Phillies fans at the ball park and on the couch stayed up through the rain delay and through extra innings, hoping for another memorable extra-inning game. But a rare throwing error by Placido Polanco allowed Tyler Colvin to score in the 11th to give the Cubs a 4-3 win.
Fans have named every fifth day, “bullpen day” because of the poor performance by Phillies’ fifth starters. Tonight was once again a “bullpen day,” but not because of poor pitching.
After the Phillies’ first rain delay of the season and a blown save by Ryan Madson, the bullpen got a lot of work in the 4-3 loss. The Phillies bullpen allowed a respectable three runs in eight innings, but were outdueled by the Cubs bullpen which allowed no runs in 8.2 innings.
Jimmy Rollins opened up the scoring in the bottom of the second, homering to right to score Raul Ibanez and Dane Sardinha to make it 3-0. It would be the only three runs the Phillies would score tonight. After an easy top of the third for Kyle Kendrick, the tarp had to come on to the field in the bottom of the inning for a rain delay.
The rain delay lasted one hour and 17 minutes, so Kendrick would be replaced by Danys Baez because of the long layoff. Kendrick had struggled this season as a starter, going 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA in three starts, but seemed to be on his game tonight.
While the rain delay only gave us a small sample, Kendrick looked sharp through three scoreless innings allowing no walks and two hits, while striking out two.
The Cubs would get on the board in the top of the 6th on a RBI single to right by Starlin Castro to make it 3-1. Darwin Barney scored, but Sardinha bobbled a throw by Domonic Brown that surely would have gotten Barney out at the plate.
The one run was the only run allowed by Baez in 2.2 innings of relief. J.C. Romero came in after the Castro RBI single and got Carlos Pena to pop out to end the inning.
Pena would redeem himself in the top of the eighth. After Starlin Castro hit a double off of Placido Polanco’s glove, Pena hit a RBI double to right to score Castro to make it a one run game. Jose Contreras would get Aramis Ramirez to ground out to prevent any further damage.
Madson came in in the ninth and allowed a solo shot to Geovany Soto to tie the game at three. It was the first home run allowed by Madson since July 16th, 2010, and it was his first blown save of the season.
It looked like Tyler Colvin made it back-to-back home runs, but the home run was overturned because of fan interference. It was the first overturned home run this season. Madson got DJ LeMahieu to strikeout and Barney to ground out to end the top of the ninth.
After a scoreless 10th inning, Barney reached first on a throwing error by Polanco to score Colvin with two outs in the top of the eleventh to give the Cubs 4-3 lead.
The Phillies offensive struggles continued tonight. The Phils had just two hits after the fourth inning and left 12 runners on base.
WP: Sean Marshall (3-0) LP: David Herndon (0-1) S: Carlos Marmol (12)
2B: Soto (11), Castro (14), Pena (4) Colvin (4) HR: Rollins (4), Soto (4)
TTB 