An apparent blown umpire’s call on a 2 out, 2 on shot down the right-field line by 2nd baseman Chase Utley (31 HRs, 99 RBIs, .310 BA) that was ruled foul cost the Phillies 1 game in the NL wild card race and might cost them the wild card place in the NL Divisional series.  The Phils, despite another stand-out performance by starting pitcher Brett Myers (12-7, 3.94 ERA), were edged out by the Washington Nationals in the opening game of their 3 game series.  

Unfortunately, there is enough blame to go around on the Phillies offense which repeatedly blew clutch situations with runners on, leaving 10 on base while collecting but 3 runs on 13 hits.  Somehow, Ramon Ortiz (11-15) Ramon Ortiz, who was rocked for 12 runs to the Phillies in two July losses, came away as the winning pitcher giving up only two runs on 10 hits in six innings.  In a rarity, Nationals pitchers issued no free-passes (walks).

The loss moved the Phillies a full 1 game behind Los Angeles for the NL wild card lead as the Dodgers mauled the Colorado Rockies by an 11-4 score as winning pitcher Greg Maddux (14-14) evened his seasonal record.  The Houston Astros, who have won 7 straight games, are 3 behind the Phils and 4 behind the front-running Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds are 5 games out.
All teams have 5 games left in the regular season.

The Phllies opened with 2 runs in the 1st inning as 1st baseman Ryan Howard (58 HRs, 146 RBIs, .316 BA) and rightfielder Jeff Conine (10 HRs, 66 RBIs, .275 BA) drove in a run a piece to get the Phils off to a 2-0 lead.

In the Nationals 1st inning, with 1 out, a run scored on 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman’s (19 HRs, 107 RBIs, .286 BA)  ground out to shortstop.  2-1 Phillies after 1 inning.

Then came the Phillies second inning and the blown call.  Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Marcus Hayes writes about the inning as follows;

The Phillies’ first-base coach, Bombard shared the same angle as first-base umpire Rob Drake, home-plate umpire Greg Gibson, on-deck hitter Ryan Howard and hitter Chase Utley.

With two out and two on in the second, Utley ripped a drive down the rightfield line at RFK Stadium that none of them thought was fair. Nobody in the Phillies’ recessed dugout could see.

Drake signaled foul. Bombard looked at manager Charlie Manuel and held his thumb and forefinger 4 inches apart to indicate how far foul Bombard thought the ball went.

Utley, a combative type, immediately turned and ran back to the plate without protest past Howard, who offered no argument.

To Charlie Manuel’s fire-spitting distress, none of them was right.

The ball smacked the foul pole dead in the middle, glanced to the right and came back onto the field. Nationals rightfielder Ryan Church resignedly picked it up and threw it back in, the action of a man who knows his team was en route to a loss.

Except it wasn’t.

Utley stranded the runners, a teamwide theme for the night, leaving the Phillies with a one-run lead instead of a four-run lead.

“I saw it take a direct right. I thought it hit a bolt or something above the fence. I thought it was foul,” Bombard said. “Apparently, I didn’t see it right.”

“I kind of lost it in the lights,” said Utley, who ate his postgame meal in front of the video machine.

“I couldn’t tell. It’s unfortunate. Those were pretty big runs for us. When you look at the replay in fast motion it’s hard to tell. In slow motion, it’s easy to tell.”

The umpires declined to comment, probably because the Phillies didn’t protest for a half-inning, not until video coordinator Kevin Camiscioli scooted down from the clubhouse with the bad news.

Then, Manuel went onto the field and argued. Then, Manuel worked up a lather that only increased as his club dropped a game behind in the National League wild-card race as the Dodgers won in Colorado.

“Somebody’s got to see it. The damn umpire has to see it. That missed call was terrible. Absolutely unreal.”

In the Washington 3rd inning, Ryan Zimmerman struck again, this time smashing a 2 run double to left field off of Myers who was charged with the loss although pitching a fine 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5.  He made one mistake in the game, the pitch that Zimmerman crushed to give Washington the lead at 3-2.

In the 8th inning, Washington scored an insurance run as catcher Brian Schneider (4 HRs, 52 RBIs) singled off of Geoff Geary (7-1, 2.95 ERA, S1) with 2 on, loading the bases.  The run scored on a fielding error by Chase Utley.  4-2 Washington.

Washington neded the run as the Phils scored their 3rd run on an RBI single by Utley off of closer Chad Cordero (7-4, 3.15 ERA, S29).

As an aside, one might wonder if Ryan Howard isn’t pressing due to the temporary lull in homers. Howard hasn’t homered in his last 4 games and has only hit 2 in his last 10 games while racking up 12 more strikeouts (175 for the season) during that span.  But apparently Howard is “unflappable at the plate, no matter the situation or circumstances surrounding the team” from what AP sports reporter in Chicago Rob Maadi writes.  Howard ended the game by flying out to centerfield with a man on.

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

The Phillies try to even up the series on Wednesday and hopefully begin a winning streak which will send them to the wild card berth in the NL playoffs.  Fine rookie lefthander Cole Hamels (9-8) goes for the Phillies against Pedro Astacio (5-5) for the Nationals.

For full coverage of all 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, September 27th, 2006 at 9:34 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.