Friday, June 7, 2013

Phils blow four run lead, lose on walk-off hit

June 7, 2013

By Nick Tricome


Box Score (From ESPN.com)


At one point during Friday night's game, the Phillies were enjoying a 4-0 lead and the chances of them earning their seventh consecutive win looked good with Cliff Lee on the mound. But instead, the game ended with Jeremy Horst giving up a walk-off hit to the Brewers' Aramis Ramirez.

Hey, at least the Penguins are out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Anyway, back to baseball.

Much like the night before, the Phillies scored their runs early. However, unlike Friday night, they couldn't sustain the lead and let the Brewers escape with a 5-4 win.


After a double by John Mayberry Jr., Jimmy Rollins brought him home with an RBI single into center field to give the Phils a 1-0 lead.

Three more runs got tacked on in the fourth inning, starting with an RBI single by Delmon Young. Young's hit brought home Domonic Brown, who reached base on a double in the prior at-bat.

Then Erik Kratz crushed a two-run homer to left to give the Phillies a comfortable four run lead heading into the bottom half of the fourth.

Brewers' starter Alfredo Figaro, despite giving up three runs in the fourth, would go on to pitch into the sixth, before being pulled for reliever John Axford. Figaro finished with a line of four earned runs off seven hits. He had six strikeouts in five and 1/3 innings of work.

Cliff Lee kept Milwaukee off the board through the first three innings, but ran into some trouble in the fourth.

After a Carlos Gomez walk and giving up a single to Rickie Weeks that pushed Gomez up to second base, Lee surrendered a double to Yusiensky Betancourt.

Domonic Brown tracked down the fly ball and tried to making a jumping catch at the warning track, but he couldn't get his glove on it.

Betancourt's double scored Gomez from second and moved Weeks up to third.

Figaro grounded out to Freddy Galvis at second in the next at-bat, but it was enough to bring in Weeks to make it a 4-2 ballgame.

Milwaukee was kept at bay by Lee in the fifth and sixth innings, but it didn't last into the seventh.

With Norichika Aoki on base from a walk, Jean Segura sent a base hit into the corner in right field.
Segura tripled and Aoki was able to score, but Freddy Galvis at least tried to challenge Aoki at the plate.

Galvis took the cut off throw from Delmon Young in right, then tried to rush a throw to Kratz at home plate. But the ball bounced off of Kratz and allowed Segura to slide home from third and tie up the game.

Lee finished up the seventh inning having recorded nine strikeouts and allowing four runs (three earned) off eight hits.

Michael Stutes replaced Lee in the eighth and pitched a scoreless 2/3 innings before being swapped out for Jeremy Horst.

Horst wrapped up the eighth, but this left the heart of the Brewers' order due up in the ninth.

Jonathan Papelbon was warming up in the bullpen, but manager Charlie Manuel opted to stick with Horst. That decision didn't end well.

Back-to-back singles resulted in Jean Segura at third and Ryan Braun at first with one out and Aramis Ramirez coming up to bat.

Ramirez singled into left, Segura scored and the game was over.

The Phillies fall back to .500 with a 31-31 record. They will go back at it on Saturday night with the third of a four game series in Milwaukee.

Kyle Kendrick (6-3, 3.12 ERA) and Milwaukee's Tom Gorzelanny (1-0, 2.01 ERA) are Saturday night's probable starters.

(Image from ESPN.com)

No comments:

Post a Comment