Christian Yelich Ruins the Phanatic's Birthday

By Michael Lipinski, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Milwaukee designated hitter Christian Yelich hates the Phillie Phanatic. Yelich’s 9th inning sacrifice fly was the only run either team would score on Sunday night, as Milwaukee defeated Phillies 1-0 to spoil the Phanatic's birthday. The loss moves the Phillies record to 6-10 on the season.

The story of the night for the Phillies was the pitching performance by starter Aaron Nola. After four subpar performances, Nola shined on Sunday recording a seven inning, one-hit, nine strikeout performance.

Milwaukee starter Eric Lauer was equally impressive. Lauer struckout 13 Phillies in six innings of work and allowed just five hits. Yes, you did read that correctly, 13 strikeouts. In fact, the Phillies struck out 16 times against the Brewers. Most of the credit for the outing should go to the Milwaukee pitching staff however some credit needs to go to idiot home plate umpire Angel Hernandez.

Hernandez was brutal and embarrassing. It’s one thing to miss a call here or there but Hernandez missed 20-25 pitches in the game. It was bad enough that ESPN’s Karl Ravech, David Cone, and Eduardo Perez harped on Hernandez’s performance most of the night. But, as Phillies color analyst Larry Andersen pointed out on 94.1 WIP-FM, Hernandez will continue to be this type of umpire if MLB continues to ignore his deficiencies.