Ah, Scott Mathieson!! Those were the days. A year younger than Cole Hamels, they both were put in the rotation as rookies in August of 2006 when the Phils ostensibly gave up on the season by moving Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Yankees for pennies on the dollar in GM Pat Gillick's first year.
Instead the young Philss, led by Howard, Utley, Rollins and Burrell, caught fire and had an outstanding August and went into September with a chance at the wild card. Mathieson won his only big league game in August, defeating the Cards 5-3 and looked to have a very bright future.
I remember the day it all ended for him. Phils had a 4 game series to open September against the Braves and it was an amazing series. Phils should have swept the series but lost two tough games in the 9th inning as Ryan Howard had a phenomenal weekend [in one game he hit 3 home runs.] Gosh, that was a fun team, and of course became the precursor to the teams that dominated the following 5 years.
Anyways, in the final game of the series, Mathieson struck out the leadoff hitter, Pete Orr, but threw a wild pitch on strike three and left with an elbow injury. He would not make it back to Philly till 2010 and never won another major league game that IIRC, he has done decently well in Japan.
He was 22 that year and was actually a member of what we hoped was a Kiddie Corps of Young Guns...Hamels, Mathieson, Gavin Floyd and Ryan Madson, all of whom started at some point in that season. That Phillie team went into the last week of the season with a .5 game lead for the wild card but lost a tough makeup game to Houston that Monday night, 5-4, and then went to Washington and Florida and split their final 6 games while the Dodgers were winning 6 straight. Still, it was a fun year and really the start of the mini dynasty.
Sadly, not so for Scott Mathieson.
