Road Worriers

Phils Road Skid Reaches Four in 4-2 Loss to Arizona

PHOENIX — It's official. In four consecutive games of the seven-game road trip, the Phillies have figured out a new and innovative way in which to lose.

Monday, they were victims of the old-fashioned blowout, falling 17-3 in Houston. Tuesday, they stranded 10 runners and wasted opportunity after opportunity by going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in a 5-1 loss to the Astros.

	Jimmy Rollins got the Phils off to a quick start by hitting the game's first pitch for a homer, Thursday night. But it was all the team would score against Randy Johnson. (AP)

The Astros swept the Phils on Wednesday night behind a stellar outing by rookie pitcher Carlos Hernandez, who pitched a four-hitter in a 6-2 win.

Thursday night's 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in Bank One Ballpark was spurred on by one of baseball's oddities in a play that occurs — maybe — once or twice a season.

The Diamondbacks scored three runs in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie, thanks in part to a catcher's interference call on Mike Lieberthal. With one out and runners on first and second, Craig Counsell hit what appeared to be a ground out to second baseman Marlon Anderson off reliever Rheal Cormier. However, instead of Counsell's grounder being the inning's second out, he was awarded first because his bat nicked Lieberthal's glove.

There was no doubt about the fact that Counsell's bat nicked Lieberthal's glove, but it is debatable whether or not the D'backs' leadoff hitter was even in the batter's box. Late in the game, when the chalk lines are mixed in with the dirt around home plate, Counsell is known to sneak back a few steps in the box.

Based on Lieberthal's allusions, it sounds like Counsell had a foot outside of the box.

"Counsell is probably the one hitter in the league where you've really got to be conscious, because he's so far back in the box, and sometimes you don't realize it because the box is kind of smeared away," Lieberthal said

Counsell went to first to load the bases and as a rattled Cormier walked the next hitter, Junior Spivey, on four pitches to force home the go-ahead run. A sacrifice fly by Luis Gonzalez chased home another before Erubiel Durazo doubled home one more to put it out of reach.

When it rains, it pours.

That crazy seventh personified the Phils seven-game trip in which the team has dropped four straight to fall to 3-17 on the road this season. But if there is one good thing about Thursday's game it's that the road trip is now more than halfway over. Three more against the Diamondbacks and the team with the worst road record in the Major Leagues gets to come home for three games where it has the best home record in the Majors.

Try and figure that one out because manager Larry Bowa says he sure can't.

Part of Thursday night's problem was that the Phils were matched up against Randy Johnson (7-1, 1.88), who was lucky enough to score the win before leaving after the seventh-inning oddities. But the scoreboard aside, Johnson had all he could handle against the Phillies.

Funny as it might sound, four-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series co-MVP, Johnson, is glad he won't have to face the road-weary Phillies any more this season.

How can that be, one might ask? Didn't he whiff eight and scatter six hits allowing just one stinkin' run, through his seven innings? Weren't 73 of his 113 pitches, strikes?

Indeed. But if Johnson were a cat, he would have used a few of his lives to get the win. He surely was as skittish as a feline for four of his seven innings against the Phils.

But like a boxer that insists on throwing jabs instead of a big, knockout roundhouse, the Phils couldn't finish off Johnson... but it's not for lack of trying.

Jimmy Rollins hit the first pitch of the game over the fence in left for a home run to get the Phils off to a quick start as the team consistently needled the Big Unit. However, Cy Young's or not, the Phils fell into a trend that they have cultivated during the trip against guys like Dave Mlicki, Carlos Hernandez and Tim Redding -- they'll get 'em on but they won't get 'em in.

Against Johnson, who surely didn't have his best stuff and relied heavily on an average looking slider (relatively speaking), the Phils stranded eight runners. They stranded two more against reliever Mike Myers, who allowed a run in the eighth, and closer Byung-Hyun Kim, who got five outs for his 11th save.

In the third, the Phils loaded the bases against Johnson and came up empty. They put two more on in the fifth and drew a blank. In the sixth, Lieberthal led off with a single before Pat Burrell (1-for-2 with an RBI) walked with one out. With Marlon Anderson at the plate, Johnson balked both runners up to second and third, yet the crooked numbers never reached the scoreboard.

"I didn't have my best location or my best velocity throughout the course of the game, or my best breaking ball,'' Johnson said. "But when I had to make the pitch, I made it."

He did so by notching all eight of his strikeouts from the third inning on, despite walking a season-high four batters. Doing this without his good pitches, made the effort impressive.

"It just tells you what kind of a pitcher he is," Bowa said. "He's a warrior. I don't think he had his great stuff, but when he had to reach back, he did exactly what a great pitcher does."

Meanwhile, Lieberthal chalks the latest loss up to bad luck -- something that has invested the team after an 8-1 homestand.

"We hit balls hard tonight," Lieberthal said. "We hit a lot of at 'em balls. We're swinging the bat well. It just seems like we're not getting breaks. Tonight we didn't have a lot of luck on our side."

Put starter David Coggin as Exhibit A in the unlucky category. Filling in for the injured Robert Person for a second consecutive start, Coggin tossed his finest game of the season. He allowed just one run and retired seven straight from the second inning to the fifth before Steve Finley hit a led off double. Two of the three hits the right-hander surrendered came in that fifth, where Tony Womack singled home Finley with one out.

But in a tight game against Johnson, Bowa opted to yank Coggin for a pinch hitter in the sixth when the team had runners on seconds and third and two outs. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the Phils bullpen isn't as good or lucky on the road as it is at home.

Kind of defines this season, huh?

For the Phils, Jose Santiago took the loss by putting the go-ahead runs on base before being lifted for Cormier. He was charged with two runs, a walk and a hit in two-thirds of an inning.

The Phillies will try to break through on Friday when Terry Adams (1-3, 3.43) faces Miguel Batista (2-2, 4.71) in a rematch of last Sunday's game at the Vet. In that game, Adams notched his first Phillies' win by giving up four hits and an unearned run in six innings in the 3-1 win.

But prior to that win, Adams didn't make it past the fourth in a 7-4 win against the Astros.

Batista was almost as good as Adams, last Sunday, in pitching seven innings and allowing two runs and seven hits. However, a two-run second inning cost both Batista and the Diamondbacks.

Notes: Johnson needs three strikeouts to reach 3,500 and nine to tie Walter Johnson for eighth on the career list. ... Lee's double in the eighth was the first hit by a left-hander off Myers this season -- in 25 at-bats. ... Since being benched last Thursday against the Astros at the Vet, Burrell is 10-for-23 with five RBIs and two homers.

John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com