PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils continued their series with the Dodgers this afternoon looking rebound from a heartbreaking loss last night. Joe Blanton got the start and provided another solid outing from a Phils starter, allowing just 1 run on 5 hits in 6 strong innings. However, the Phils again could not get much going offensivvely, and actually failed to score a run while Blanton was still in the game. So heading into the top of the 7th, the Dodgers were still leading 1-0, courtesy of a solo shot by Andre Ethier in the bottom of the 1st. The Phils finally got on the board in the 7th though as Matt Stairs slapped a 2 out 2 run double to rally the Phils ahead 2-1. From there it once again came down to Brad Lidge in the 9th. This time he got one out, and then two strikes on Rafeal Furcal, before Furcal suprised everyone by golfing out a solo homer to knot it up at 2 and send the game into extra innings. While, the Phils never had any baserunners in the extra frames the Dodgers had an opportunity with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 out, but Chad Durbin struck out Matt Kemp to keep the game alive. After retiring the next 5 batters, Durbin ran out of luck with 2 out in the top of the 12th as Andre Ethier slammed a game winning solo homer for the 3-2 Dodger win. So once again it was a heartbreaking day for the Phils, and they will need to rebound tomorrow to avoid losing their first series on the road this season. I don't know what it is about the Dodgers but the Phils just can't hit off them this season. Also I don't know what is wrong with Brad Lidge but he is running out of time to figure it out, with this his 7th blown save today. It may soon be time to move Ryan Madson into the closer's role, now that J.C Romero is available as the setup guy. Anyway so the Phils drop to 32-22 overall but remain 3 games up in the NL East as the Mets lost today as well.