Phils Rally for 5-4 Victory over Marlins

Despite trailing all night, there was not one moment during Monday night’s game against the Florida Marlins that the Phillies thought they weren’t going to pull it out. Even after Cliff Floyd ripped a moon-shot, three-run home run in the top of the third to chase home four unearned runs, did the team think this might not be their night.

The fact that they only had two hits in the last 17 chances with runners in scoring position -- and those two hits were by pitchers -- didn’t faze the Fightin’ Phillies a bit. And when Marlon Anderson finally knocked in the winning run with no outs and the bases-loaded in the bottom of the ninth to give the team a 5-4 win, it seemed like it was all meant to be.

The Phillies overcame an error in center by Doug Glanville, which led to Floyd’s dinger off starter Bruce Chen and waited out an 1:28 rain delay in the seventh to notch their fourth straight victory over the Marlins. When the sky was exploding like a roman candle and the wind was blowing rain all over the Vet, there was an eerie calm in the Phillies dugout.

Even as the tempest arose around the yard and home plate umpire Gerry Davis stopped the game with Mike Lieberthal on third, Travis Lee on second, no outs and Pat Burrell striding to the plate, the Phils felt as though they were sitting pretty.

"Nobody feels we're out of a game this year," reliever Ricky Bottalico said. "When you start to hate to lose, it pushes you pretty hard. When we had the delay, we were sitting pretty good -- we had them on their heels."

After the delay, Burrell followed with what manager Larry Bowa called the “biggest at-bat of the game.” The big leftfielder grounded sharply to second off reliever Braden Looper, who came in for starter Brad Penny after the rain, to drive in Lieberthal and move Lee over to third. Anderson came up against a drawn in infield and outfield and lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Lee to tie it up at 4.

On the surface, it would seem not getting a hit to drive in the runs and potentially turn the inning into the proverbial "big" inning, would frustrate most teams, especially a young one like the Phils. But the contrary seemed to be the case.

"It’s too early in the season to get frustrated," Anderson said. "We knew we had them; we were just waiting for our chance."

That chance came in the bottom of the ninth when three consecutive singles by Lieberthal, Lee and Burrell off Ricky Bones (0-1, 2.25) loaded them up for Anderson. The second basemen took the second offering from Bones and lined it between Derek Lee and the first base bag to call it a night.

"I felt I had nothing to lose," Anderson said. "He had to throw me something to hit. I want to be aggressive and hit the ball somewhere,"

The four runs the Marlins got were a gift. The Phils pitchers held them to just five hits with the bullpen coming in and turning the lights out. With the way Wayne Gomes and Bottalico (1-0, 0.00) were throwing blanks, the game was going to be decided when the Phillies could score a run.

"We only had one bad inning, and walks are what hurt us," Bowa said. "We had good pitching all night. Bottalico has been lights out. Gomes has been unbelievable."

Chen started and went 6 2/3 allowing four runs and four hits. In the third, he walked Alex Gonzalez and Luis Castillo before Eric Owens hit a bullet to center. Glanville charged the ball aggressively and it handcuffed him and fell to the NeXturf scoring Gonzalez. Floyd followed with the homer to make it 4-1. The homer was the only hit of the inning.

"That thing took off and didn’t go more than 10-feet high," Chen said of Owens’ shot to center. "Doug tried to be aggressive, and it had a weird spin on it. It just caught him wrong."

Chen, who has started in eight games in the Vet with three of them delayed by rain, retired the first seven he faced. After the third and a shaky fourth, where he gave up two straight hits, he was tough, allowing just one hit and retiring 10 of the last 12 he faced.

"I was throwing good," Chen said. "I don’t throw to hard –- maybe 88 to 90 –- so I had to move it around a lot. The only time I got in trouble was when I fell behind and left one out there for Floyd.

"But there are no worries with our bullpen."

Gomes pitched to one batter before the rain came and Bottalico pitched two innings for the win. After giving up a leadoff single in the eighth to Floyd, Bottalico got five groundouts and a whiff.

"I’m confident that I’m going to make my pitches. I’m in a good mental state right now," Bottalico said. "I’m not letting the little things bother me. I’m just concentrating on trying to get one hitter out at a time."

But for a while, it didn’t look like it would even come down to the bullpens. Marlins starter Penny settled down after giving up a first inning, leadoff double to Glanville. After Jimmy Rollins singled, Glanville scored on a double play by Bobby Abreu.

Then Penny bore down. He retired 13 straight from the second until Abreu hit a solo homer in the sixth to make it 4-2. He just couldn’t beat the rain.

Meanwhile, the Phils are off to a pretty decent start. At 5-2, the team is a game behind Montreal for the lead in the NL East -– a stat that doesn’t escape Bowa.

"The more success these kids have, it can carry over," Bowa said. "I’m not saying they’re going to go out there and win 20 in a row or anything like that. But if they start feeling a little success, there is no telling what can happen.

"I think it builds, any time you haven’t been successful and you start getting a little bit of success, it has to help," he added. "I mean, if you lose these games, obviously, you hear the ‘Hear we go again.’ But that’s normal when you haven’t had any success. That’s just not this team, that’s any team in baseball."

Notes: Bottalico picked-up his first win as a Phillie since April 7, 1998. ... Lee has reached base in six of the seven games this year. ... All six of the Phillies' home runs this season have been solo shots. ... Burrell did not strikeout Monday night. It is the first game this season in which he did not whiff. Through seven games he has 15 K’s.

John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com