The anemia that's stricken the Phillies much of the season was apparent in their 4-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park. Trevor Cahill held them to four hits. A's closer Andrew Bailey, a graduate of Paul VI High in Haddon Township, earned the save.
Bailey got the chance to create a fond memory of his first time pitching near his hometown since he became a big-leaguer. The 27-year-old righthander got Chase Utley on a grounder to first to end the eighth.
He got into trouble in the ninth when Shane Victorino doubled and Raul Ibanez walked with one out, bringing Domonic Brown to the plate as the tying run. But Bailey picked up his fifth save in his last five chances by getting Brown on a double play to end the game.
In the first two games of the series, the Phillies scored two runs and collected eight hits. They have scored three runs in the last three games.
"They've got good pitching," Manuel said after an eight-game home winning streak ended. "At the same time, we've had trouble scoring runs."
Cole Hamels, who has been every bit the equal of Roy Halladay, was more of a battler than a dominator as he sought his 10th win. The lefthander pitched well, but holding the A's to two runs over eight innings wasn't good enough as the Phillies scored less than four runs for the 41st time this season.
Reliever Michael Stutes was reminded that life in The Show does have its down times. The hard-throwing rookie righthander, who had wins in each of his three previous appearances and was rapidly rising in popularity with fans because of his fearless approach, gave up two runs in the ninth inning. These days, a three-run deficit for the Phillies may as well be 10.
