Photo courtesy of Phillies.com

The 2011 Phillies season has been noteworthy for many reasons. June alone saw pitcher Cliff Lee put up historic numbers in his five starts, but a make-up game leading to four Phillies wins in under 48 hours during that stretch really caught my attention. The team is in the midst of another scheduling oddity as they make their third of four straight one o’clock starts today at 1:07PM.

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Last weekend, the Phillies”traveled” to Philadelphia for their weekend series “at” Toronto. Prior to the games, we knew the Phillies would bat in the top of the order and the game would follow American League rules using the designated hitter, even though they were playing in their home park. To further sell the idea that these were “away” games, the Phillies even wore their road uniforms, but the teams did not go so far as to switch dugouts nor did the concessions sell typical Canadian baseball fare. Although, that’s probably the same as American baseball fare at this point.

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The Phillies were scheduled for an inter-league series with the Toronto Blue Jays at Toronto’s Rogers Centre over the last weekend in June. The dates coincide with the G20 summit also hosted in Toronto, and after a lot of back and forth MLB has acquiesced to the City of Toronto’s request to move the game. So now, the Phillies will be playing an away inter-league game in Philadelphia under American League rules.

What does this mean? The Phillies will bat in the top of the inning, and we’ll see a Designated Hitter in the game for the first time ever at Citizen’s Bank Park. This may even be the first time this has ever happened at any National League Field. It’s like everything will be turned upside down! No word yet on whether the Phillies will wear their road uniforms or use the visiting dugout.

Is it the biggest deal in the world? No, although Jeff Francoeur and the Mets may think it is since it gives the Phillies three extra “home” games. No NL East team is within three games of the Phillies record at the moment, and we’ll see if the Mets or any other team is at the end of the season. Regardless, this is one of those bizarre things that I just have to see for myself. Tickets are on sale now.