Park Masterful as Phillies Are Swept Out of LA

LOS ANGELES — It started out so promising but ended with a thud. The Phillies opened their West Coast trip with three straight wins over the Padres but return home losers of four straight after a 4-1 loss to the Dodgers. But at least the Phils are still in first place.

Chan Ho Park no-hit the Phillies for 6 1/3 innings and struck out 10 in seven innings to help complete the three-game sweep.

	Larry Bowa argues with home-plate umpire Ted Barrett after Eric Karros scored on a squeeze play in the sixth inning.

Park (3-2) mowed down 19 of the first 21 batters and K'd nine in the first six innings. He had some nasty stuff, striking out Doug Glanville three times and Pat Burrell and Travis Lee twice. Park's only walk was to Scott Rolen in the first inning. Gary Bennett reached base on a fielding error by rookie third baseman Hiram Bocachica in the fifth.

Dave Hansen replaced Bocachica in the seventh, and, as is normally the case, the ball found him. Rolen grounded out to Hansen for the first out. Park then fell behind Bobby Abreu 3-1 and came in with an inside fastball. Abreu drilled it to the seats in right to spoil the no-hitter and shutout. Park allowed a single to Burrell before striking out Bennett to end the inning.

"After three or four innings, I thought about the no-hitter," Park said. "I wanted to try and get it just one pitch at a time. After the home run, I stepped back and then I came back strong to finish the seventh. It was fun even though I didn't get it. I'm glad to pitch a good game and for us to get the win."

Phillies starter Randy Wolf (1-4) allowed four runs — three earned — and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings while walking a pair and striking out four.

In the fourth, Wolf hung a breaking ball to Marquis Grissom who deposited it in the left-field seats for the Dodgers' first run. Park helped himself in the fifth. After Alex Cora singled and took second on an error by Burrell, Park lofted a long — but catchable — fly ball to right that sailed over the head of Abreu for a ground-rule RBI double.

The Dodgers (15-10) added another run in the sixth and had the bases loaded when Cora tried a suicide squeeze. Wolf flipped the ball to Bennett, who needed only to touch the plate for the force. However, he went for the tag and bobbled the ball after being jarred by the sliding Eric Karros who was called safe despite the protests of Larry Bowa.

Mike Fetters struck out two and retired the Phils in the eighth, and Jeff Shaw also struck out a pair in the ninth to notch his eighth save.

Although they were swept, the Phils were in each game. The first two losses were by a run.

"I don't know if it's a dose of reality for them, but these three games aren't going to set them back. They're going to be fine," Fetters said. "Larry Bowa's got them leaning in the right direction, and for us to come in here with a sweep is unbelievable. They're sitting there in first place in their division, so it was a good test for us to see where we stand. And right now, we're playing pretty good baseball."

"We started the season very well and we're in first place right now, so we don't have any complaints. But we just have to keep pushing," Abreu said. "We've lost four games in a row, but that happens to everybody. Now we get to go back home and start a new series."

The Phillies (14-10) have Monday off before opening a six-game homestand against the Rockies on Tuesday.

Andy Schwartz
ComcastSportsNet.com