R-Phils looking for answers

Neil Sellers tags out Harrisburg's Mike Daniel in the 5th inning after taking a strong one-hop throw from
left fielder Luke Appert.  

By Tony Zonca

Reading, PA -- All you had to do was look into the Phillies dugout following Friday's 8-6 loss to the Harrisburg Senators to capture the state of mind of this reeling baseball team.

As catcher Lou Marson said following its fourth straight loss and 12th in the last 15 games, the ballclub is searching for answers and fed up with losing.

Phillies catcher Lou Marson was 2-for-4 and finished the night hitting .348

Leading by three runs after four innings, the Phillies suddenly went cold offensively against the Senators' bullpen.  They raked starter Beltran Perez for six runs and nine hits through four innings.  After that, only three runners reached base, two on walks and the other on an error.  Which means they were 0-for-15 the rest of the way.

Joey Hammond had put the Phillies up 6-3 in the fourth with his first homer of the year, a three-run line drive to left.

The Senators (31-22) had needed two pitches to score, the run coming on Mike Daniel's leadoff homer.  An RBI single by Luke Montz made it 2-0, Daniel's shot ending Carlos Carrasco's scoreless streak at 14.2 innings.

The Phillies tied it in their half on back-to-back home runs by Jason Donald, his fourth, and Greg Golson, his seventh.  Donald's homer, initially called foul by third base umpire Doug Levy, was protested by Phillies manager P.J. Forbes, who was coaching third.  Forbes raced down the line to make his case to Levy, who then sought help from the rest of the crew.  When crew chief Lance Barrett approached the Senators dugout, manager John Stearns, evidently not pleased with the overturn, went ballistic.  He was tossed by Barrett, the first-base umpire, who had determined the ball was foul -- certainly the right call.  Two pitches later, and after the long delay, Golson homered deep to center.

Following singles by Marson -- he has hit safely in 13 straight games -- and Jeremy Slayden, Brad Harman stroked a two-out RBI single that put the Phillies up 3-2 in the inning.

Carrasco allowed just two walks, but both scored, cutting what had been a 6-3 lead to 6-5 after seven innings.  A third run, in the fourth, came as the result of a wild pitch.  He was roughed up for five runs on 10 hits in 6.2 innings with five strikeouts.

The Senators -- they had lost eight of 12 -- tied it in the eighth on Luis Jimenez's eighth home run, the first pitch delivered by Pat Overholt (1-2).  They kept the momentum going in the ninth, Jimenez walking on a 3-2 Overholt pitch with the bases loaded.  Another run scored on Ofilio Castro's infield single.

The victory went to Josh Perrault (2-0), the last of four Harrisburg pitchers.

The Phillies (21-31) fell 10 games under .500 for the first time since July 2006.

PHILLERS:  With his three-run homer in the fourth Joey Hammond jacked his hitting streak to six games. . . . William Bergolla was 4-for-5 for the Senators, who also got three hits from catcher Luke Montz, the league's leading hitter at .357. . . . Phillies catcher Lou Marson was 2-for-4 and finished the night hitting .348. . . . Friday's blown save was the third in five games.  The Phillies had leads of three, four and three runs the last three games and lost each time. . . . The Senators are 14-3 in series openers. . . . Dave Hollins, who played for the big league Phillies from 1990-95 and again in 2002, was in the ballpark Friday.  He is in his third year as a scout with the Baltimore organization.  Hollins, of course, was one of the main cogs as a third baseman with the NL championship team in 1993. 

DID YOU KNOW THAT Harrisburg starter Beltran Perez blanked the Braves over six innings in his first major league start in 2006 for the Nationals? 

This story was posted on May 30, 2008