ERASERHEAD

Sometimes I wish I could erase all the memories I have of the Phillies, or at least go back in time and change my rooting destiny. Tonight was one of those nights. After I got home from work, my wife and I watched "Peggy Sue Got Married" on one of the outer Cinemax channels. We watch old movies on cable quite a bit, or at least I do. If "All The President's Men" is on, I'll drop whatever I'm doing, enraptured.

Back to the game. Right after Kathleen Turner woke up in her hospital bed still married to Nic Cage, we went out for pizza and ice cream (I think they call that the Bruce Froemming Diet), and I missed the top of the first. Wolfie had his usual lack of success against the Marlins, giving up a homer to journeyman infielder Damion Easley, and then a two-run shot to Juan Encarnacion. On the radio on the way home from the ice cream place, I heard my man Miguel Cabrera launch an upper-decker off Wolf to give the Makaira nigricans a 4-0 advantage. Resigned to another wasted evening, I watched my backlog of DVR shows, hoping the Phils would stage a comeback, but it was 5-1 when I checked back in. The Marlins added another run to make it 6-1 before my other man, the Chaser, hit a dinger to bring the Phillies within 6-2.

About that time, "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" started up on Cinemax. I'd been waiting for a while to see this flick, nearly buying it on Pay-Per-View a few times. This is the film where Jim Carrey signs up with a company to completely erase all the memories of his girlfriend, played by Kate Winslet. Like I mentioned earlier, what happened in the eighth and ninth innings made me wistful for such a procedure. Philadelphia drew to within two when Jim Thome hit a laser beam over Juan Pierre in center with the bases loaded to score Michaels and Rollins. That put runners on second and third with only one out. Pat Burrell, still nursing his leg injury but in the lineup, couldn't make contact, and whiffed, leaving it up to the Chaser. Trader Jack McKeon smartly walked Utley and brought in former Phillie Todd Jones to face the far less dangerous David Bell. Jones wasn't worth a damn when he was with us, but he managed to get Bell on a meek pop-up to center to snuff out the rally.

Then came the ninth. Lieby actually got a hit, and with one out, Rollins smacked what should have been a sure double down the first base line. Lieberthal had to hold up at first to make sure Carlos Delgado didn't catch the liner, and then ran with his usual sloth toward third. Meanwhile, Rollins hesitated rounding first as Lieby hauled his burgeoning girth around second, not sure if he could make it. Once Rollins saw that Lieby was going to be safe at third, he finally sped up and headed toward second. Damion Easley took the cut off from Encarnacion, whirled around and saw that Rollins was nowhere close to second, and fired to Gonzalez covering to nail him. NO! Two outs. Why isn't somebody with functioning legs running for Lieberthal there? We've still got Pratty on the bench to come in and catch. Actually, it looks like we were out of players. Ok, why are we out of players in the ninth inning? I think Manuel just blew that one. In any case, Polanco came up next and walked, bringing the winning run to the plate in Bobby Abreu. For some reason, McKeon left Jones in there, even though Guillermo Mota is their closer. Bobby took a strike, fouled off another, took a ball, and then went down swinging. Ball game. We lose to the Marlins again.

You can't really say we blew that one. 6-4 is not exactly the score of a game you let get away. Still, we could have won with some better managing decisions, better baserunning, and certainly, better pitching from Wolfie. Tonight it's the D Train against (oh no) Padilla. I think I'll be wanting to forget tonight's game, too. So, where do I sign up for that memory erasing thing?