Bullpen Fails, Phillies Again Fall to Pittsburgh
|
|
|
|
|
Phillies starter Joe Blanton gave up 2 first inning runs on 3 hits, but then cruised through the next five innings on Sunday holding the Pittsburgh Pirates hitless while the offense built up a 5-2 lead on 27 yuear old Jeff Karstens. But a seventh inning leadoff homer by Bucs 3rd baseman Pedro Alvarez followed by a single and a double chased Blanton. Brought in with a 5-3 lead and 2 men on, Phils reliever Jose Contreras was pounded for 5 more runs, 3 of the runs charged to Blanton as the Pirates sent 11 men to the plate while scoring 6 runs in the inning. Pirates relievers shut down the last 6 Phils hitters in a row as the Phillies again fell to Pittsburgh by an 8-5 score as bullpen failed to hold a lead.
With the loss, the Phils remain 5 games back to NL East division-leading Atlanta who were edged by Florida. However, they dropped to 3 games behind the 2nd place Mets who beat Washington.
The Phils offense did some good work scoring a run in the second inning and racking up 3 more in the third against Karstens. But Karstens shut the Phils down from the fourth inning until the seventh when catcher Dane Sardinha struck again pounding a leadoff seventh inning homer to pad the Phils lead to 5-2. For Sardinha, it was his 3rd homer in 10 games since being called up from the minors.
But then the roof fell in on the Phils in the Bucs’ seventh. Blanton coughed up Alvarez’s leadoff homer and 2 singles before getting the 1st out on a strikeout. But when utility infielder Delwyn Young came to pinch hit, Manuel went to Contreras for relief and instead was afflicted with a huge Excedrin headache and a 3 of 4 game series loss to lowly Pittsburgh. The AP game recap for Yahoo describes this latest fiasco:
Garrett Jones and Delwyn Young drove in two runs each during Pittsburgh’s comeback six-run seventh inning…
Normally, nothing’s more certain than a Phillies victory on Independence Day — fittingly enough for the team from the city of independence—but they lost on July 4 for the first time in seven years. They hadn’t lost a July 4 road game since 1995 in Pittsburgh.
They looked to have this one secured with Joe Blanton holding the Pirates hitless following a two-run first inning, but Alvarez drove Blanton’s curveball into the right-field seats for his fourth hit in two games leading off the seventh. The game began unraveling for the Phillies from there as Ryan Doumit singled and Ryan Church doubled against Blanton, and pinch-hitter Young tied it with a two-run double to left field off Jose Contreras (3-3).
Pirates rookie Jose Tabata, who doubled and scored during the first, made it 6-5 with a run-scoring single and Neil Walker walked before Jones finished off the big inning with a two-run single, only his fifth hit in 34 at-bats.
Evan Meek (4-2), a former Rule 5 pick selected earlier in the day as the Pirates’ lone All-Star representative, won it by retiring the Phillies in the seventh following Dane Sardinha’s homer off Jeff Karstens. Octavio Dotel secured it in the ninth with his 19th save in 22 tries.
With Philadelphia down 2-1, Blanton got a three-run third inning going against with a leadoff single. Shane Victorino, who had three hits Saturday in a 12-4 Phillies romp, doubled ahead of Raul Ibanez’s RBI single, All-Star Ryan Howard’s sacrifice fly and Greg Dobbs’ double.
To view the scores of all of Sunday’s games, click here.
The battered Phils now come home to begin a 7 game stand beginning Monday with a crucial 3 game series with NL East 1st place Atlanta. Monday’s opener shapes up as a classic battle with ace Roy Halladay aiming to get back on the winning track, hopefully with some steady offensive support. “The Doc” is opposed by Atlanta’s Derek Lowe.
To view all of Monday’s games, click here.
del.icio.us |
digg |
Furl |
Reddit |
YahooMyWeb |