Millwood Stymies Phils as Bats Sleep

Barely 24-hours prior, Pat Burrell was standing at home plate with a chance to give the Phillies a big win against a NL East opponent. That time, he came through with a booming, walk-off homer to give his team an 11-inning win. It was the very first time the slugging left fielder ended a game with a home run since he began playing baseball as a boy.

Monday night against the Atlanta Braves at the Vet, Burrell eerily found himself in the same situation but with a bit higher stakes. If he gets a hit, a run scores and the Phillies complete an unforeseen comeback in the ninth inning to push the game into extra frames for a second straight day. If lightning strikes Burrell's bat twice, the game is over and he is the hero again.

That didn't happen.

	Jimmy Rollins makes a diving stop of B.J. Surhoff's infield single during the eighth inning of the Phils loss, Monday. (AP)

Burrell struck out against John Smoltz with the go-ahead run on third and the winning run on first to seal the Phils' 2-1 loss. One day removed from the dramatic heroics, Burrell took an oh-fer thanks to two whiffs and a double-play grounder to join a cavalcade of goats.

Like Scott Rolen, for instance.

Rolen came to the plate in a similar situation as Burrell except he faced the closer Smoltz with no outs and runners on first and third. All he had to do was put the ball in play somewhere and the Phils are in business. Instead, he popped up weakly to second to complete a 1-for-4 with a double play grounder and a whiff.

"If I ground into a double play, we're still playing," Rolen said. "Two things you can't do is strike out or pop up and I popped up a 3-2 that was right there."

Throw No. 5 hitter Travis Lee into the mix and the heart of the Phillies order produced a paltry 1-for-12 with five strikeouts, two double plays and 10 at bats where the ball didn't leave the infield. Against the Braves in a curiously important April series, that won't cut it. Sure, they faced Kevin Millwood, who allowed just four hits before leaving in the eighth, and former Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Smoltz, who has taken over the closer role, but the tying run was right there.

In fact, after Marlon Anderson led off with a legged-out double and Bobby Abreu beat out a single to short, Braves manager Bobby Cox admitted after the game that his club was conceding the run. They were going to let the Phillies tie it up and take their chances in extra innings.

"With the infield back and if they get a ground ball, the game's tied. You might get a double play, but the game is tied," Cox said. "But Smolztie's the kind of guy that could strike out the side. He didn't deserve the situation he was in, believe me."

Maybe the Phillies didn't either. Save for Rolen's second-inning single, Millwood allowed just one other runner to reach base until the next hit, which was quickly erased when Rolen grounded into a 6-4-3 twin killing in the seventh. In the eighth, Mike Lieberthal singled and scored when Doug Glanville followed with a double to the corner in left.

That was it for the Phils offense, which struck out eight times against Millwood and two more times against Smoltz.

"[Millwood] got the breaking ball over, went strike one, strike two, kept the ball around the knees and threw 92-m.p.h. Other than that nothing particularly stands out," manager Larry Bowa said facetiously.

They also wasted a gritty outing by Vicente Padilla, who struggled through six innings with a stiff back in only his second big league start but still managed to keep the game close. That in itself is worthy of some recognition since only 51 of Padilla's 100 pitches were thrown for strikes.

"My back was stiff. I kind of got out of a groove," Padilla said in Spanish of his five-hit, five-walk and one hit batsmen outing. "It's probably why I walked so many, but I'm not using it as an excuse. It's just one of those days."

But it's not like Padilla got much help either. The Braves scored their first run when Abreu mis-played a fly ball hit by Gary Sheffield that fell in for a single and a two-base error in the second. B.J. Surhoff's ground out to first drove him home. An inning later, Chipper Jones stroked a two-out, run-scoring single to give the Braves all the runs they needed.

"You never want to waste a good pitching performance, whether it's early or late," Rolen said. "These games add up and you know Padilla threw the ball very well, but Millwood threw the ball very well too."

Perhaps Padilla summed it up best.

"I had a good fastball and curve," Padilla said through an interpreter. "I was able to make pitches and get out of jams.

"It was one of those days."

For now, the Phils sit in last-place tie with the Marlins in the NL East with a 3-4 record and look to climb back into first (if the Mets and Expos lose) when the four-game set continues on Tuesday. Terry Adams (0-1, 9.53) meets Jason Marquis for the second time since last Thursday in the newly acquired pitcher's second game as a Phillie. In his first, he allowed eight hits and six runs in 5 2/3 during an 11-2 loss at Turner Field.

Marquis countered with two runs and five hits through six innings for the win.

Notes: Andruw Jones walked his first three at-bats after having walked just two times in his first six games. ... Vinny Castilla snapped an 0-for-22 with a single in the sixth. His only other hit this season was a three-run homer in the opener against the Phillies. ... Carlos Silva pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the Phillies.

John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com