PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils continued their series in Milwaukee tonight. Cliff Lee got the start and was roughed up again for about the 3rd time in his last 4 starts. This one may have been the worst of the 3 as Lee allowed 7 runs on 9 hits, including 3 run homers by Prince Fielder and Mike Cameron, in only 6 innings. The Phils meanwhile, against a guy in Manny Parra whom they had owned thus far in his career, could only come up with 2 runs on 4 hits in 7 innings, both on a 2 run single by Ryan Howard in the 4th inning. So after 7 innings the Phils found themselves in a 7-2 hole from which they could not climb out although they tried to gamely. Brad Lidge came on in relief in the 7th and allowed the Brewers to push the lead to 8-2. Then the Phils finally woke up in the 8th , as an RBI single by Howard and a fielder's choice cut the lead to 8-4. Then in the 9th inning they put 2 on with nobody out, but it was to no avail. From there Matt Staris popped up, Jimmy Rollins fouled out, and Shane Victorino grounded out to end the 8-4 Brewer win. Thus, the Phils magic number stays at 4. I cannot believe this keeps happening to Lee, but hopefully it is just a fluke and he'll pitch well when it really matters. It was interesting to Lidge pitch the 7th inning tonight and apparently that may be his role from now on. He looked half way decent tonight so maybe that is for the best. I am surprised the Phils performed so poorly against Parra tonight. They were batting .521 as a team against him coming in. I am not sure what Parra really did to turn that round. Perhaps they just got a little fatigued out there. The Phils got some more bad news on the injury front today as they were forced to scratch Pedro Martinez from his next start as he recuperates from that neck injury he suffered in his last start. While the injury does appear to be serious the Phils and Pedro decided to be cautious and sit him out for a start. So hopefully this will be the only start he misses. Kyle Kendrick will get the start in place of Pedro and hopefully he'll continue to pitch as well as he has been. Anyway so the Phils drop to 89-64 overall and down to 6 games up in the NL East.