The Phillies had a 4-2 lead going into the 7th inning, but lapses in middle relief, mainly by an inconsistent Rick White (4-1), lefthander Matt Smith, who was scored upon for the 1st time this season, as well as a costly throwing error resulted in a 5-4 loss to the Houston Astros in their make-up of a rainout from July. 

The Astros scored first in the 5th inning as 3rd baseman Morgan Ensberg (23 HRs, 56 RBIs) drove in a run with a 1 out, bases loaded sacrifice fly off of starter, lefthander Randy Wolf (4-0).  The Phils scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th on Ryan Howard’s (58 HRs, 145 RBIs, .316 BA) RBI single off of reliever Wandy Rodriguez (9-10) who had relieved starter Chris Sampson (1-0, 2.66 ERA) who pitched 3 2/3 innings.

In the Houston 6th inning, rightfielder Jason Lane (15 HRs, 45 RBIs) solo homered off of Wolf to tie the game at 2-2.  Wolf was removed from the game with 2 out in the 6th inning in favor of Ryan Madison (10-9) who faced lefthanded pinch hitter Craig Biggio (20 HRs, 58 RBIs).  Madison struck out Biggio to retire the side.

In the bottom of the 6th, shortstop Jimmy Rollins (25 HRs, 78 RBIs,  belted a 2 run homer to right field off of eventual winning pitcher, reliever Dave Borkowski (3-2) to put the Phils back in the lead by a 4-2 score.

In the 7th inning, reliever Rick White was inserted into the game.  With 1 out, White walked Ensberg.  Manager Manuel went to the bullpen to the bullpen for Smith to face the switch-hitting 1st baseman Lance Berkman (43 HRs, 130 RBIs, .316 BA).  Smith got Berkman swinging for a strikeout - 2 out.
But then Smith walked the bases loaded.  Manuel then went to reliever Geoff Geary (7-1, 2.99 ERA, S1).   Pinch hitter Orlando Palmeiro (16 RBIs) pinch hit for Jason Lane and greeted Geary with a 2 run single to tie the game at 4-4.  A runner advanced to 3rd on leftfielder Pat Burrell’s (27 HRs,91 RBIs) errant throw.  Pinch hitter Mike Lamb (12 HRs, 43 RBIs, .309 BA) then singled in the runner on 3rd base with the lead run for Houston.  Matt Smith was thus charged with his first loss and Geary was tagged with a blown save.

The 2 bullpens shut each other down the rest of the way.  Houston reliever Dan Wheeler (3-5, 2.51 ERA, S8) who pitched the 9th inning was credited with the save.

For full recaps including box scores and play-by-play on Monday’s game click here,

On Tuesday, the Phils begin a 3 game series with the Washington Nationals.   Brett Myers (12-6, 3.94 ERA) is opposed by Ramon Ortiz (10-15) for the Nationals.   Although the Nationals have been eliminated from the NL wild card race, every game won is important as the Phils are currently tied with Los Angeles for the NL wild card lead.  Behind them are the Astros at 4 games back, Cincinnati at 5 back and Florida at 6 back.  All teams have 6 games remaining in the regular season.

For full coverage of all of Tuesday’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 Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 10:03 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.