Anyway, Reading broke out of their huge slump by winning 2-1 in a pitcher’s duel. The R-Phils were held hitless for the first four innings before, and weren’t even making good contact. Things changed in the fifth when Sellers, Harris, and Hammond dall got good wood on the ball to take a 1-0 lead. Harris’ double was a hard hit shot to left field. Later on in the inning, Mike Spidale also singled to plate Harris, which provided all of the offense that Reading had that night.

The real story was the pitching: Carpenter struck out five of the first six batters he faced, and eight total on the night. I had excellent seats – right behind home plate – he looked to be mixing his fastball and breaking stuff well, and was getting great movement on his pitches. His velocity didn’t seem to be anything special. I’m guessing he was throwing in the on the 88-90 range. I also noticed that there were a lot of called strikes against Trenton, leading me to believe his location and movement on his pitches were good (I could be wrong though). The only run he gave up was on a sacrifice fly to centerfield. Golson’s throw was a little up the 3b line, but it was a strong throw. Had it been more accurate, there was a chance he might have nailed the runner.

After seven strong innings, the game was turned over to the bullpen – some lefty named Jason Mackintosh that I had never heard of, and things got interesting thanks to Brad Harman. After two quick outs, Harman had a ball roll under his glove. The error was a bummer because Harman was having a really solid game at short. He had about five or six balls hit to him, fielding everything cleanly and almost making a spectacular diving play in the first inning on a ball hit up the middle (had he been able to get a bit more on the throw, he would’ve nailed the runner). Anyway, after Harman’s error, Trenton singled and in came Justin Pope, who walked the first batter. Fortunately, the next guy grounded out.

The ninth got even scarier, as the first pitch was grounded into right for a single. After a walk, Pope redeemed himself by pouncing on a bunt and nailing the lead runner at third. Pope then un-redeemed himself by walking another batter. Then Brad Harman made it interesting again: A soft grounder was hit to him, and he fielded it, quickly tagged the runner and fired to first for a game ending double play. At first, I though he was planning on coming home and had collided with the runner. Instead I realized that he had a made a heckuva heads up play, ending the game and breaking the long losing streak.

All in all, it was a very exciting game. Not much in the way of offense. Harman was 0-3 with a walk. He also struck out (looking), grounded out to short, and tried to bunt his way on. Golson was 0-3 with a sacrifice bunt in the eighth (curious for a team to bunt with their three hitter), he also popped out, grounded out weakly to the pitcher and looked really bad striking out on a 1-2 breaking ball way out of the strike zone. Slayden had a single to right later in the game, and I remember him striking out and walking once. Harris and Sellers hit the ball pretty well, but I’m not really sure either of them are considered prospects at this point.

Defensively, Harman had a very solid game, despite his error. Spidale made a really nice running catch at the warning track to rob Trenton of a double. He also booted a ball in left, turning a single into a double, which didn’t affect the game. Sellers made an excellent snare of a liner that would have been a double. Golson only had one ball hit his way all night – the aforementioned sac fly. It was basically hit right to him, so he had plenty of time to set up and throw.

I guess that’s basically it, unless anyone has any questions. My daughter had a great time. She got the birthday package where the ushers sang happy birthday to her and gave her a Trenton shirt. She also raided the store, and got a fair amount of souvenirs. The ballpark was gorgeous, the between inning activity was annoying, but nothing different from most minor league games (and the dog that got to act as a bat boy for an inning was awesome). The food was excellent (Famous Dave’s!), and they had some good German beer.

- Jeff