PHILLIES NEWS

Can you spell heartbreak? The Phillies have had some tough losses this season, okay a lot of tough losses this season but this one takes the cake. As advertised the game did turn out to be a pitcher's duel for 5 and 1/2 innings with the two teams deadlocked in a scoreless tie. Then in the bottom of the 6th inning it suddenly and rapidly fell apart for starter Cory Lidle as he gave up 4 runs and reliever Geoff Geary gave up a further 2 to make it 6-0 Red Sox. If you were watching the game at this point and you thought "man, 6-0 Red Sox there's no way the Phils are gonna come back" and subsequently decided to turn it off, consider yourself lucky but not for the reason you might think. Incredibly the Phillies actually managed to battle back in the 7th inning against Tim Wakefield scoring 5 runs (no that's not a typo they actually scored 5 runs in an inning). Then in the top of the 9th inning, with one out and the Phils still trailing by only one , 6-5 , Chase Utley got a key hit for the first time in a while, homering off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon ( the first such homer this year) to tie the score at 6. The two teams then traded outs until the top of the 12th inning when the Phillies, yes the Phillies took the lead 7-6 on Jimmy Rollins RBI double (his 4th RBI of the day). Unfortunately, the Phillies had already used closer Tom Gordon in the 10th and 11th innings, so they were forced to call on little used Clay Condrey to get the save. Needless, to say the Red Sox weren't exactly quaking in their knees at the sight of Condrey. Condrey though, did manage two get outs in the inning, and stood one out away from delivering a huge confidence building win for the Phils, but it was not to be. With two out and a man on second Condrey served up an RBI single to Kevin Youkillis, tying the score at 7. To make matters worse Youkillis was able to move up to second base on the play as, Shane Victorino's throw home over shot the infield. Now of course, who should step up to the plate following Youkillis, David Ortiz, who had broken the Phillies hearts on saturday with a walkoff homer. Lets' just say oops he did it again, although this time with an RBI single, game over, Red Sox 8- Phillies 7. If you ask me it just doesn't get any more painful than that. The Phillies are now 5 games under 500. at 35-40 and fading fast, if they don't put up a good showing in their upcoming series with the Orioles, this season could quickly become a lost one for them.