Phillies Edge Diamondbacks on Another Come-From-Behind Rally
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The Phillies did on Wednesday, once again, what the Phillies have done best over last season and through nearly the first month and a half of this one; come from behind in late innings. This time, a third strike passed ball to centerfielder Shane Victorino, shortstop Eric Bruntlett’s RBI double followed by 2nd baseman Chase Utley’s winning RBI single followed by lights out relief by Tom Gordon and closer Brad Lidge and the Phils had a 5-4 win over Arizona in the bag.
It seems that no team in the majors is their peer in late-inning game winning rallies. The Phillies won a major league leading 48 games last season. The Phils, who won the 20th game vs 15 losses, had the chance to blow the game wide open in the eighth inning after the lead run scored. Utley took 2nd base on a wild pitch by reliever Chad Qualls. After 1st baseman Ryan Howard and leftfielder Pat Burrell both went down on strikes, rightfielder Geoff Jenkins walked. But Juan Cruz, who relieved Qualls, got 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz to ground into a fielders choice to end the inning. Feliz had stroked a two run homer in the seventh to temporarily tie the game.
By winning, the Phillies maintained their tie with Florida for 1st place in the NL East and maintained their 1 1/2 game lead on both the Mets and the Atlanta Braves. All three teams won on Wednesday, the Mets by a 12-1 bludgeoning of the L.A. Dodgers.
Kyle Kendrick and his hitting phenom opponent Micha Owings were wrapped in a 1-1 duel through 4 1/2 innings with Kendrick allowing 5 hits, while Owings only allowed 2 hits in that span.
Shortstop Stephen Drew, who seems always to be in the center of D’backs’ scoring, got Arizona on the board with a 2 out RBI single to leftfield.
In the third inning, catcher Carlos Ruiz opened with a single to right centerfield and advanced to 2nd base on Kendrick’s sacrifice bunt. Victorino followed scoring Ruiz with a single to centerfield.
The Diamondbacks touched Kendrick in the fifth as centerfielder Chris Young opened with a solo homer to leftfield. 2nd baseman Augie Ojeda followed by tripling to right centerfield. One out later, 1st baseman Conor Jackson drove in Ojeda with the D’back’s 3rd run on a groundout. Kendrick got Drew on a fly out to centerfield to end the inning.
Kendrick got himself into a two on, two out jam in the sixth but got Young to ground out to third to emerge unscathed. Kendrick left after the sixth inning having tossed 92 pitches while giving up 3 runs on 10 hits, walking 1, striking out 2 and surrendering Young’s fifth inning homer.
Feliz tied the score in the seventh with a one out, 2 run homer only to see reliever Ryan Madson give up Arizona’s 4th run on Jackson’s one out RBI double center in the bottom of the seventh. Lefthanded reliever J.C. Romero finished out the seventh and was credited with the win when the Phils, who made optimal use of their 7 hits for the game, went ahead in the eighth.
Owings, who was one for three with the stick — a second inning double and saw his MLB best batting average for a pitcher drop to .417, left after the seventh inning. His line was 3 runs, 4 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts and Feliz’s homer. Qualls, who gave up the tying and winning runs in the eighth, was charged with the loss.
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum describes the Phillies eighth inning for Yahoo sports;
Reliever Chad Qualls struck out Victorino, but the ball got away from catcher Chris Snyder for a passed ball. Snyder retrieved it and threw to the left of Jackson. The ball arrived just as Victorino did. Victorino took an elbow to the head, and the runner’s helmet slammed into Jackson’s face.
Both players went down, but Victorino stayed in the game, while Jackson eventually got to his feet and walked off.
“When Charlie (manager Charlie Manuel) got out there and asked me if I was all right,” Victorino said, “and I said `Yeah, I’m going on the first pitch.’ … That’s just the way the game goes, I guess. You play hard.”
Victorino took off just as promised, and Bruntlett doubled to bring him home and tie the game.
“He did a good job of getting on base there,” Manuel said of Victorino. “He struck out and he hustled down there and then he got clotheslined. He got up and took off and was going to steal a base. That’s pretty good.”
Utley followed with a run-scoring single—his 27th RBI—and Philadelphia led 5-4.
“Qualls has been real good for us,” Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. “If we get the out right there (on Victorino), it’s a completely different inning.”
Jackson said he thought Victorino’s shoulder hit him but saw on video replays that it was his helmet.
“I was a little dazed,” Jackson said.
He said he hoped to be back in the lineup Thursday, but Melvin was unsure.
Snyder led off the D’backs eighth with a double to leftfield off of Gordon. But “Flash” quickly retired the side including striking out Chris Young on three pitches.
Closer Brad Lidge was, well — awesome, overpowering in the ninth striking out leftfielder Eric Byrnes and, Jackson’s replacement at 1st base, Chris Burke and getting Drew to ground out to 1st base to end the game.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Wednesday’s games, click here.
In Thursday’s get-away game, Brett Myers opposes unbeaten Brandon Webb (7-0) as the Phillies attempt to take 3 of 4 games. Following Arizona, the Phils travel to San Francisco for a 3 game weekend series with the Giants followed by an open date on Monday, May 12. A pair of young lefthanders start in Friday’s opener as ace Cole Hamels opposes Patrick Misch.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on Thursday’s games, click here.
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