PITTSBURGH -- Charlie Manuel just kept trotting them out there. One after another after another.
Jake Diekman for two batters, Phillipe Aumont for four, J.C. Ramirez for two, Antonio Bastardo for three, Justin DeFratus for one, Jonathan Papelbon for three.
Six relievers, 10 outs.
“I used 'em all, didn’t I?” Manuel said laughing. “I had [Joe] Savery left, I guess.”
It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t pretty.
Diekman, Aumont, Ramirez and Bastardo allowed a combined six of 11 batters to reach base, but the beleaguered Phillies' bullpen cobbled together 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Jonathan Pettibone Tuesday night, and the Phillies ended the Pirates’ nine-game winning streak with a 3-1 win at PNC Park (see Instant Replay).
The Phillies entered the day with the second-worst bullpen ERA in baseball, and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said before the game he’d like to acquire bullpen help.
“Very expensive, and a lot of people are looking for the same thing,” he said. “But I would have interest in proven bullpen, if I could.”
But for one night, the Phils’ young bullpen got it done. Somehow.
“The guys that are there, we do have limited experience, and so for us it’s more about just getting out there and keep getting the opportunities, keep getting the opportunities,” said De Fratus, who got a huge out with the bases loaded to end the eighth.
“We have some very talented arms down there, I firmly believe that, and it’s just a matter of getting those experiences, learning to bump our head.
“Sometimes, it’s not fun, those experiences, but you’ve got to have them to move forward, and the more we do that the better we’re going to become, because there’s a lot of talented arms down there, and we have the potential to be very good. There’s no reason we can’t be very good.”
It was DeFratus who took the loss on the Phils’ first three losses on their West Coast swing. He faced 15 batters in those three games, allowing 11 of them to reach base and four of them to score.
He only got four outs.
“When you failed before and you’ve felt that feeling, there’s nothing to be afraid of anymore, you know what I mean?” DeFratus said.
“It’s unfortunate that you do have to fail to learn that lesson, but I didn’t die. So there’s nothing to be worried about out there. You just go out there and throw the ball over the plate as hard as you can and let’s go.”
Tuesday night, facing the team with the best record in baseball, De Fratus entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth and struck out .285 hitter Jordy Mercer on five pitches.
De Fratus pumped his fist as he stepped off the mound and the several thousand Phillies fans who made the trip across the state stood and cheered.
“That feeling at the end of that inning, that’s why as relievers we play baseball,” he said. “That feeling. That’s the feeling we chase. The only way to get that feeling is to get out of a jam, so we invite those situations. It’s an amazing feeling.”
De Fratus had a 2.57 ERA before the West Coast trip. He came back east with a 4.50 ERA.
That’s what three straight awful appearances can do.
“Here’s a chance to redeem yourself, get it done,” he said. “I do feed off the fact that people have thought that they beat me. I’m not going to get angry, I just get it done.
“I’ve been beaten plenty of times in the minors and I got through it. So just see yourself through it. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to grind it out every time.”
Papelbon then worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his 16th save, and the Phillies handed the Pirates their first loss since June 19 in Cincinnati and evened their record at 4-4 on the 10-game road trip.
And the bullpen, lugging around an ungainly 4.60 ERA, had itself a rare effective if ugly line score: 3 1/3 innings, three hits, three walks and no runs.
“Yeah, we got it done,” Manuel said. “But it was kind of hard to watch.”
Manuel said he didn’t want to use Papelbon in the eighth but admitted, “It was tempting as hell.”
Pettitbone allowed only three hits in 5 2/3 but walked three and ran up a pitch count of 102 before running out of steam on a muggy day. Manuel yanked him after he allowed a solo homer to Garrett Jones with two outs in the sixth.
“They picked me up big time tonight,” Pettibone said of the 'pen. “Maybe the last couple of games haven’t gone their way, so it was good for them to get back on track.”
The Phils scored all their runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Ryan Howard, a sac fly by Domonic Brown and an RBI double by Delmon Young that scored Howard from first.
Howard said after the game his knee was quite sore after running the bases.
“It felt good to get out there and get a knock and pick the team up,” he said. “My knee hurts now.”