Too Dumb To Be Left On His Own

Few people outside the Phillies clubhouse would have given them much of a chance to sweep the Florida Marlins in Miami, but fortunately the only ones who count were in the clubhouse.

The Phils concluded a dramatic sweep of the Fish with a 5-4 win last night winning in extra innings for the second time in three days. The Phils owed their victory as much to umpire Bob Davidson as to the heroics of Carlos Ruiz. Davidson clearly missed the call on a ground ball that would have meant victory for Florida in the bottom of the ninth. That set up Chooch's home run in the top of the tenth. Brad Lidge as is his wont made things interesting in the bottom of the tenth but finished things off for the save.

Entering the series, Florida had been hot and the Phils had dropped two of three to Washington. On the night of the first telecast from steamy Miami, Tom McCarthy and Chris Wheeler discussed the history of the Phillies-Marlins as a graphic pointed out that since 2004 these two clubs have played each other so evenly only one game separated them. Earlier this season the Marlins took 2 of 3 from the Phils at Citizens Bank Park in April while the Phils returned the favor in Miami in May by the same count. In June the teams split a series in Philadelphia (the middle game of the series was rained out).

Last night's game was filled with dramatics including the Phils ninth inning rally to knot the score a four apiece. The Phils should have won in regulation time but they produced the single worst inning of base running this blogger has ever seen to kill any chance of taking the lead.

Placido Polanco reached on an error to open the ninth. Ross Gload singled and Raul Ibanez followed with a double to score Polanco and bring the Phils within a run. Jayson Werth singled, scoring Gload and tying the game. That left runners at second and third with no outs and set the stage for the misadventures and stupidity that followed.

Domonic Brown hit a bouncer to first and Gabby Sanchez threw home to get Ibanez in a run down. Werth was then picked off second base. Of all the bad plays this was the most egregious and least unexpected. Werth is too dumb to run the bases by himself. He should always be sent with an escort.

Domonic Brown ended the farce when he was caught stealing for the final out. The whole mess was pathetic and nearly cost them the game. In fact, had it not been for Bob Davidson it would have!