Categories: 2018 Gameday

Gameday 2018: Blue Jays (23-27) at Phillies (28-19)

It’s Memorial Day weekend and the Phillies are in the hunt, which is more than we can say about the last four seasons.

Let’s celebrate this long weekend with a visit from our friends up north, the Toronto Blue Jays. Sure we had a poor relationship in the past (see 1993), but in recent years I’ve felt a certain kinship to the Jays. This is a fun team with good fans in a great city (seriously Toronto is a fun place) who have to constantly endure the high levels of oxygen their annoying rivals suck out of the atmosphere.

Plus there’s the Roy Halladay connection. The Phils will honor the late Halladay by putting him on the Wall of Fame later this season. The Jays retired his number on opening day. Halladay meant a ton to both of our fanbases, and his sudden death this winter was tough to bear. We stand in salute of Doc with our Toronto friends.

Now let’s beat those Jays.

Gametime: 7:05 p.m.

The lineup:

Hernandez – 2B
Hoskins – LF
Herrera – CF
Santana – 1B

Franco – 3B
Williams – RF
Alfaro – C
Florimon – SS
Eflin – P

Pitchers: Zach Eflin (1-0, 1.56 ERA) vs. Sam Gaviglio (1-0, 0.93 ERA)

This “Sam Gaviglio” night is going to go one of two ways: He either completely shuts the offense down or they absolutely blast him into outer space. That’s what “Sam Gaviglio” does … if that’s even his real name …

Your Gameday Beer: Here’s Nomad by Great Divide out of Denver. Nomad is a crisp, clean Czech pilsner perfect for warm days such as this. Great Divide makes great beer, and their taproom is really fun and has outdoor seating. If you’re in Denver, check it out!

Go Phillies!

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.