The Phils welcomed the Toronto Blue Jays to the Bank tonight. Cole Hamels got the start and was steady as usual, surviving a bases loaded jam in the 6th inning to hold the Jays to just 2 runs on 7 hits in 6 solid innings. Meanwhile, the Phils were able to scratch out enough runs to take a lead into the 9th inning. Unfortunately, it was simply not to be for the Phils on this night. The Phils jumped out early as Jimmy Rollins leadoff the 1st inning with a double and scored on a single by Chase Utley for a 1-0 lead. In the top of the 4th Toronto finally got to Hamels as Adam Lind slugged a solo homer and Kevin Millar doubled in a run for a 2-1 Jay's lead. After as mentioned Hamels got out of a jam in the top of the 6th, the Phils rallied ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the 6th, as Jayson Werth slammed a 2 run homer. Both teams put on the pressure on again in the 8th inning, but came up empty, as the Jays left bases loaded again and the Phils stranded 2. In the 9th Ryan Madson came in for the save and you guessed it, loaded the bases with nobody out no less. He too nearly got out of it, before offering up a game-tying walk to Lyle Overbay. Madson then retired the side from there and the Phils failed to score in the bottom of the inning. So once again the Phils would need to win in extra innings. At this point after loading bases 3 times without registering a single hit with the bases loaded, Toronto had stranded 15 runners on base and yet somehow they still managed to tie the game at 3 and force extra innings. So you knew something weird was going on. It only got weirder in the 10th inning as Clay Condrey came in and you guessed it, loaded the bases, but only after allowing Scott Rolen to bloop an RBI single to put Toronto ahead 4-3. Condrey then walked in a run and his night was over. Rookie Tyler Walker, recently called up from AAA, was then left to cleanup Condrey's mess. Unfortunately, Walker wasn't quite up to the task, allowing a sac fly and a bases clearing double by Rod Barajas of all people, for an 8-3 lead. The dejected Phils then went down quietly in the bottom of the inning to finish the 8-3 loss. So the Phils drop to just 13-17 at home now, and with their next 5 games at home(2 more with the Jays, and 3 with the Orioles) they're going to have figure out how to turn that around in a hurry. Seriously, where's the Nationals when you need them? Anyway one thing that does appear to have turned around is JRoll's swing. After crushing a homerun sunday, he went 2 for 5 tonight with a run scored and most importantly no strikeouts. So he's making contact in every at bat and making progress. Anyway so the Phils drop to 36-26 overall and back to 3 games up in the NL East.
2 comments:
Its good to see that Cole remained Mr. Reliable but I guess the Phils can only withstand a certain number of loaded bases situations.
-to ph1llysports
yeah I think that's pretty much true of every team, but man were they close
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