Phillies Rally Again to Down Cubs
By Matt Veasey
9. 7. 6. Final. 4
The Phillies built an early lead, watched as the visiting Chicago Cubs rallied to tie, and then rallied back themselves to pull out a 7-4 victory, gaining a split in the four-game weekend series at Citizens Bank Park.
The visitors scored right away in the top of the 1st inning to take an early lead against Phillies’ starting pitcher Aaron Harang. With two outs, Chris Coghlan tripled. He would score one batter later on an RBI base hit off the bat of Kris Bryant.
In their half of the 1st, the Phillies answered with a pair off Cubs’ starter Dan Haren. A pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases, and Ryan Howard tied the game with a sac fly. Cameron Rupp then lined an RBI single to left, putting the Phils on top by 2-1.
The Phils got two more in the bottom of the 3rd inning when, with one out, Aaron Altherr doubled, and then scored ahead of Howard’s 22nd home run of the season. With three weeks still to play, “The Big Piece” is just one homer behind his total from a year ago.
The Cubs used two singles and a walk with two outs in the top of the 4th to get one run back. They got another the very next inning, as Coghlan lined his 16th home run of the year over the right field wall to reduce the Phillies lead to 4-3.
Harang left after tossing 5 innings over which he allowed the 3 earned runs on 6 hits. He struck out 5 and walked just one batter in a fairly effective outing in which he left with the lead. Haren, on the other hand, constantly dodged trouble, and was gone after just 3 innings in which he allowed 4 earned runs on 7 hits and 3 walks.
With the game turned over to the two bullpens, the Cubs pulled even in the top of the 7th thanks to two errors and a walk. The 2nd error, committed by Cesar Hernandez, not only resulted in the tying run scoring, but also resulted in Hernandez being injured and having to leave the game.
The Phillies’ sloppiness was answered in the bottom of the inning by the Cubs. After Altherr tripled with one out, a wild pitch by Clayton Richard allowed him to score the go-ahead run, and the Phillies had a 5-4 lead.
In the bottom of the 8th, Freddy Galvis ripped a 2-out, 2-run double to right, pushing the Phillies lead out to 7-4. Galvis was thrown out on the play, trying to stretch it into a triple, but he had already done his damage.
Ken Giles came on to record his 13th Save in as many chances since taking over the Closer role, and the Fightin’ Phils had fought back to gain the split against the playoff-bound Cubs. The Phils will now welcome in the seriously slumping Washington Nationals for a 3-game set beginning on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park.