ALL BUT DONE
Playoffs unlikely for Phils after latest loss
PHILADELPHIA — Time to pack up the day-by-day sheets of past late-season comebacks, and probably Roy Halladay, too.
It isn’t happening. Nice try, but not quite.
If the Braves knocked the Phillies to the canvas Saturday, then Sunday afternoon was the countout as a stellar pitching performance by Cliff Lee was sullied by some shaky outfield play and an even better showing by Atlanta starter Tim Hudson, and the Phillies (77-76) fell, 2-1, on a crisp day at Citizens Bank Park.
If this wasn’t mathmatically the end, it certainly felt like the end of reasonable paths to a wildcard berth.
“The noose is getting tight,” Charlie Manuel said, “but we’re still there. We haven’t stopped breathing yet.”
With St. Louis (82-71) and Milwaukee (79-73) getting wins Sunday, the Phillies are 5½ games out of the final wildcard spot with nine to play, not to mention 3½ behind the Brewers. The Dodgers (78-74) had a night engagement with the Reds.
So, if the Phillies somehow swept their final nine games — six against the Nationals, who are battling Cincinnati and San Francisco for home-field advantage in the NL, and three at Miami in between — then the Cardinals would have to lose five of their last 10 (with three at Houston coming up); the Brewers would have to lose at least three of their last 10 (and they host the Astros after St. Louis is finished with them); and the Dodgers would have to lose at least two of their last 10 (with six games against the Padres and Rockies).
The combination of needing to play perfect baseball and needing multiple teams ahead of them to take subpar stumbles pulls the plug for even the most pollyannaish of thinkers.
“Crazier things have happened,” Juan Pierre said, “We definitely dug ourselves a hole by losing a series at home coming off a good road trip (to New York). But if you don’t win, you don’t gain ground, and this late that’s like losing ground.
“We have to go out and win every game from here on out.”
Sunday the Phillies were locked down by veteran Tim Hudson, who allowed just two hits and no earned runs while working into the eighth inning. Using a sinker that had nasty action running away from the left-handed hitters, Hudson (16-6) was able to shut down a team that has haunted him in the past — particularly Ryan Howard.
“He was moving the ball good, getting strike one on a lot of guys,” Pierre said. “I think if we could’ve put a little heat on him, made him work out of the stretch a little bit, it might have been a different story. But he kept all our bats at bay.”
Although he entered the day hitting .355 with seven HRs lifetime against Hudson, Howard was 0-for-4 and had his streak of consecutive games with a home run end at four. The only hits for the Phils were a soft single by John Mayberry to left and a base hit to right by Kevin Frandsen.
That spoiled a ferociously game effort by Cliff Lee (6-8), who had to endure some misadventures in center field by Mayberry and the pain of an error he committed on a soft roller in the third that loaded the bases with no outs. Lee escaped the jam with only one unearned run crossing the plate on a Dan Uggla sacrifice fly, but that run was costly just the same.
“He was tremendous,” Charlie Manuel said of Lee. “It could’ve been a lot bigger than it was. They could’ve scored, five or 10 runs, maybe. He did a good job keeping his composure.
“We had some strange things happen in the game.”
Most of the “strange things” seemed to congregate in center field, where John Mayberry Jr. had a strong argument for not playing much more center fielder in his career.
“The wind was blowing a lot, a bright day with the sun,” Pierre said. “Those days are never easy to play the outfield ... but they had to play in the same field.”
A clear, bright sky and a steady northerly breeze turned the fielding conditions up to expert level in the outfield, and Mayberry had issues ranging from getting bad jumps, to taking bad routes, to fumbling a ball with his bare hand as Hudson was able to take an extra base on a double to the center-field fence.
“I think he was having trouble,” Manuel said of Mayberry in center field. “I don’t know if it was the wind, but he was slow getting off the ball. He made some mistakes.”
The Braves got their first run in the top of the second on a solo shot in from light-duty baseball masher David Ross, who cut through the wind and got his eighth homer of the year just over the centerfield wall.
The Phillies did cut Atlanta’s lead in half thanks to an errant pickoff throw by Hudson in the sixth that allowed Jimmy Rollins to advance after a leadoff walk. Pierre’s failed attempt to bunt for a base hit got Rollins to third and Utley drove him in with a sacrifice fly on a line drive to right snagged by Jason Heyward with a sliding effort.