Phillies Drop Second in a Row to Cubs, 8-4

After Saturday afternoon's tough, 8-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs in the Vet -- a game in which the Phillies clutch hitting and bullpen finally failed them -- Doug Glanville had the most apropos synopsis of the game.

"Baseball can drive you crazy sometimes," he said.

While it doesn't exactly take an Ivy Leaguer like Glanville to arrive at this conclusion, sometimes it's the true genius that can come up with the easy answers. And if you are a Philadelphia Phillies' fan, player or manager, Saturday's loss will, indeed, drive you crazy.

	Jimmy Rollins beats Julio Zuleta's tag on a pick-off attempt in the seventh inning.

But more than anyone else, the loss must be driving new skipper Larry Bowa and his starter Omar Daal up the wall. The Phils lefty seemed to be keeping the Cubs at bay, surrendering just four hits and a walk through five innings, while pacing the team to a 4-1 lead to start the sixth. However, two of those hits were home runs -- one by Sammy Sosa and another, a two run shot that scraped the top of the leftfield fence by Bill Mueller to make it 4-3 Phils with no out in the sixth -- and they cost him.

While Daal's gaffs made the game close, he was still in the lead and rather than let his starter work into the middle-innings, quick-hook Bowa decided to turn the game over to a bullpen that has pitched 20 1/3 innings in the first four games.

"He was up in the zone," Bowa said about Daal's outing. "He gave up those homers -- two hard-hit balls. I thought he could have kept going, but his pitches were up."

Daal agrees with one part of his manager's evaluation: he could have kept going.

"I was kind of surprised, I only had 67 pitches and I only made one mistake and it cost me the game," the lefty said about getting yanked. "But he's the manager and he makes the decisions and I respect that."

Bowa's decision to hank Daal may have been premature. Vicente Padilla followed Daal and lasted just two-thirds of an inning giving up two runs and two walks. He was followed by rookie Eddie Oropesa, who gave up two more runs and two more walks in an inning of work. He, in turn, was followed by Chris Brock and he surrendered a run and two walks in two innings. After a 1.30 ERA and 22 strikeouts in four games, the 'pen may have been due for a bad one. Perhaps they were even a bit tired?

"Not this early, with a days off," Bowa said tersely, shooting down the overworked reliever theory. "I'm not worried about overusing [the bullpen] at this point."

Then again, Julio Zuleta didn't make it any easier on them either.

Zuleta ripped a two-run, go-ahead double in the sixth, a two-run, bases loaded single in the seventh and a bases loaded sacrifice fly in the ninth to lead the Cubs' offensive onslaught. All told, the young first baseman knocked in five runs on the heels of a game-breaking homer in Friday's Cubs' win.

But, for Zuleta (and the Phillies) it almost didn't happen.

Zuleta was demoted to Triple-A Iowa during spring training and recalled just six days ago when regular first baseman Ron Coomer was disabled. While he's lucky to even be in the majors, he's been luckier to have faced Padilla (0-1, 6.75) in the sixth. With Chicago trailing 4-3, Cubs manager Don Baylor thought about pinch-hitting for Zuleta against the right-handed Padilla on the mound and runners at first and second.

But Baylor let Zuleta hit, and he came through with a two-run double that capped a four-run inning.

"Today, he came up in situations when we needed base hits and he provided them," Baylor said.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Phillies had a chance to take the lead but had it robbed from them. With two on and no outs, Marlon Anderson bunted Travis Lee and Mike Lieberthal over to second and third. Pinch-hitter Kevin Jordan grounded out sharply to third, failing to advance the runners before Glanville ripped a liner to the hole at short off reliever Felix Heredia that shortstop Ricky Gutierrez had to lay-out to snag.

That one let the wind out the Phils' sails.

"You can stomach a play like that when there's no one on, but [Gutierrez] made a great play and it changed the game," Glanville said.

But give the Cubs credit. Not only did they get the clutch hits to battle back when they were down by three runs, they also shut the Phillies down when they tried to creep back into it. Starter Jason Bere (1-0, 7.22) bent but didn't break over five rocky innings. He allowed four runs, five hits and three walks but still got the win. He can thank his bullpen.

Courtney Duncan, Heredia, Todd Van Poppel, Manny Aybar and Kyle Farnsworth combined for no runs and two hits over the final four innings. After Glanville was robbed in the sixth, the Cubs' 'pen seven of the next nine. When the Phils loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, Farnsworth was able to weasel out of that jam too.

The big flamethrower started the ninth by giving up a single to Glanville and then walking Bobby Abreu and Scott Rolen with one out. With the tying run at the plate, Farnsworth caught pinch-hitter Gary Bennett looking and whiffed Lee to end the game.

"A big inning would have helped," Bowa understated. "We're struggling with when he have runners on base. They're trying to hard. Sometimes the harder you try, the worse it gets."

Offensively for the Phils, Bobby Abreu homered, doubled and drove in two runs. His homer in the fifth gave the Phils a 4-1 lead.

Lee scored two runs for the Phillies, on a double by Mike Lieberthal in the second and a single by Daal in the fourth. Daal's hit was the only one by the team with a runner in scoring position.

Saturday's win gives the Cubs five straight in Philadelphia dating back to last season and puts them over .500 for the first time since the 2000 opener. The Phillies, meanwhile, have lost five straight at home dating back to last September

The series ends Sunday with Robert Person facing Jon Lieber. Monday, the Phils host the Florida Marlins for three games before taking a day off and heading to Atlanta for three.

Notes: It was the first time the Cubs have not had a one-run game this season. Chicago had opened with four straight games decided by one run, the first time in the team's 126-year history. ... Adam Taliaferro, the Penn State football player who suffered a spinal cord injury last September, threw out the first ball. Phillies pitcher Robert Person, who visited while Taliaferro was still in a wheelchair in a rehab hospital, invited him. Taliaferro is now walking and will return to Penn State in May. ... Sosa's home run was his first since he hit No. 50 last Sept. 16. ... Pat Burrell struck out three more times. He has 13 whiffs in 20 at bats this season. If he continues at his current pace, he will have 421 strikeouts.

John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com