Major League Baseball

Phillies bullpen can't preserve Game 4 lead

Published Oct. 21, 2010 5:57 a.m. ET

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The Philadelphia Phillies turned to Roy Oswalt again when they needed another strong performance to even the NL championship series.

Oswalt the starter was up to the task in Game 2. Working out of the bullpen Wednesday night, it was a much different result.

Oswalt allowed the winning sacrifice fly to Juan Uribe in the ninth inning during a rare relief appearance for the three-time All-Star, finishing a 6-5 loss at San Francisco that put the Phillies in a 3-1 series hole.

''You know you're only coming in for an inning, maybe two and trying to make pitches,'' Oswalt said. ''You don't have to worry about getting to the seventh or eighth inning.''

Oswalt's job was to get to the 10th and he was unable to do that on a night the Phillies' quiet bats woke up, but the bullpen that had been reliable so far this postseason couldn't hold on.

Chad Durbin blew the lead in the sixth inning and Oswalt gave up the winning run in the ninth. Instead of being right back in the series with ace Roy Halladay set to take the mound Thursday night, the Phillies need a win just to send the series switched back to Philadelphia for the final two games.

''Nobody is panicking,'' Oswalt said. ''We still have three ballgames to go.''

The two-time defending NL champs used five relievers before manager Charlie Manuel called on Oswalt, who had made only 13 regular-season relief appearances in 10 seasons and one in his previous 10 playoff games.

Oswalt, who threw a 20-minute bullpen session to tune up for his Game 6 start, put on his spikes in the seventh inning and told pitching coach Rich Dubee in the eighth he'd be available for an inning if needed to get the ball to closer Brad Lidge.

''I just thought maybe I could go out and eat up one inning if the game stayed tied and we could get a run in the 10th and Brad could come in and save it,'' Oswalt said.

Oswalt's only other postseason relief outing came in Game 7 of the 2004 NLCS when he pitched two innings in relief of Roger Clemens in a 5-2 loss to St. Louis.

Manuel went with Oswalt instead of Lidge because he was holding his closer back in case the Phillies took the lead in the top half of an extra inning. That never happened.

Oswalt, who shut down the Giants for eight innings in Game 2 and scored a key run in the seventh, allowed one-out singles to Aubrey Huff and rookie Buster Posey that put runners on first and third.

''I should have known he was looking out over the plate,'' Oswalt said of Posey. ''He hit two balls foul that way. I should have came back in on him and tried to get a double play. I threw a slider off the plate and tried to jam him later.''

Uribe followed with a fly ball to deep left and Huff slid in safely. Oswalt caught Ben Francisco's throw in disgust and had to meander through a sea of celebrating Giants to get off the field.

Lidge likely would have pitched the ninth had Durbin been able to preserve the lead in the sixth.

''When you got a really good starter, a guy who has done a lot of good things, it's nice when they come down to the 'pen in the postseason,'' Lidge said. ''Every game is kind of do or die. We appreciated Roy went down there, for sure.''

The Phillies had gone 14 straight innings without a run until scoring four in the fifth, keyed by Placido Polanco's two-run double. Starter Joe Blanton gave up a run in the bottom half before Jose Contreras preserved the 4-3 lead by striking out Posey to extend the scoreless streak for Philadelphia's relievers to 9 1-3 innings this postseason.

The bullpen's spotless stretch ended with Durbin on the mound in the sixth. He walked Pat Burrell to lead off the inning - the second straight frame that a leadoff walk led to a San Francisco run. Phillies nemesis Cody Ross followed a double, putting runners on second and third with his fourth extra-base hit of the series.

With no one warming in the Philadelphia bullpen, Sandoval lined a ball down the right-field line that was ruled foul by first-base umpire Jeff Nelson to the disgust of the Giants.

It ended up not mattering when, moments later, Durbin allowed Sandoval's double into the gap in left-center that gave the Giants a 5-4 lead.

''We had momentum on our side and all of a sudden we go back out there and they take it right back away from us,'' Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. ''We couldn't hold them in the sixth inning and it kind of got away from us.''

The Phillies managed to tie it in the eighth on Jayson Werth's double off Sergio Romo but walked off with the loss an inning later.

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