Lights didn't go out in Ga.
Atlanta wins in the ninth after 2 errors on the same play by Lidge. Despite the loss, he's still confident.
ATLANTA - Brad Lidge has insisted for most of this season that he feels confident and is happy with his pitches. He knows that the claim sounds increasingly dubious, given his eight blown saves and inflated earned run average, but he maintains it nonetheless.
"The ball is not bouncing the right way," Lidge said after a messy ninth inning resulted in a 4-3 loss to Atlanta at Turner Field yesterday. "Last year, it bounced the right way every time, and this year it has not."
GREGORY SMITH / Associated Press
Atlanta's Garret Anderson rounds third on his way to tying the game. Phillie Pedro Feliz watches pitcher Brad Lidge's errors that allowed the score.
Manager Charlie Manuel has grown exasperated with questions about his closer, who took the loss on a day that the Phillies went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
Asked if he thought Lidge's confidence had suffered because of this rough season, Manuel said: "Go ask him, man. I don't know how he feels. If I knew that, I'd probably be a doctor or something."
Confidence is a term used often with Lidge, whose career has featured long stretches of dominance, interwoven with lengthy slumps. But he said yesterday that his repertoire was better than his luck, and that kept him confident that his season would yet improve.
"When I look at the replay, I see myself throwing firm, and with command," he said. "It's weird. It's almost like I didn't have that last year, but everything was going right. But that's the reason that, despite all this, I still feel optimistic."
Yesterday's game was not lost by flat fastballs or hanging sliders, but by the very element that won Friday's thriller, defense. With the Phillies leading 3-2, Garret Anderson led off the ninth by hitting a grounder to second that skipped under Chase Utley's glove. Though it was ruled a hit, Utley said later that he "should have made that play."
Matt Diaz then dropped a bunt in front of Lidge, on the third-base side of the mound. Lidge briefly considered throwing the ball to second, a distraction that proved costly. He bobbled it, and then he threw wide of first. Anderson scored to tie the game.
"I got to the ball and I was thinking about maybe throwing to second base, and I just bobbled it," said Lidge, who was charged with two errors, one on the bobble and one on the throw. "Then the play was at first, and I threw it away."
The results have proved a stark contrast to last season, when Lidge was perfect in 41 save opportunities.
"It's frustrating, but I don't know what else to do other than just keep getting the ball and throwing it," he said. "Eventually it's going to be hit at somebody, or we're going to get the right breaks, or I'm not going to make an error, whatever."
The late loss obscured two other story lines for the Phils. Despite struggling at times with his command, Cole Hamels allowed just two runs in six innings. Hamels refused to speak with the media afterward, the second time in his last two starts he has done so.
The team also failed in many instances to add runs. "When we're in a situation like that, where you've got a real good chance at winning the game and you end up losing, that's tough," Manuel said. "That hurts you. We didn't make the plays and we didn't execute when we had to, and they won the game. It's a tough way to lose the game because we did ourselves in. They didn't beat us; we beat ourselves."
Contact staff writer Andy Martino at 215-854-4874 or amartino@phillynews.com.
