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Half a step.
That's what separated the Phillies from a possible victory last night in a 6-5
loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park.
In a game that featured four Phillies home runs, a strikeout and a passed ball with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning ended the Phillies' aspirations to reach .500 for the first time since April 7.
"I tried to get there," said Phillies leftfielder Pat Burrell, who
raced to first in an desperate attempt to beat the throw from Cardinals catcher
Mike Matheny. "I haven't seen the replay."
Told he was incredibly close to beating the throw, which would have allowed
Marlon Byrd to score from third base, Burrell just shook his head.
"I thought it was a foul tip," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.
"I heard someone yell 'Chase it,' and I started panicking. It was a great
play. It was a great play if it was 10-0.
"To do that with the game on the line - that's one of the greatest defensive
plays I've ever seen to win a game. I'm sure if I thought about it overnight,
I'd say it was the best play I've ever seen to win a game."
Said Matheny: "It's all a blur. Fortunately, it took a good kick off that
wall."
Rightfielder Bobby Abreu smacked a two-run homer to left field in the third,
and Abreu, Jim Thome and Burrell hit back-to-back-to-back homers to tie the
game at 5-5 in the fifth inning. It was the first time since April 29, 1999,
that the Phillies hit three straight homers. Scott Rolen, Rico Brogna and Ron
Gant did it against Cincinnati that day.
But the Cardinals scored the winning run off righthander Brett Myers (0-2) in
the sixth when former Phillie Marlon Anderson scored on a fielder's choice.
It is said that the Phillies live and die with the home run. Of the 103 runs
the Phillies have scored this season, 47 of them (45.6 percent) have come from
home runs. And since their seventh game of the season against Cincinnati, 48
of their 88 runs (54.5 percent) have come from homers.
"There's nothing you can do about it," Phillies manager Larry Bowa
said about his team's dependency on home runs.
Bowa said he saw a "big improvement" from Myers, who allowed three
unearned runs. That's good because last night seemed to be an important start
for Myers. After he lasted four-plus innings last Wednesday in St. Louis, Bowa
said the 23-year-old righthander needed to improve quickly. Bowa said on more
than one occasion that rookie righthander Ryan Madson was an option to move
into the rotation should the Phillies need somebody.
But Bowa backed off a bit yesterday afternoon, more than three hours before
Myers threw his first pitch.
"He's pitching five days from today, no matter what he does," Bowa
said inside his office. "He's in our rotation right now."
Myers, who is scheduled to start Sunday in Arizona, allowed two first-inning
runs when Rolen, who leads the National League in RBIs with 30, hit a two-out
single to left field.
As expected, fans booed the former Phillies third baseman as he walked to the
plate.
They booed him when he stepped out of the batter's box.
They booed him when he singled.
They booed him all night long.
But the boos seemed forced, at least compared to last August at Veterans Stadium
when the boos were thunderous and nasty. Of course, there was a large banner
in left field last night that asked, "Scott - Any pitching in Heaven?"
That referred to St. Louis' 4.52 ERA, which ranked 11th in the National League.
There also was a banner in the right-field upper deck that claimed to be "Rolen's
Phan Club." One lonely fan sat in front of the banner.
Myers tried to get through Heaven's lineup without further damage, but allowed
an unearned run in the third to make it 3-0 and two unearned runs in the fifth
to make it 5-2. The Phillies' didn't threaten to score until the ninth after
they hit the back-to-back-to-back homers in the fifth, although Burrell was
on third with two outs in the eighth when Jimmy Rollins flied out to center
field.
In fact, after Mike Lieberthal followed Burrell with a single, Cardinals relief
pitchers didn't allow a hit until Placido Polanco singled to left with one out
and Byrd on first in the ninth inning.
"What you can say is that we were down, 6-5, in the ninth and we had our
opportunities to score," Burrell said.
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