Sep 24, 2009 9:13 am US/Eastern
Marlins Rally In Ninth To Knock Off Phillies
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The Philadelphia Phillies had a plan, of course so did Custer. Pitcher Brad Lidge was brought in late in the game to shutdown the Marlins and help preserve a victory. Instead, the Marlins put together a two-run rally in the ninth inning to give the Fish a 7-6 victory over the division leading Phils. The victory also helped move the Marlins to within 4.5 games of the NL wild card leader, the Colorado Rockies.
Lidge entered to start the ninth with a 6-5 lead and promptly gave up a double to Ross Gload, who advanced to third on Chris Coghlan's fly out. Lidge struck out pinch-hitter John Baker before walking Hanley Ramirez. Cantu then lined a single to left-center to score Gload and make it 6-all.
Carroll fell behind 0-2 before singling to center to score Ramirez.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said the late-inning bullpen solution is simple: Lidge and Ryan Madson must do the job.
"Lidge and Madson, right now, that's what we've got in the back of our bullpen," Manuel said. "Lidge was our closer last year and we signed him to be our closer now. But he's struggled and it's hard for us to close a game out. It's tough."
Dan Meyer (3-1) pitched an inning of scoreless relief for the win in the soggy game.
A 45-minute delay in the middle of the eighth inning significantly thinned the announced crowd of 31,042. Florida has drawn more than that just seven times this season. Ryan Howard doubled, homered and drove in four runs for the Phillies, whose magic number to clinch the NL East remained five.
Florida's 82nd win guaranteed the Marlins will finish with a winning record.
The Phillies went ahead 6-3 in the seventh on Howard's two-run homer but pinch-hitter Gaby Sanchez homered off Cole Hamels in the bottom half and Cody Ross had a two-out RBI single in the eighth off Madson to make it 6-5.
Hamels gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings. He struck out four and hit a batter. Raul Ibanez's solo homer, his 33rd, tied it at 3 with one out in the sixth. Pedro Feliz followed with a hard double down the left-field line. After Paul Bako flied out, Hamels singled hard past second baseman Dan Uggla to score Feliz with the go-ahead run.
In the seventh, Chase Utley walked off reliever Renyel Pinto with one out. Howard then homered to left to give Philadelphia a 6-3 lead. It was Howard's 42nd home run. Florida took a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Ross led off with his 24th home run. Ronny Paulino followed with a double to right-center and took third on starter Rick VandenHurk's sacrifice. Coghlan followed with a softly lined run-scoring single to left.
Cantu's RBI single pulled Florida to 2-1 in the fourth. Howard's two-out, two-run double in the third gave Philadelphia 2-0 lead. VandenHurk allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings. He walked one, struck out five and hit two batters.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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