Philly Sports Jabronis
By Todd Zolecki, Phillies.com
PHILADELPHIA — Phillies fans who waited through a rain delay of 1 hour, 22 minutes on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park at least got to see one thing worthwhile.
Ben Revere homered for the first time in his career.
Revere, who did not have a ball reach the infield dirt in his first three plate appearances, homered to right field in the 1,466th at-bat of his five-year career in a 6-2 loss to the Rockies. Revere rounded the bases in a spirited 22 seconds and arrived to the top of the dugout steps with high-fives from only Marlon Byrd and the coaching staff.
The rest of his teammates iced him for a few minutes before they congratulated him for his effort.
It was the longest homerless stretch to start a career since Frank Taveras went 1,594 at-bats without a homer from 1972-77.
“It’s a good moment, getting that monkey off your back, I guess,” Revere said. “It’s just a matter of time. My game is mainly hit line drives and hit the ball on the ground. I get in a lot of trouble hitting the ball in the air, but at least that time it went over the fence. I was hoping we would have won the game, but it’s a good feeling though.”
“No,” Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said with a smile when asked if he thought Revere would ever homer.
It was a fun moment in a season with precious few of them. The Phillies are 22-27, which is their worst start through 49 games since they started 20-29 in 2002.
Revere’s homer cut the Rockies’ lead to 4-2, but reality struck back quickly when the Phillies askedJeff Manship to start the top of the eighth. Josh Rutledge started the inning with a triple off the left-field wall, with left fielder John Mayberry Jr. making an awkward and futile leap at the ball. Drew Stubbs then doubled off the top of the wall in left-center field to make it 5-2.
Another run scored in the inning as Manship’s ERA rose to 7.53. He entered the season with a career 6.42 ERA.
“He’s our guy in the eighth right there,” Sandberg said. “Guys got to step up.”
This loss looked like so many others for the Phillies this season. Cole Hamels pitched well at times, but he could not put hitters away at the right moment. He allowed three hits and four runs with two walks and four strikeouts in seven innings.
He allowed a run in the fourth to hand the Rockies a 1-0 lead. Stubbs singled, stole second and reached third on DJ LeMahieu’s single to left. Hamels had LeMahieu at 0-2, but he could not close out the at-bat.
Troy Tulowitzki’s sacrifice fly to right scored Stubbs. Later, Hamels walked Corey Dickerson with one out in the seventh. He got Michael Cuddyer to 1-2 but once again could not close out the at-bat, walking him. Justin Morneau flied out to center for the second out, but Hamels allowed a three-run home run to Wilin Rosario to hand the Rockies a 4-1 lead.
“I’ve played here a long time; balls definitely go out,” Hamels said of the home run. “You just have to get that pitch down, and you are in a situation where if the pitch is down, it is a definite different result. It was just a poorly executed pitch.”
But the Phillies’ offense certainly cannot be forgotten in the loss. The Phillies’ 7-8-9 hitters loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but the 1-2-3 hitters could not bring them in.
“That came back to haunt us there,” Sandberg said.
“That definitely hurts,” Hamels said. “I think any time that you do that and you don’t score, that pretty much describes the way things are going. It definitely doesn’t favor you. It doesn’t put any positive mojo into any sort of situation.”
Darin Ruf hit a solo home run to left-center field in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 1.
But in the end, the Phillies could not build off Monday’s 9-0 victory over the Rockies — a familiar theme this season. They show signs of life at times, but more often than not they do not.
“It was looking good with the bases loaded in the third inning,” Sandberg said. “We had a chance to put one run up, maybe two, let Cole pitch. That’s a big momentum inning for them getting out of that.”
