Howard, Ibanez struggle for Phillies

The Phillies are on the wrong end of a 3-1 series margin and there's plenty of blame to go around.

Brad Lidge is wearing the largest set of goat horns after giving up three runs in the ninth inning of last night's devastating, 7-4 loss to the Yankees. But he's not the only one.

Raul Ibanez isn't hitting. Neither is Ryan Howard.

The two sluggers are a combined 6-for-33 in this World Series and neither has homered. Howard, in fact, has as many stolen bases as RBI. He scored his first run of the series after swiping second base and getting knocked in by Pedro Feliz' single in the fourth.

"They're paid to get us out," said Chase Utley, who is hitting .267 in the series and has three home runs. "We had a couple of opportunities to score some more runs, we just didn't do it."

Ibanez left three runners on base and his three strikeouts raised his series total to nine. Howard struck out once and is at 10 heading into tonight's Game 5.

The Phillies are now facing an elimination game for the first time since they were swept by Colorado in the 2007 NLDS. They aren't dead yet, but they are in trouble.

"We play like every game is like our last game, so [the hole] isn't going to change how we prepare," Utley said. "One game at a time. We're facing [A.J.] Burnett who pitched well against us [in Game 2]. Hopefully, we can make some adjustments and see what happens."

- Ed Barkowitz