Phillies Lose in 16 Inning ‘Mother of Uglies’ to Astros
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Phillies lefthander Cole Hamels had another excellent outing on Tuesday, as he has in all but 4 or 5 of his 26 starts this season. He made one mistake — a fourth inning 1 out 2 run homer to Houston 1st baseman Carlos Lee. But, once again as has been the case in every one of his starts since mid-July, Hamels was denied offensive support as yet another mediocre pitcher with an Adam Eaton-esque ERA Bud Norris, along with the Astros bullpen, looked like world-beaters against the lame Phillies offense. Charlie Manuel ran out of both bullpen help and active roster players in series game 2 as the Phillies lost in a 16 inning ‘Mother of Uglies’ to Astros by a 4-2 score.
This is starting to sound like a broken record; the Phils blew their 4th opportunity in 6 games to gain ground on Atlanta and remained remained 2 1/2 games behind NL East-leading Braves who were again beaten by Colorado. Having suffered their 2nd loss to Houston, the Phils dropped into a tie with the San Francisco Giants for the NL wildcard lead. The Giants again pounded Cincinnati. On the heels of both the Phils and Giants at 1 game back are the St. Louis Cardinals, even though the Cards were edged Pittsburgh. The Mets snuck back into third place in the NL East after edging the now 4th place Florida Marlins. The mets are 9 1/2 games behind the division-leading Braves and 7 games behind the Phils with Florida 1/2 game behind.
This game had everything; reliever David Herndon going the final three innings because the Phils ran out of bullpen, 1st baseman Ryan Howard fanning 5 times in 7 at bats and getting tossed for disputing a 3rd strike on a check-swing in his last at bat in the fourteen inning, leftfielder Raul Ibanez being sent to play 1st base replacing Howard, get this — Roy Oswalt playing the final two innings in leftfield after Ibanez was sent to 1st base replacing Howard and much more.
Over the final six innings, after shortstop Jimmy Rollins belted a ninth inning game-tying solo homer to take Hamels off of the hook, the Phils collected but 3 hits and were walked 5 times over the final six innings and could plate nothing. The Phils left 17 runners stranded in the process as Norris and a mediorcre bullpen were made to appear as Giant-killers.
I again express concern that the Phillies may have watched their season implode before their very eyes in a loss beyond ugly. Charlie, you’ve got your entire lineup back and, again nothing. Isn’t time for a knockdown, drag-out meeting? Howard was not the only mass-strikeout victim. Six other Phils struck out a total of 8 times for the game.
Herdon, in his third inning of work in the fifteenth — much more than any rookie reliever ought to be exposed, ran into 1 out trouble. A single, a hit batsman, a wild pitch and the Astros have runners on 2nd and 3rd base. Then, whoever came up with the decision to walk leftfielder Jason Michaels intentionally with a hard-hitting rookie Chris Johnson, who went 4 for 6 for the game, up next?? Johnson singled past 3rd base to plate what proved to be the winning run. With runners on 2nd and 3rd base, a fielder’s choice 2nd out gave Houston a 2 run cushion. Then Astro reliever Jeff Fulchino held off the Phils despite issuing 2 two out walks. 2nd baseman Chase Utley was walked intentionally to get to Oswalt who weakly grounded out to 3rd base to finally in the disastrous marathon.
For those masochists who desire more low-lights on this one, click here for the AP game recap for Yahoo.
To view the scores of all of Tuesday’s games, click here.
In Wednesday’s game 3, ace Roy Halladay faces another former Phil in Astros lefthander J.A. Happ.
To view the schedule of all of Wednesday’s games, click here.
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