SAN FRANCISCO – All things considered, the Phillies’ trip to San Francisco was a good one. They won the first two games and showed a little heart in the series finale. Yeah, they made a good showing.
But it could have been better.
Desperate for a lengthy winning streak that might finally vault them above .500, the Phils had a chance to sweep the Giants but came up short in a 4-3 loss at AT&T Park in 10 innings on Wednesday (see instant replay).
“We'll take it,” Jimmy Rollins said of the series win. “But we had a chance to put them away.”
Indeed the Phillies did.
They were stymied by soft-serving lefty Barry Zito for seven innings Wednesday and went into the ninth inning down, 3-1. You could almost have put this one in the loss column at that point because the Giants had closer Sergio Romo in the game and he had converted 12 of his first 13 save chances of the season. The Giants were 13-0 when leading after eight.
But Rollins, who earlier in the game had helped run the Phils out of an inning, started the ninth with a double and good at-bats by Kevin Frandsen, Michael Young, Chase Utley and Delmon Young helped the Phils tie the game at 3-3.
Mike Adams, with a lot of help from his defense, particularly catcher Carlos Ruiz who gunned down a would-be base-stealer, pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth, but Antonio Bastardo could not hold off the Giants in the bottom of the 10th.
Bastardo allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Buster Posey. The Giants used a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch by Bastardo to get Posey to third before Andres Torres won it with a flare single to right with two outs.
Rollins liked the pluck the Phillies showed in coming back in the ninth against one of the best closers in the National League.
“We can stand tall on that and hopefully take that to Arizona,” he said, looking ahead to the next stop on this seven-game trip.
Manager Charlie Manuel also liked the way the Phils went down swinging Wednesday, the same day they learned that Roy Halladay would be out at least three months (see story).
“I like our fight,” Manuel said. “We’ve got plenty of fight. I don’t know what the big deal is. We’ll be all right. We always have been, haven’t we?”
Actually, the Phillies haven’t always been all right. Witness last year’s 81-81 season and baseball-less October.
And the issue of fight, character, guts, pride -- whatever you want to call it -- has been raised twice in the last week or so by Cliff Lee.
“We have a lot of guys who believe in themselves,” Manuel said. “Keep watching.”
Despite their ninth-inning rally, the Phils hardly played a clean game Wednesday. Centerfielder Ben Revere appeared to get a bad jump on a soft fly ball by Marco Scutaro with two outs in the fifth. It dropped in for a hit that broke a 1-1 tie.
Revere said he got a good read on the ball, but it dropped quickly.
“You never know what the ball is going to do here,” he said.
In the sixth inning, the Phils were down a run when Rollins smacked a double against Zito. It might have been the start of something hadn’t Rollins been nailed trying to steal third on an 0-2 pitch to Kevin Frandsen.
Good play?
Bad play?
“It’s a good play if he makes it,” Manuel said.
Rollins went on his own. He has a green light.
“Obviously with one out, that's when you're going to try to take chances right there,” Rollins said. “Zito's a breaking-ball pitcher. It was a breaking-ball count. Put those things together and it's a situation where we can tie the ballgame. He threw a fastball. They got me.”
Later in the game, in the top of the 10th, catcher Guillermo Quiroz nailed another Phillie, Revere, as he tried two swipe second with one out. Revere insisted he beat the throw, but umpire Alfonso Marquez disagreed.
“I was safe,” Revere said. “That was a downer. I was very upset. That momentum shift hurt us.”
The rookie Jonathan Pettibone allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings. The one he wanted back: A two-out, first-pitch fastball to Zito in the sixth inning. Pettibone, who had intentionally walked the previous batter, grooved it andZito clubbed it to right for a run.
“That will haunt me for some time,” Pettibone said.