Fightins lose shoving match in 11th

MIAMI - Finally, it was on.

On, like Donkey Kong.

Plenty of tension led to last night's bench-clearing posturing between the Marlins and Phillies in Florida's 5-4, 11-inning win.

Miguel Cabrera doubled off the wall in left-centerfield to score Hanley Ramirez from first base with the winning run. The shot off Francisco Rosario was the only run in five innings of relief by Geoff Geary, Ryan Madson and Rosario.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was so distraught after the loss, he declined to discuss it with the press.

The Phillies failed to break the .500 mark for the fifth time and they lost the series, two games to one, after winning three straight series.

The Phillies had their chances, too. They stranded six runners in the final three innings, three of them in scoring position.

It was an anticlimactic ending to a weird and charged series.

Petulant Marlins lefty Scott Olsen professed his "hate" for the Phillies twice since September. He then taunted Phillies second baseman Chase Utley on Tuesday after Utley annoyed him by calling a timeout in the batter's box. Phillies players screamed themselves hoarse heckling him.

Since the hate comment, nine batters had been hit in games between the teams, six of them Marlins.

Manuel and catcher Rod Barajas were ejected Wednesday over a call that turned out to be correct in a four-run ninth that forced extra innings and cost the Phils closer Brett Myers, who was injured.

Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez last night earned his first career ejection for arguing a call in third that looked wrong: first-base umpire Chuck Merriweather called Pat Burrell safe, that Aaron Boone had pulled his foot.

All this, combined with an 85-minute rain delay of a night game in the rubber match of a three-game series, made tensions high.

Especially since Jon Lieber threw behind the behind of fellow starter Dontrelle Willis in the second inning after he hit Boone.

Then, Willis threw behind the behind of Lieber in the fourth, prompting a warning to both benches (and questions about how each of them missed such large targets).

When that inning ended, Willis and some Phillies, including lighting rod Barajas, began a heated exchange. Both benches and bullpens cleared; Olsen in the forefront, along with affirmed Olsen detractor Aaron Rowand and former Olsen teammate Wes Helms.

Lots of shoving and invective ensued. No one was ejected.

"To me, the word hate is a big word," Shane Victorino said. "Dontrelle probably got caught up in the moment. It was unexpected to me for him to turn to our dugout and do that."

Perhaps the ill feeling will carry over until the teams next meet, in Philadelphia, on Aug. 7.

Perhaps not.

By then, the Phillies hope to have a fully healthy Ryan Howard, their biggest player and, as the league MVP, their lineup fulcrum. He returns tonight in Atlanta from a 15-day disabled-list stint due to a right thigh strain.

They can use him, both as a hitter and as brawl deterrent.

With closers Tom Gordon and Myers sidelined indefinitely, a healthy Howard could go a long way toward building leads big enough to make even the Phillies' thin bullpen good enough.

That didn't happen last night.

Rowand and Helms knocked RBI hits in the first to give Lieber a 2-0 lead, but Boone scored after being hit in the second and the Marlins went ahead, 3-2, on Jeremy Hermida's two-run double in the fifth.

The Phils retied it on Jimmy Rollins' sacrifice fly but Lieber gave up a leadoff triple in the sixth to Miguel Olivo and scored when Olivo's slide into home knocked loose the ball from Barajas' mitt to make it 4-3.

Barajas had allowed the tying run to score in the ninth Wednesday when he stood up as Ramirez slid underneath him.

Last night, the Phillies' disappointment could be directed at third-base coach Steve Smith, who might have cost them the lead in the eighth.

With no outs, pinch-runner Michael Bourn was on first, replacing Chris Coste, who had walked after collecting two hits in his first start. Pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs ripped a drive to rightfield off reliever Matt Lidstrom. Hermida gave chase. Bourn paused at second base, in case Hermida caught it. He did not catch it. Bourn turned on the jets.

With no outs, with runners at least going to be on second and third, Smith waved Bourn home. Oops. Bourn was out by four steps.

Smith looked to the heavens, spread his arms, looked into the dugout and patted his chest with both hands, taking responsibility for the error in judgment.

"[Bleeped] up," Smith said later. "No outs. Caught up in it. Adrenaline going. The fight. I made up my mind before."

Victorino salted the wound with a pinch single to center that scored Dobbs and tied it at 4.

Nothing much happened after that, besides Cabrera's shot.

So much energy had already been spent. *