wars theme night at Citizens Bank Park, and there was something of vindication on the prevailing winds.

When Blue Jays hitters came up in the top of the first inning, their faces were replaced on the PhantaVision with mugs of evil characters from the Star Wars universe.

Troy Tulowitski was Wotto, Edwin Encarnacion was a stormtrooper. And Phillies southpaw Adam Morgan mowed straight through Jabba the Hutt, Emperor Palpatine, and the best offense in baseball, surrendering only one hit through the first four innings.

The Phillies batters were the restorers of peace and order in the ballpark, and did their park to bring balance to baseball. Using small ball - a more elegant weapon for a civilized age - alongside home runs from Aaaron Alther, Jeff Francoeur, and Andres Blanco, the Phils hitters dominated the game from the first pitch.

The rookie Morgan, meanwhile, allowed only one hit in the first four innings, and only one hit, a home run by Encarnacion, from the Jay’ obscene sluggers at the top of their lineup. That includes perennial All Stars Tulowitski, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, and Encarnacion.

On the night, those four went a combined 2 for 16.

As each inning ticked by, momentum only built for the last place Phils. Each batter’s mugshot was replaced by a Jedi or another hero from across the galaxy.

And in between innings, the Phanatic replaced key characters from the Star Wars universe on PhantaVision, fighting Darth Vader on the big screen and defeating the dark side as it was represented on the field in the form of the scourge from Toronto.

By the bottom of the ninth inning, the blue had thinned from the crowd like a bad memory. “I can’t believe they’re losing,” the same fan muttered. Ken Giles was lights out, and each 101 mile per hour fastball and 90-something slider seemed like a foregone conclusion, a matter of completing a task that was already determined. The mighty Blue Jays, baseball’s hottest team, had struck out.

The stadium roared, although not quite the way the Vet did when the Blue Jays were shut out in Game 5 in the ‘93 series, horns blared John Williams’ triumphant score on the streets, and the blue disappeared entirely from the stands. Rookie Aaron Altherr, who went 2 for 3 with a double and home run in his second game in the majors this year, came out to be interviewed as the star of the game, and pies were smashed in his face. And finally, sporting a Phillies jersey for the final time, Chase Utley came out to the top of the dugout steps and briefly tipped his cap to the crowd.

Then the stadium truly did roar, the kind of roar reserved for heroes, a roar which sent Blue Jays twittering out into the unkindly humid Philadelphia night, seeking cooler climes in the North.