It started in the ninth inning of a Phillies blowout against the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 23, 2005. While it had been a good day for the Phillies offense – they were leading 9-2 – shortstop Jimmy Rollins had a tough game to that point, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
In fact, coming into that game, Rollins had been in the midst of a brutal stretch. He slashed .151/.189/.198 in 20 games so far in the month and had not looked the part of the star shortstop and leader of the team that he had become.