Young Phillies lefthander J.A, Happ provided another seven inning quality outing on Tuesday, although blowing a 3-0 lead by giving up 2 homers and 3 RBIs to Cincinnati 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips.  Reds’ starter Aaron Harang gave up 3 early runs, 2 of them on second inning solo homers by 1st baseman Ryan Howard and rightfielder Jayson Werth. However, the feast-or-famine Phillies offense, which had scored 22 runs on Monday, couldn’t cash in on a host of other scoring opportunities.  With the game tied at 3-3 beginning the ninth, closer Brad Lidge again self-destructed in a 1st and 3rd base, 1 out situation.  Catcher Ramon Hernandez singled in the winning run as the Reds edged the Phillies by a 4-3 score with a ninth inning run ending a 4 game Phils’ winning streak.

Despite the loss, the Phils remained 2 games up in the NL East divsion on the Florida Marlins who were shut out by the San Francisco Giants.  Atlanta edged the Chicago Cubs to jump into 3rd place at 4 games behind.  The Mets fell to 4th place, 4 1/2 games back, after being pounded and shut out by the L.A. Dodgers.

Happ had little difficulty with the Reds through the 1st three innings although the Reds got first and third inning singles.   Meanwhile, the Phils jumped out to a 2-0 lead as Howard picked on Harang’s 1st pitch of the inning launching a massive shot off the brick batter’s eye in straightaway centerfield.  Werth followed by pounding a 3-2 pitch out to right-centerfield.  But after leftfielder Greg Dobbs flied out, 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz singled to rightfield.  But Harang got catcher Carlos Ruiz and Happ on strikes to end the inning.

The Phils added their 3rd run in the third inning as shortstop Jimmy Rollins led off with a single to leftfield and centerfielder Shane Victorino followed with an infield hit past 3rd base.  2nd baseman Chase Utley’s 1 strike double to rightfield drove in the Phillies 3rd run and they could have had more.  With 2 strikes on Howard, Harang walked him on the next 4 pitches to load the bases with still no one out.  But Harang managed to strike out Werth, to get Dobbs to pop-out to 2nd base and to induce Feliz to ground out to the pitcher to end the inning and the threat.

With a man on and 1 out in the fourth inning, 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips whacked Happ’s 1 strike pitch out rightfield to narrow the score to 3-2.  But Carlos Ruiz led off the Phils fourth with a triple to center.  However, he was stranded as Harang got a strikeout and 2 groundouts to end the inning.  The Phils left 12 men stranded as they couldn’t capitalize in the clutch on a multitude of scoring opportunites from the third inning on.  There were just no runs left on the serving platter from from Monday’s rout.

With 2 outs in the fifth inning, Werth walked and Dobbs singled to right.  But Feliz grounded to 3rd base — yet another opportunity lost.

After Happ retired the first 2 hitters he faced, Phillips stroked his 2nd homer of the game, a solo shot to leftfield to knot the game at 3-3.

After the Phils and Reds went 3 up, 3 down in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, Chase Utley stroked a 1 out double to centerfield off of former Phillie reliever reject Arthur Rhodes.  As incredible as it seems considering his abysmal performance as a Phil, Rhodes sports a 1.82 ERA this season.  Gotta be dumb luck — for him.  Howard grounded out to shortstop moving Utley to 3rd base.  Werth was then intentionally walked puting runners at the corners with 2 gone.  Utley was the 1 bright light in the Phils’ lineup going 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and an RBI.

Here’s where manager Charlie Manuel had his biggest knuckle-headed lapse in sometime.  With Matt Stairs available to pinch hit and play left, and with Dobbs having gone 1 for 3 in the game, Manuel opted to pinch hit utility man Eric Bruntlett with his lofty .143 batting average for Dobbs with his .273 batting average.  After Werth stole 2nd base putting 2 runners in scoring position, Rhodes struck out Bruntlett to end the inning stranding 2 more runners. 

Harang went six innings throwing 114 pitches and giving up 3 runs on 9 hits while walking 2 and striking out 7 and giving up the 2 homers.  Happ went seven innings throwing 105 pitches and giving up 3 runs on 6 hits while walking none, striking out a career-high 7 hitters and coughing up 2 dingers.  Neither starter figured in the final decision.

Reliever Ryan Madson came on to pitch a 3 up, 3 down 9 pitch eighth inning striking out 2. 

The Phils threatened again in the eighth inning against reliever David Weathers. Feliz led off by reaching second on throwing error by the shortstop.  John Mayberry Jr. pinch ran for Feliz.  Ruiz sacrificed bunted to the pitcher with Mayberry moving to 3rd base.  Matt Stairs pinch hit for Madson and walked on 4 pitches again putting runners at the corners with 1 out.  But Rollins chopped a ball to 1st base where Joey Votto gunned down Mayberry at home and Victorino grounded to 2nd base into a force on Rollins to end yet another Phillies threat.  For his efforts at snuffing out the Phillies’ eighth inning threat, Weathers was awarded the win.

Closer Brad Lidge came on in the ninth in a non-closing situation with the score knotted at 3-3.  1st baseman Joey Votto, who had taken a collar thus far, slammed a full-count double to rightfield to lead off.  Brandon Phillips sacrifieced Votto to 3rd base.  After an intentional walk put runners at the corners, catcher Ramon Hernandez slapped an RBI single to center driving in the winning run and making Lidge a losing pitcher.  The doubleplay hoped for on the intentional walk occurred a little late, on the next hitter after Hernandez.

Reds’ closer Francisco Cordero came on to pitch the ninth and retired the Phils with nary a whimper to notch his 21st save of the season. 

In related news, AP sports writer Rob Maaddi notes in the recap for Yahoo sports:

Phillies LF Raul Ibanez went 1 for 2 with a strikeout, walk and scored a run in a rehab start at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Ibanez, a first-time All-Star, has been sidelined with a groin injury since mid-June.

Phillies Nation’s Amanda Orr provides further commentary on Ibanez:

His groin was tested by making plays in left field and sliding into second base. Ibanez said he felt fine.

As of now, the plan is that Ibanez will take tomorrow off and play on Thursday….

For the scores of all of Tuesday’s games, click here.

In Wednesday’s game 3, recently activated Rodrigo Lopez hopes to duplicate his fine Phillies debut effort in the opener of the Mets series. He is opposed by Homer Bailey for the Reds. 

For all of Wednesday’s games, click here.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 4:47 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary
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