Manuel backs Lidge after ninth blown save leads to Phillies' loss to Pirates

PITTSBURGH - After his players had filed off the field, after the opponents' jubilant celebration had subsided, Charlie Manuel remained. For several moments, the Phillies manager stood by the steps of the visiting dugout at PNC Park, his arms draped over the fence, his face wearing the blank expression of a man trying to process reality.

Last night, the Phillies' reality was this: victory snatched from the jaws of defeat and then sent right back to its final resting place courtesy of a two-run walkoff homer from hero-turned-goat-turned-hero Andrew McCutchen off beleaguered closer Brad Lidge.

"We've got to stay with him, he's got to keep going," Manuel said of Lidge. "What the hell? That's all we can do. We'll come out and play tomorrow. We'll come out and win tomorrow's game."

On paper, it was just another 6-4 loss, in just another road ballpark, to just another young team that happened to get some timely hits. The Phillies entered having won nine of their last 11, and they left still enjoying a seven-game lead over the Marlins and Braves in the National League East, and nothing that occurred in between did much to derail what has become a beeline toward October.

But in a 162-game season, the moments inside the losses often mean more than the losses themselves, and last night there were two: First, Lidge jogging toward home plate to back up the catcher as pinch-runner Brian Bixler sprinted home to tie the game at 4-4 and clinch Lidge's ninth blown save of the season. Second, McCutchen's game-winning home run exploding off his bat and landing beyond the centerfield fence, capping Lidge's sixth loss of the season.

For the first half of the ninth inning, the Phillies seemed on the verge of winning in the same fashion they had throughout last season's title run: a one-out double by Carlos Ruiz, then a double by Ben Francisco that tied the game at 3-3, then a two-out, go-ahead triple by Shane Victorino on a line drive that McCutchen misplayed in center.

The Phillies had struggled all night at the plate, going hitless in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position before the ninth inning. Joe Blanton pitched out of trouble for most of his six innings, but gave up a two-run homer to Steve Pearce in the sixth to allow the Pirates to take a 3-2 lead.

With a heavily pro-Phillies crowd roaring throughout the night, ignited early by Jimmy Rollins' solo homers in his first two at-bats, the Phillies rallied.