In the series opener on Thursday Rollins got things started with a 3 run homer in the bottom of the second. On the mound Kyle Kendrick looked solid through 3 innings and was doing a good job of keeping his pitch count down. Unfortunately the weather didn't hold off and midway through the bottom of the third the heavens opened up. After over an hour rain-delay, Kendrick was replaced by Danys Baez who pitched 3 innings and only surrendered 1 run in the 6th.
The bullpen was doing a solid job of containing the Cubbies but the Phils couldn't get anything going at the plate. Aside from the Rollins homerun the Phils failed to produce and extend their lead. Jose Contreras gave up an RBI double to Carlos Pena in the 8th and the Phils clung to a slim 3-2 lead heading into the 9th.
In the 9th Ryan Madson surrendered a 1 out solo homerun to Giovany Soto and the game was knotted at 3. Madson then gave up a solo homerun to Tyler Colvin and the Cubbies found themselves on top. Or did they? Charlie Manuel waddled out to the umpire and asked for the homerun to be reviewed and after what seemed like an eternity, the umpires returned and reversed the homerun and ruled it a ground rule double. Madson eventually worked his way out of the jam and the Phils were given an opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the 9th.
The Phils went down in order in the 9th and the already long game was extended even further with extra innings. David Herndon came onto pitch the 10th and did a good job of pitching a scoreless inning. In the bottom of the 10th Chase Utley and Ryan Howard led off the inning with back to back strike outs. After Shane Victorino walked and Raul Ibanez singled it was runners on the corners with 2 outs. Dom Brown stepped to the plate and the Cubbies elected to intentionally walk him to get to Herndon. In my opinion, Charlie made the right decision in batting Herndon. They had nobody left in the pen, and if you pinch hit for Herndon in that spot you are then forced to pitch Wilson Valdez. Herndon would go on to strike out and the game headed to the 11th.
In the top of the inning Herndon surrendered a lead off single to Tyler Colvin, and Colvin eventually advanced to 2nd base on a past ball. Herndon then struck out the next 2 batters and with 2 outs and a runner on second Darwin Barney stepped to the plate. Here's where things get really wacky. Barney hit a weak 3-2 ground ball to third basemen Placido Polanco. Polanco fielded the ball cleanly and instead of turning around and tagging Colvin who was running from 2nd to 3rd, Pauly fired a ball into the dirt and Colvin scored to give the Cubs the lead. In the 11th, Ruiz hit a lead off single but Rollins, Polanco and Utley all flew out to end the game. It was an ugly and extremely frustrating defeat but fortunately it would be the only loss of the weekend.
On Friday the Phils offense turned things around and exploded for 7 runs. The Phils scored a quick run in the bottom of the first and then tacked on two more runs in the second thanks to a Dom Brown 2 run homer. From there the Phils didn't score until the bottom of the 7th when Placido Polanco hit a grand slam to give the Phils a 7-0 lead. With a 7 run lead Manuel elected to give pitcher Roy Halladay some rest and pulled him after 7 innings.
But in the top of the 8th the wackiness that I talked about in the beginning of the article continued. Jose Contreras surrendered 2 runs and was replaced by JC Romero who surrendered 3 more runs to make it a 7-5 game. In the blink of an eye the 7-0 lead had vanished. Luckily Michael Stutes came in and got the final 2 outs of the inning. Stutes then got the first 2 outs in the 9th and Antoni Bastardo got the final out to secure a 7-5 Phillies victory.
The game on Saturday got off to an extremely weird start. Literally seconds before Cliff Lee through the opening pitch it began to rain and the game was delayed once again. Once play resumed Lee dominated the Cubs and went on to pitch 8 innings surrendering only 1 run. The Phils offense exploded for 7 runs once again with Chase Utley leading the offensive surge. Utley went 2-5 with 4 RBI's and is quickly returning to his regular self.
The Phils would eventually win by a final of 7-1.Sunday was the Ryan Howard show. The big man went 3-3 with 3 rbis and helped to provide run support for Roy Oswalt. Oswalt who had a rough first inning in which he gave up 3 runs, settled down nicely after that and didn't surrender a run in his final 6 innings. Stutes and Madson pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th and the Phils went on to win the game 4-3.
After the dissapointing road trip last week the Phils have responded nicely and have now won the first 2 series of this homestand. Looking ahead the Phils will host the Marlins in a 4 game set beginning on Tuesday.
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