The Phils finished their series with the Marlins with still more frustration. Jamie Moyer got the start and was actually fairly good pitching 4 scoreless innings before allowing a rash of bloop singles in the 5th inning that Florida used to take a 3-1 lead. Moyer did get out of the 5th inning, but opened the 6th inning with a couple of walks on close pitches and his day was over. Still Moyer ultimately did his job pitching into the 6th inning, and keeping the Phils in it up to then. The Phils just couldn't score runs once again and played poorly defensively, for about the first time all season. In fact it was an error by Paul Bako that opened the door to the Marlins 3 run 5th. With 1 out and nobody on Emil Bonifacio bunted just in front of the of plate, but Bako rushed too much and failed to field the ball, allowing Bonifacio to reach base safely. So instead of their being 2 out with nobody on , there was 1 on with 1 out, effectively ruining Moyer's chances to go 5 scoreless. Instead the Marlins followed with 4 straight blooped and looping singles and 3 runs. Things only got worse from there. Still down 3-1 in the bottom of the 6th the Phils put 2 on with 2 out for Ryan Howard. Howard worked the count to 3-2 but got rung up on a slider that appeared to be clearly out of the strike zone to end the scoring threat. Next in the top of the 7th, Shane Victorino was ejected by the homeplate umpire for reacting 300 feet a way in centerfield to a pitch thrown by Rodrigo Lopez which was called a ball, that he thought was a strike, to which Chris Wheeler scoffed "I don't think I have ever seen anything like that happen before". Apparently neither had the fans who loudly booed the ump, Ed Rapuano, for the remainder of the game, each time he made call that didn't favor the home team. Amidst the chorus of boos Lopez and Phils lost focus and 4 hits , 6 runs ,and a lazy error by Jayson Werth( who didn't start the game,but replaced Victorino in center) later, and the Marlins were laughing all the way to the bank with a 9-1 lead. Pedro Feliz finally gave the fans something to cheer about with a 2 run homer in the bottom of the inning, but it made little difference. Florida later added another 3 runs in the top of the 9th and walked away with a laughable 12-3 win to complete a sweep and pull within 4 games of the Phils who are now 61-47 overall. It's hard to know what to say after a loss like this. It was just so eerily similar to what happened between the Phils and the Mets at about this time of the season in 2007, when the Mets came into the Bank leading the Phils by 7 games, and were swept by the Phils in a 4 game series. It turned out to be a peek into the future as the Phils eventually chased down the Mets to win the NL East. I just hope this isn't a carbon copy of that, but just the thought of that happening to Phils leaves me speechless. All I can say is that the middle of the Phils lineup, Howard, Utley, Ibanez, and Werth, has got to get going again and fast or we're going to be in trouble.
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