» Phillies: Too Little, Too Late Vs Arizona’s Webb

Phillies: Too Little, Too Late Vs Arizona’s Webb

The Phillies could do nothing with lefthander Brandon Webb’s nasty, “hellacious” sinker. And when they finally put up some offense for 2 runs in the ninth, it was too little, too late. The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, broke a 2-1 game wide open, lighting into Brett Myers for a 4 run fourth inning while coasting to an 8-3 win over the Phils for a series split in Thursday’s final.

Webb, undefeated this season, tossed his first complete game of the season and the 13th of career in carrying a 1 run, 3 hitter into the ninth when the Phils finally rallied for 2 runs on 3 hits. It was his 8th win in eight starts. Webb, who got 17 of 27 outs on ground balls, struck out 4 and issued no walks.

In losing, the Phillies dropped to a game behind the NL East leading Florida Marlins and hold 2nd place by only 1/2 game over the Atlanta Braves who both won. The 4th place Mets, 1 full game behind the Phils, had an open date.

Leadoff hitter centerfielder Shane Victorino opened the game with a single past 1st base and advanced to 2nd base on a ground out. He took 3rd base on a passed ball and scored on 2nd baseman Chase Utley’s sacrifice fly to centerfield as the Phils took a short-lived 1-0 lead.

The Phils would have only 4 men reach base against Webb between the second and eighth innings. They would not get another hit off of Webb until shortstop Eric Bruntlett’s 2 out single to centerfield in the sixth, although he was also hit by Webb pitch leading off in the fourth inning. Catcher Chris Coste singled to left centerfield in the eighth but was quickly rubbed out on Brad Harman’s doubleplay grounder to 2nd base. Harman replaced Utley at 2nd base to start the sixth inning.

With a runner on in the D’backs first, centerfielder Chris Young (6 for 18 for the series) went yard to leftfield with one out for his 2nd homer in two games and Arizona led 2-1.

Myers seemed to have things under control in the second and third innings retiring 5 D’backs in a row, including a doubleplay in the second with runners on 1st and 2nd base.

But in the fourth inning, things unraveled on Myers.

MLB.com’s Ken Mandel examined the fourth inning and Myers’ performance;

Lower velocity wasn’t an issue…. According to Myers, it didn’t matter whether the pitches he threw were good or bad.

“I made some good pitches and they hit them. I made some bad pitches they crushed,” said Myers, who allowed six earned runs in five innings. “I didn’t give us an opportunity to be in the game. I can’t put together back-to-back good starts and I don’t know what the problem is. It’s frustrating.”

To isolate the problem, one should refer to the fourth inning that began with walks to Justin Upton and Stephen Drew. Mark Reynolds followed with a broken-bat roller to short, with the bat and ball reaching Eric Bruntlett at the same time. Bruntlett avoided the bat, but couldn’t fire the slow roller fast enough to retire Reynolds.

[Catcher] Chris Snyder doubled hard to left field, driving in two, then another run scored when [1st baseman] Chris Burke lined a single off [3rd baseman] Greg Dobbs’ glove. An error on a feed from Bruntlett set up another run that scored on [2nd baseman] Augie Ojeda’s sacrifice fly.

Chris Young… finally ended the fourth by popping out.

“It’s frustrating,” Myers said. “I just have to keep battling. It’s definitely not fun going out there and feeling really good, then getting beat up. I wouldn’t change anything because I felt like I had good stuff today, I just got hit around.”

Up 6-1, the Diamondbacks added single runs in the fifth inning on 3rd baseman Reynold’s one out RBI single to shallow center, the final run off of Myers, and on rightfielder Upton’s leadoff homer off of reliever Clay Condrey in the seventh.

The Phillies finally strung some hits together in the ninth off of Webb as Victorino led off with a single to rightfield and promptly stole 2nd base. Bruntlett followed with a single to center scoring the “flyin’ Hawaiian” as both players had 2 hit games. Carlos Ruiz pinch hit for Condrey and grounded to 3rd base moving Bruntlett to 2nd. Ryan Howard, hitless in the game til now, singled to rightfield scoring Bruntlett. But the rally came up far short as Webb got rightfielder Geoff Jenkins to ground into a game-ending doubleplay.

Myers went five innings giving up 7 runs on 9 hits while walking 3, striking out 5 and giving up Young’s 1st inning homer in absorbing his 3rd loss against 2 wins. Condrey took over in the sixth and finished the game striking out 1, issuing no walks and only allowing Upton’s homer.

AP Sports Writer Bob Baum notes this about Webb’s start this season for Yahoo sports;

The easygoing Webb (8-0) became the first pitcher to win his first eight starts since Jon Garland of the Chicago White Sox in 2005 and the first in the NL since Pedro Martinez for Montreal in 1997, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Thursday’s games, click here.

The Phils travel to San Francisco for a 3 game weekend series with the Giants, and the return of MVP shortstop Jimmy Rollins, followed by an open date on Monday, May 12. A pair of young lefthanders start in Friday’s opener as ace lefthander Cole Hamels opposes Patrick Misch. In Saturday’s game two, veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer faces Tim Lincecum and in Sunday’s final, Adam Eaton opposes young lefthander Jonathan Sanchez. On Monday, the Phils have an open date before returning home Tuesday for 6 games; 3 against Atlanta and 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays and the beginning of interleague play.