The Phillies Phaithful fans came early, stayed late and were tortured often.
"Tough," closer Jonathan Papelbon said after the game.
"It was a real tough loss," manager Charlie Manuel echoed.
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| Lee dominant, yet team lost (sound familiar?) |
Like "Doc" Halladay and "Hollywood" Hamels, Lee might deserve his own nickname, if only for this year: "Hard-Luck Lee." Still, hard to feel sorry for a guy making $21.5 million and on pace for 2 wins this year.
The Dodgers broadcasters pondered whether Mayberry "lost it in the lights." At 6-6, it was difficult to understand, they argued, why he didn't merely reach up high if he wasn't going to jump.
"I don't know whether he lost it," they wondered. "Had he jumped, I think he would have had it."
The Phils erased that run behind Cliff Lee's best start since May 15th. He threw 8 innings, allowing just 1 run, the HR that shouldn't have been.
Later in the game, Manuel replaced Mayberry with Juan Pierre in Left Field and the fun really started. It was in the bottom of the 10th inning, with the Phils leading 3-1, when Bobby Abreu's fluke looper to left plated SS Luis Cruz and cut the lead to 1. A better LF would have made that play. Instead, Victorino was racing all the way from CF, while SS Jimmy Rollins nearly tracked it down from the infield in an effort to avert the inevitable disaster that Juan Pierre in LF ensures.
A bigger, broader concern was underscored on that and the following Dodgers' hit, an unintended and unlikely infield single by Matt Kemp that tied the game 3-3, enabling the ultimate 12th inning Dodgers victory.
Ruiz should have fielded it cleanly, but Papelbon raced in and then they both froze, waiting for the other to finish the play. The result? The run scored and everybody was safe. The lead the Phils had staked with a rare 2-run 10th was erased and the West was soon won by the Westerners.
Lack of communication. That's what cost the Phillies the game as much as any other one thing. It unraveled in those 2 hits in the 10th inning. Both were fieldable and should have been outs. There was some bad luck about it, true, but ultimately the consummate professional Phillies teams of 2007-2011, teams that were MLB leaders in fielding would never have failed at those moments.
"It's plays like those that have been our season," said one Phils fan.
Jonathan Papelbon, the Phils $50 million man, the highest paid closer in baseball history, failed again Wednesday. .
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| Phils appeared to win in 10th until umps called Kemp "safe." |
However, when they handed Papelbon a 3-1 lead in the top of the 10th, the closer they lavished with unprecedented gold precisely for moments like this failed to seal the deal. Papelbon allowed 4 hits and 2 runs, despite 2 S.O., in his 1 inning of relief, and the Phils lead was erased for good. They would not score again after Papelbon blew his 3rd save of the year and 2nd in his last 5 attempts.
Papelbon now has 3 saves and 2 blown saves in July, which means he has already eclipsed the blown saves Ryan Madson tallied all of last year. Furthermore, his 3.41 ERA hardly seems sufficient, especially in light of his alarming 5.00 ERA in June and 5.45 ERA in July.
The Phils fell to an astounding 2-8 in extra innings this year. When you're playing bad baseball, things just don't go your way.
"You have a team that's not playing very well, and we have very good players," GM Amaro said 7/2.
Jonathan Papelbon, an All-Star last week, was one "very good player" who did not play well Wednesday.
"We've got to try to win every series from here on out," he said after the game. Yet, he did more than anyone to lose what was a golden opportunity to sweep the Dodgers and complete a 5-1 road trip. Instead, the road trip ended 4-2 with the Phils 11 games out of the playoff race and the trade deadline looming with reports that the Phils are listening to offers for a host of their key players, including Hamels, Lee, Victorino and Pence.
The Phils final chance came in the 12th. Victorino, who led the Phils with 3 hits on the night, started it off right with a single and a stolen base. That put the go-ahead run on 2nd base with nobody out and Chase Utley up. Utley, who had merely 1 single in the game, was intentionally walked for the 2nd-straight time. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was pitching to him like it was 2007 or the 2009 World Series.
That was an odd choice, because it brought up Carlos Ruiz, who was 2-4 with an RBI. Now the Phils had their fastest and best runner at 2nd, Utley at 1st and nobody out for 'Chooch,' the team's best hitter this year.
"Choooch!" chimed Phils fans, who could smell the series sweep.
However, Mattingly's move paid off, as Chooch flied out to left, freezing the runners.
"Sit down, Chooch!" screamed one Dodgers fan, which woke up his pal beside him, napping under his Laker hat.
The next batter was Hunter Pence, whose 2-run single in the 10th appeared to win it-- at the time-- for the Fightin'. This time, Pence grounded out to 3rd base, where the fielders choice went to 2nd to force Utley. That left Victorino at 3rd, the go-ahead run in the 12th with 2-out.Juan Pierre promptly grounded out to 2nd to end the threat in the Phils' final at-bat of the game.
You gotta love L.A. sports fans. At one point, when Michael Schwimer shrugged off a sign from Chooch, Dodgers fans started inexplicably yelling "balk!" Some of them even abandoned the beach ball for 5 full seconds. Of course, that didn't stop them from leaving in droves with the score tied 3-3 in extra innings, leaving Matt Kemp to win it with a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 12th before largely Phillies fans, who were on-hand to see their team for the last time this year.
"It feels like a private screening," one Phils fan said.
Well, I guess it was a taste of home for the Phaithful, because now, it's back to Philly, where the Phils have floundered all year at 17-27, worst home record in the NL.
They open a 6-game homestand against the 1st-place Giants Friday, after a day off Thursday.
"We know what we've got to do and how we've got to play," Manuel said. "This is tough, but at the same time I don't know what we can do about it now. Just move on, go home, wait until Friday and go get 'em. We won two series. At the same time, we go home 4-2 instead of 5-1. The one game, that's big right now for us."
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