Phillies surrender 1st place to Mets

Phillies surrender 1st place to Mets
By Todd Zolecki
Inquirer Staff Writer

Oh, how could the New York Mets possibly recover from Tuesday night's collapse?

They could turn the tables.

Yeah, that could work.

The Phillies turned a one-run lead with two outs in the eighth inning into a 6-3 loss last night at Citizens Bank Park to drop back into second place in the National League East, a half-game behind the Mets.

They went 7-2 on their homestand but hit the road last night for a true test: a three-city, 10-game trip against the Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and Mets.

"I think it's going to go down to the end," manager Charlie Manuel said of the NL East race. "I think it's going to be a good race. It's going to be a good fight."

With Mets closer Billy Wagner out, Manuel said: "When we've got our bullpen healthy and organized, I think we definitely have a little bit of a better bullpen."

A lot better, actually.

But last night the bullpen wasn't organized because four pitchers were unavailable after Tuesday's 8-7 win in 13 innings. Chad Durbin was unavailable after making five appearances in the previous eight games. The Phillies are concerned about him wearing down because he already has made a career-high 56 appearances. J.C. Romero had thrown at least 20 pitches in the previous three games. Ryan Madson, whom the Phillies watch closely because of right-shoulder issues, was unavailable after throwing two innings Tuesday.

Clay Condrey had thrown 21/3 innings Tuesday.

That is why Rudy Seanez started the eighth with a one-run lead. He retired the first two batters he faced before serving up a home run to Carlos Delgado that tied the game, 3-3. He then allowed an infield single to Carlos Beltran to put the go-ahead run on first base.

Brad Lidge entered to extinguish the fire. It was the second time this season he had entered in the middle of an inning and the first time the Phillies had hoped he could record four outs, with three more potentially coming in the ninth.

That plan ran off the rails immediately.

Lidge intentionally walked Ryan Church after Beltran stole second. Daniel Murphy doubled into the right-field corner to score Beltran and hand the Mets a 4-3 lead. Brian Schneider followed with a bloop single down the left-field line to score Church and Murphy to make it 6-3.

"I'm down there for a reason: to be used whenever Charlie wants me to be used," Lidge said. "I know down the road I need to be ready to do that [get an out or two in the eighth]. At the end of the season, these are big games, so I'll make sure I'm ready to go in whenever I'm asked to."

The Mets' bullpen, which typically is terrible, didn't blow the game this time.

It can't blow every game, you know.

Just as the Phillies' bullpen can't hold every lead.




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