The Phils should probably be back within 3 games of the top spot in the NL East right now, but instead thanks to their continued lack of timely hitting they're back to 5 games out in the NL East. It's okay to let opportunities like that slip away when it's still this early in this season but they can't afford to keep doing so for too much longer otherwise they won't have too many more opportunities to make up ground. It didn't feel so much like Atlanta won tonight but rather like the Phils let them win. It really was their game to lose in the late innings and they just couldn't take advantage. That's somewhat understandable given all the players their missing, but it's still not good enough for a team fighting to win its division.
Cole Hamels got off to a rough start allowing a run on 2 hits in the first inning but he straighened out, allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits while striking out 8 through the next 6 innings. Meanwhile Raul Ibanez slugged a 2 run homer in the bottom of the 1st to lift the Phils ahead 2-1. Later after Atlanta had rallied ahead 3-2 Ryan Howard crushed a game tying RBI triple with nobody out in the 7th. Unfortunately he was stranded at 3rd. Just one hit, one ground out to the other side of the diamond or one sac fly would have scored him, but neither Jayson, nor Ben Francisco, nor Wilson Valdez could come up with anything. Jose Contreras, J.C Romero, and Brad Lidge combined from there to keep Atlanta scoreless through the 8th and 9th innings, so scoring Howard in the 7th would likely have given the Phils a 4-3 win.
Alas, they didn't score Howard and after stranding Juan Castro at 2nd in the 10th inning, Atlanta finally made the Phils pay for allowing them to hang around with a 3 run 11th inning. Billy Wagner closed his old team in the bottom of the inning and the Phils had themselves a disappointing 6-3 loss and once again a 5 game deficit in the NL East. There are better ways to spend a tuesday night.
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