Phils Lose Heartbreaker To Yanks In Bottom of 9th

The Phillies started out fast again. This time with a Raul Ibanez home run in the 2nd inning. The Phillies have had their way with the Yankees new ballpark, but this time, the ending did not favor the Phillies.

The 1st inning featured no heroics this time around, with the Phils going one-two-three. The Yanks went quietly too.

The 2nd inning was when things started to get interesting. The Phils started things off with a Raul Ibanez league leading 17th home run of the year. That made the score 1-0. That was the only scoring for the Phils in the inning.

The Yankees then answered on some rare small ball in their stadium. To start off the inning, Robinson Cano hit a double to left field. Jayson Werth who was manning left field for the day, lost the ball in the sun, but the double was ruled a hit anyway. Ibanez, who is usually out in left field, was the designated hitter, and rookie John Mayberry was called up to play right field. Then, Melky Cabrera bunted to move Cano over to 3rd base. There was only one out, and Nick Swisher was up to bat. This was a big at bat. This was one of those at bats where you needed a strike out. Instead, Swisher grounded to the shortstop Jimmy Rollins. The grounder drove in Cano. J.A. Happ, who got the start, got the last out easily.

For the next two innings, both Happ, and opposing pitcher Andy Pettitte earned 1-2-3 innings until the 5th. This was where the Phils bats started to come around. Shane Victorino singled. Then, Pedro Feliz walked. Rookie John Mayberry Jr. came up to the plate being recently called up from triple-A, and smacked his 1st career hit, for a 3-run home-run.

The score then remained 4-1 until the bottom of the 6th, when Derek Jeter homered for the 2nd straight game.

Then, Chad Durbin came in and pitched a scoreless 7th inning, and Ryan Madson did the same in the 8th. You have to give the Yankees pitching props for keeping the Phils bats under wraps for the most part of the day.

In the 9th, the Phillies again failed to get the bats awoken, and this proved to come back and bite them in the butt.

In the bottom of the 9th, right after the announcers on Fox Baseball, said that the Yankees led the league in last inning come from behind victories, the Yankees suddenly roared from behind to tie the Phils.

Brad Lidge entered the game to try to close out the game. The inning started with Johnny Damon drawing the walk, then stealing 2nd. The next hitter, Mark Texeira, then struck out. The next batter, Alex Rodriguez, worked the count full, and then proceeded to crank a bomb into the short porch out on right field to tie the game at 4. With one out, Cano again came up with a big hit, when he singled to center field. He then stole 2nd to put a runner in scoring position. With Melky Cabrera stepping up to the plate, already having a couple of game winning hits under his belt, he quickly snapped a single to center off of Lidge to score Cano, and end the game.

Sadly, Happ did not get the hard earned win that he deserved. The bull-pen is solid, but Lidge seems to have some serious problems. They should just put him on the DL already and move Madson to closer as soon as we get J.C. Romero back.

Tomorrow, in the series finale, the Phils will throw out ace Cole Hamels to face fellow Yanks ace, C.C. Sabathia. This is the game that Hamels has been waiting for ever since the World Series ended. Ace vs. ace. Mano y mano. This will really prove exactly who is the better team.

Also, there will be a live blog tomorrow at game time for all of you that want to join in on the discussion.