The Phillies dropped the rubber match of a three-game series with the New York Mets on Thursday night. Charlie Manuel’s group led 5-4 going into the ninth inning, only to see normally reliable closer Jonathan Papelbon blow the save and suffer his third loss of the season. The defeat drops the Phils’ to 37-47, and 13 games out of first place.
- Raise your hand if you expected the Phillies to score five runs off of R.A. Dickey.
- Those of you who raised your hands are lying.
- The Phillies, who had traditionally been dominated by the knuckleballer, came with a decent offensive approach, and managed to tag the right-hander for five runs on 11 hits in seven innings.
- Unfortunately for the Phils’, they had some issues in the pitching department tonight. Cole Hamels turned in a subpar performance, allowing four runs in seven innings, and Jonathan Papelbon suffered a ninth inning meltdown.
- Hamels just wasn’t at his best in this game. He was good enough to gut out seven innings, but gave up two home runs, including a two-run shot to David Wright in the fifth inning to give New York the lead.
- Papelbon began the ninth inning by giving up a lead-off double to Ike Davis. He managed to record the next two outs, but then proceeded to load the bases before giving up the tying and game-winning runs. Its just his second blown save of the season, but the Phillies have all but exhausted their margin for error at this point in the season.
- Jimmy Rollins had a great night at the plate. He reached base in all five of his trips, going 3-3 (including a double and a triple), walking twice, and driving in two runs. Its a shame his improved play of late hasn’t done much to improve the play of his team.
- Mike Fontenot went 2-4 with a double and scored a run in his start for Chase Utley.
- Utley did make an appearance in the game as a pinch hitter, and recorded a single.
just another brutal loss, you think, maybe now it starts, they finally get their closer in a game, just brutal…………
I still say the Season ended June 2nd after Hamels/Phils blew a 3-1 lead at home versus the Marlins after they had won 5 in a row and were starting to play decent ball and feel good about themselves.. It’s been downhill since..
I think I was one of the few that hated the paper on signing
He sucked in September for the redsox every year and was too much money when the phillies had so many holes
Ed wade jr is not a good GM – top GMs put together good teams via trades and building through the farm not spending $180m on a payroll of older players
And Charlie’s major flaws as a manager have shown this year w/o his top players bailing him out or his top coaches not on the staff anymore to give him advice
Papelbon not paper (above)