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First back-to-back losses since April 19.
First series loss in the last seven played.
Most surprising, J.C. Romero took his first loss since last August, allowing a two-run home run to Giants backup catcher Steve Holm in the seventh inning, sending the Phillies to a 4-3 loss.
Afterward, Romero was expectedly frustrated. The Phillies fell to 21-18 and have lost three of their last four. Romero labeled the fatal pitch - a first-pitch fastball left a little too high - "horsecrap."
"Like they say around the league," the lefthander said, "you hang it, they bang it."
But it's hard to expect a reliever to be perfect, and for most of the season, Romero had been just that. He entered the game 3-0 with a 0.63 ERA, having allowed just one earned run in his previous 30 innings dating back to Aug. 30 of last season.
After taking over at the start of the seventh for Chad Durbin, who did a masterful job getting the Phillies out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth, Romero recorded two quick outs and appeared ready to cruise out of the inning. But Randy Winn kept the Giants alive with a single to left field, bringing to the plate Holm, a 28-year-old who had never hit a home run in the majors.
Holm sent the aforementioned fastball into the seats in leftfield, lifting the Giants to a 4-3 lead that would last the rest of the game.
"That's going to happen every now and then," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "They're not going to be perfect."
Indeed, it's hard to fault Romero in a game the Phillies were fortunate to be leading.
The Giants had men on base in every inning except the first and the fifth against righthander Adam Eaton.
The Giants loaded the bases with no out in the fourth and sixth and had runners on first and second with no out in the second, but managed to score just two runs in those situations.
The Phillies escaped all three innings the same way: by getting San Francisco third baseman Jose Castillo to hit into a doubleplay, intentionally walking Omar Vizqel and striking out the No. 9 hitter.
In the first two cases, it was Eaton working out of the jam. In the sixth it was Durbin, who inherited men on first and second with no out from Eaton. Durbin loaded the bases by hitting John Bowker with a pitch, but got Castillo to hit into his third doubleplay, then struck out Ray Durham to end the inning.
"Obviously, the numbers weren't terrible at the end," said Eaton, whoallowed two runs on five hits, five walks and a hit batsman, and struck out four in five-plus innings. "But at the same time, it could have been a lot better if I just pitched my game."
Eaton left the game with the lead, but the Phillies' offense wasn't able to make it big enough. They managed just six hits, four of them off of San Francisco left-hander Jonathan Sanchez, who allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings.
For the second straight game, no Phillie finished the game with more than one hit. In the final two games of the series - their first back-to-back losses and their first series loss since facing the Mets at home in mid-April - the Phillies managed just 10 hits and five runs.
"We definitely are not hitting the ball," Manuel said. "We've got to hit better than we have been to win." *
For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.
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