The Phillies wasted a 2 homerun performance by All-Star 2nd baseman  Chase Utley (18 HRs, 61 RBIs, .320 BA) and blew 3-0 and 4-1 leads due to wild erratic pitching as the Arizona Diamondbacks came back to defeat the Phils by a 6-5 score in 11 innings.  Utley’s 2 run shot in the 1st inning extended his Major League high hitting streak to 25 games.

Utley’s homer and 3rd baseman David Bell’s (6 HRs, 34 RBIs, .288 BA) RBI single staked the Phils a 3-0 lead after 1 inning. In the Arizona 2nd inning, a run scored on an infield groundout.  Then in the Phillies half of the 2nd inning, leftfielder Pat Burrell (20 HRs, 65 RBIs) singled driving in a run.  Phillies led 4-1.

In the Diamondback’s 3rd inning, leftfielder Luis Gonzalez (9 HRs, 47 RBIs, .283 BA) scored on a wild pitch by Phils starter Ryan Madison (8-7) after doubling and advancing to 3rd base on the first of Madison’s 4 wild pitches in the inning.  The other two wild tosses did no damage as Madison got his name in the record books in not a positive way, tying a Major League record for wild pitches in one inning. Phils 4, Arizona 2.

Madison was pulled in the Arizona 5th inning after a walk, single and a hit batsman loaded the bases. Phils reliever Aaron Fultz (1-0) came in with a nifty piece of pitching and heads-up fielding to get a strikeout and a pitcher-to-catcher-to first base doubleplay to retire the side. Fultz pitched 2 scoreless, hitless innings as the Phils maintained their 4-2 lead into the 7th inning.

In the Arizona 7th inning, Gonzalez solo homered off of reliever Rheal Cormier (2-2, 1.59 ERA), who replaced Fultz, to bring the Diamondbacks to within a run at 4-3. 

In the Arizona 8th, lefthanded reliever Arthur Rhodes (0-3) relieved Cormier and walked 1 while getting the first 2 outs of the inning before the managers started playing strategy.  Arizona brought in righthanded hitting  pinch hitter Jeff DaVannon (5 HRs, 33 RBIs, .294 BA) to hit against Rhodes.  Charlie Manuel countered by pulling Rhodes and replacing him with closer Tom Gordon (3-3, 2.74 ERA, S23) to pitch to the righthanded hitting DaVannon.  The result was that DaVannon greeted Gordon with a run scoring triple to tie the score at 4-4. 

Then, in the 9th inning, Arizona loaded the bases on Gordon with none out and the lead run scored on a fielder’s choice grounder.  Gordon was then on the hook to lose the game.  In the bottom of the 9th, Utley got the Phils even with a solo homer taking Gordon off the hook and the game went into extra innings.  This was the 3rd straight appearance by closer Tom Gordon where he has given up late inning runs. 

After reliever Rich White (1-0) relieved Gordon in the 10th and walked 2 Arizona hitters.  He was then the recipient of a double-play.  Then after a hit batsman, he got a groundout to retire the side.

Phils reliever Ryan Franklin (1-5) entered the game in the 11th inning and
gave up the winning run, a solo homer to Arizona rightfielder Carlos Quentin (3 HRs, .357 BA).  Franklin was charged with the loss.  Arizona’s reliever Tony Pena (1-0, 1.59 ERA) who pitched a scoreless 2 innings in the 10th and the 11th was credited with his first major league win.

For a full recap including box score and play-by-play on Tuesday’s game,  click here.

The Phils, excuse the redundancy, try to even up the series with Arizona today as Jon Lieber (3-7) opposes Brandon Webb (11-3, 2.51 ERA) for the Diamondbacks.

For full coverage of Wednesday’s games in both leagues; previews, recaps, box scores and play-by-play coverage click here.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 6:21 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.