Nationals Overtake Phillies on Late Rally, Manuel’s Miscues
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With the Phillies leading 5-4 with 2 out bases empty in the seventh inning and lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre on the mound, Charlie Manuel went to Chad Durbin to pitch to righthanded hitting 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman. The result; Durbin’s 3rd pitch nailed to center for the game tying homer plus 3 more runs in a 4 run eighth as the Nationals won by 9-7, taking 2 of 3 from the Phils.
With the loss, the Phillies dropped further behind the NL East division leading Mets and now trail by 3 games. The Mets pounded the Milwaukee Brewers to sweep their 3 game series setting up the climactic 3 game weekend series between the 2 teams. The 3rd place Marlins beat the 4th place Atlanta Braves to take 2 of 3 games. The Marlins stayed 8 games back while the Braves dropped out of sight 19 games behind.
This is a game which Charlie Manuel personally blew by putting the wrong reliever in the wrong situation, a 2 out, none on situation better left alone to play out. The result is that the Phillies wasted a 2 homer, 4 RBI game by 1st baseman Ryan Howard and have dug themselves a hole, losing 2 of 3 to Nationals. This is not the type of momentum the Phils need going into Shea. The ultimate result could be disastrous.
But putting Durbin in to replace Eyre and to face Zimmerman was not the only Manuel screw-up in this game. Where was centerfielder Shane Victorino? Benched to put Eric Bruntlett (0-2, .218) in rightfield moving Jayson Werth to center? Why? I find no explanation for this move in any of the post-game recaps. The only hint that something is wrong is Phillies Nation’s little caption;
Shame On Shane: Shane Victorino is on the bench tonight. Eric Bruntlett is in right field, and Jayson Werth is in center field.
Unlike the media explosion earlier in the season surrounding the benching of Jimmy Rollins because he arrived late at Shea, there seems to be, what we call in Israel, “a gag order” in place. “Shame On Shane” — Why?
The Phillies opened the scoring in the first inning as Ryan Howard solved lefthander Odalis Perez for a 2 out 2 run homer scoring 2nd baseman Chase Utley who had reached as a hit batsman as the Phils took a 2-0 lead. But the Nationals tied the score against Joe Blanton in their first inning on an RBI double by 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman and 2 out RBI single by 1st baseman .203 hitting Kory Casto.
The Phils went up by 3-2 in the third inning on Utley’s 1 out RBI triple to centerfield which followed Rollins’ single. But the Nationals regained the lead at 4-3 in the fifth after Blanton walked 2 and 2 runs scored on fielder’s choice grounders with reliever Ryan Madson on the mound. Blanton was charged with both runs while throwing 84 pitches in 4 innings and giving up a total of 4 runs on 6 hits while walking 3 and striking out 2.
But the Phils came back in the sixth inning as Werth, hitting in the 3rd spot in the lineup, singled through the middle and scored on Howard’s 2nd homer. 5-4 Phillies.
AP sports writer Joseph White describes the disgusting turn of events late in the game for Yahoo sports;
The Phillies led 5-4 when Durbin entered the game with two outs and nobody on in the seventh. Manuel wanted a righty-righty matchup against Zimmerman, but the move backfired when Zimmerman deposited Durbin’s third pitch to straightaway center field for his 11th homer.
“We’ve been asking a lot out of him,” Manuel said. “But at the same time he’s been so good, he’s the guy we kind of have to go to and ride him. And why shouldn’t we? He’s been so good this year.”
Durbin allowed three hits in four batters in the eighth, capped by pinch-hitter Ronnie Belliard’s RBI single that gave the Nationals a 6-5 lead. J.C. Romero entered and walked Emilio Bonifacio, loading the bases for [Cristian] Guzman’s three-run double that hit the base of the wall in left and made it 9-5.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play,” Guzman said. “I saw the ball go into the gap, so ‘Thank you.”’
The Phillies rallied for two runs in the ninth off reliever Joel Hanrahan, but it wasn’t enough as they lost their first series in Washington since 2006.
Saul Rivera (5-5), one of seven Nationals pitchers, threw a scoreless eighth to get the victory to finish an 8-1 homestand.
Durbin was charged with the loss, his 4th of the season. He has 5 wins.
In blogging throughout this season, there have been seeming watershed games where it looked as if the season turned down and then up again for the Phillies. I hope that this one was not the season-breaker. But we’ll see what guts, persistence and fortitude these guys have over this coming weekend series with the Mets. It’s a good move to push Cole Hamels into Sunday’s start against the Mets. It’s time that he stepped up in the tradition of “Lefty” Steve Carlton and, ore recently, Curt Schilling.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Wednesday’s games, click here.
The Phils have Thursday off before travelling to Shea stadium on Friday for the Big Series, their final 3 regular season games against the Mets. Brett Myers, perhaps the hotest pitcher the Phils have and maybe one of the hotest in baseball, is opposed by Mike Pelfrey.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Thursday’s games, click here.
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