Categories: 2009 RecapsPosts

Phillies Drop Heartbreaker, Fall To .500

In one of the worst losses in recent memory, the Phillies charged back in the ninth, but let it slip away again in the 10th, losing to the Dodgers, 5-3.

It was brutal, really, aside from two bright spots. The first: Cole Hamels was fantastic. He went seven innings, giving up one earned run (a seventh-inning home run by fire-hot James Loney) while striking out nine. The second: The two-out, ninth-inning rally that started with a Raul Ibanez single, carried over with a Greg Dobbs walk and capped with a Carlos Ruiz double. At the time, it was a godsend, truly a chance for the Phillies to redeem themselves.

However …

Chad Durbin quickly surrendered two runs in the 10th, putting the game officially out of reach for the home team. That added onto the already-harrowing points made throughout the game: Chase Utley is disgustingly slumping (now a .278 hitter), Ryan Howard can’t hit anymore (another 0-for-4), Shane Victorino has lost his swing (again, 0-for-4), Jimmy Rollins still can’t do it (1-for-5) and Brad Lidge cannot go an inning without surrendering a run (fifth-straight appearance giving up a run).

Is Utley injured? Is Lidge injured? What happened to Victorino? Will Rollins ever rebound? Can Charlie Manuel manage a game correctly? All these questions are impossible to answer right now; instead, one fact remains: The Phillies are suddenly a .500 team once again.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.