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Phillies' rally comes up short, on warning track

THEY MIGHT lose, but they never quit. The Phillies came 10 feet short of stealing a win against the Arizona Diamondbacks last night in a 5-4 loss.

THEY MIGHT lose, but they never quit.

The Phillies came 10 feet short of stealing a win against the Arizona Diamondbacks last night in a 5-4 loss.

"We've got some fight, that's for sure," said Greg Dobbs, whose two-out, three-run, pinch-hit homer off closer Jose Valverde made it that close.

It set up Rod Barajas, everybody's least favorite Phillie of the moment. He drove reliever Brandon Lyon's pitch to the back of the rightfield warning track, where Carlos Quentin corralled it to end the game.

Dobbs' homer might have ended it.

Unable to solve Doug Davis, who left after eight innings with a 3-1 lead over Freddy Garcia, his opposite, the Phillies watched reliever Ryan Madson give up two in the top of the ninth. Suddenly, they had to scale a much higher mountain.

So, Valverde, 18-for-20 in save situations this season, entered with a four-run lead. He was warming up when the score was 3-1 in the eighth - a save situation, that is.

This was his first outing in a non-save situation in which the D-backs led. It didn't go well.

Valverde walked Shane Victorino, gave up a single to Chase Utley and, after back-to-back strikeouts of Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand, faced Dobbs, a pinch-hitter for Jayson Werth.

Dobbs, a storybook tale at spring training - a waiver claim who made the club with a splendid spring - connected for his second homer in as many days and his fourth of the season. It was his first pinch-hit homer since Sept. 8, 2004, when he hit it for the Seattle Mariners against the ClevelandIndians.

Pat Burrell followed a pinch single and was replaced by pinch-runner Michael Bourn. Carlos Ruiz then hit what should have been the third out through first baseman Conor Jackson's legs, moving Bourn to third and causing the Phillies to look toward fortune smiling on them.

Perhaps they could win a one-run game; they had only three one-run wins in 11 chances and were 0-for-2 against the D-backs. Maybe they win a rare game in which a lefty started: They were 5-12 in that scenario.

Maybe not.

Ruiz' grounder brought up Barajas, the last position player available and a generally unpopular sort these days; his misplay at the plate last Wednesday in Florida nearly cost the Phillies a win.

Barajas was warming up reliever Geoff Geary. He had to sprint in from the bullpen during Ruiz' at-bat. He entered the dugout frantic, and quickly became panicked: His batting gloves weren't in his helmet, Ruiz was getting deep into the count, things were a little haywire.

Barajas got a lucky rest, since Bob Melvin replaced Valverde with Lyon. Barajas then acquitted himself well, working a 1-2 count full before launching hope.

He just didn't launch it well enough.

It saved a win for Davis, who was as good last night as he has been most of the season.

He gave up seven hits but only one hurt - Howard's solo homer that began the seventh. That homer, his ninth, especially delighted Howard.

Howard came off the 15-day disabled list Friday with a left thigh strain that kept him from assuming his usual bent-knee stance at the plate. He has three homers in the last two games, but last night's - an outside pitch driven well into the left-centerfield stands - was reminiscent of the sort of poke that netted him a team-record 58 last season. It required Howard staying back on the ball and driving off the leg that had been injured.

"I was focused on trying to hit the ball where it was pitched," Howard said. "Coming off the DL, I'm just trying to get back down [in his stance]. Trying to get comfortable."

The Phillies never looked comfortable against Davis, whose 3-6 record belies a much better performance. In five of his six losses, Davis surrendered three or fewer earned runs. He gave up none twice and two twice and still lost.

Last night, using a terrific cutter, Davis gave up one in eight innings, his longest outing of the season.

The D-backs iced it in the ninth when Madson gave up a two-out walk to Davis' pinch-hitter, Tony Clark, then was stung by a bloop double from Eric Byrnes and a two-run double from Jackson.

Jackson also gave the D-backs the lead in the first with a two-run homer off Garcia, who fell to 1-4 . . . in possibly his best performance to date.

Garcia had complained that he wasn't given a long enough leash in some of his eight other starts.

The leash could hardly have been longer last night.

He mainly used a mixture of offspeed pitches, his fastball seldom grazing the 90 mph mark; Jackson's homer was 85 mph.

Nevertheless, Garcia lasted eight innings, the first time he has gotten an out past the sixth as a Phillie. On 113 pitches he gave up three runs. He struck out nine; Garcia last had as many strikeouts June 6, 2005, when, for the White Sox, he struck out 10 in Colorado.

"I finally got through the seventh," Garcia said - and wanted more; he was pinch-hit for in the eighth. "In the American League [where pitchers don't hit] I stay in there, pitch the ninth."

There was a point where Garcia might have been lifted for a pinch-hitter much earlier. With one out and the bases loaded in the fifth, manager Charlie Manuel let Garcia hit; here's why:

Garcia had singled off Davis in the third. He was 4-for-14 this season. He had plenty of gas in the tank. And the Phillies' bullpen is extremely thin and rather shaky, with Tom Gordon and Brett Myers on the DL.

Garcia swung at the first pitch, chopped an easy grounder back to Davis and grounded into a doubleplay, home to first.

Maybe he should have at least taken a pitch?

"Bah. I sent him up there to hack," Manuel said.

He did the same with Dobbs, and Barajas, and it almost worked out. *