Brewers beat Phils to stay alive

"Right now we're concentrating on winning this game," he said before Game 3 of the National League division series tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers. "We came to the ballpark to win tonight. It might be getting boring, but I want to stick to that way."

But the Brewers beat the Phillies in Game 3, 4-1, to cut their lead in the best-of-five series to two games to one and force Manuel to finally talk about Sunday.

A Brewers victory in Game 4 would send the series back to Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday for Game 5, which would feature Phillies lefthander Cole Hamels and Brewers lefthander CC Sabathia, who would be pitching on full rest for the first time since Sept. 16.

But the Phils hope righthander Joe Blanton prevents that scenario when he pitches on Sunday. The Brewers are counting on righthander Jeff Suppan to make it happen.

The Phillies liked their chance to clinch the series and advance to the NL Championship Series tonight because they had lefthander Jamie Moyer on the mound. He had clinched the last two National League East championships for them. He was 3-1 with a 2.43 ERA in five career starts in the postseason. He was 9-1 with a 3.28 ERA in his final 16 starts in the regular season.

But Moyer struggled and his teammates could not hit until it was too late.

The Phillies thought they had come within two runs in the ninth, but umpires ruled that Shane Victorino obstructed Brewers second baseman Craig Counsell on a double play. Ryan Howard, who had scored, had to return to third and Greg Dobbs had to return to second.

Carlos Ruiz bounced out to Brewers closer Salomon Torres, who had a 12.46 ERA in his last 10 appearances, to end the game.

But the game started poorly for the Phillies, too. Moyer walked Mike Cameron on four pitches and walked Bill Hill after a nine-pitch at-bat to put runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the first inning. It appeared that home plate umpire Brian Runge squeezed Moyer on a few pitches, but Moyer could not do anything about that.

He could only try to minimize the damage.

Moyer allowed two runs to score, handing the Brewers a 2-0 lead, but just as important, he threw 34 pitches. The 45-year-old lefthander threw 28 more in the second inning as his pitch count hit 64.

His pitch count had hit 90 after the fourth, which almost certainly influenced Manuel's decision to pinch-hit Matt Stairs for him with a runner on first and one out. Stairs flied out to the warning track in center field.

The Brewers scored another run in the fifth, which started when Clay Condrey hit Cameron with a pitch. Hall singled up the middle. The ball hit the mound to give it a funny hop as it slowed down in shallow center field, which allowed Cameron to take the extra base to put runners at the corners.

Ryan Braun's sacrifice fly scored Cameron, but the Brewers could have had more. They left the bases loaded.

The Phillies knew the feeling. They had hits to lead off the second, fourth and fifth innings. They were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position through the fifth. That's when Jayson Werth hit a controversial triple to lead off the inning. He hit the ball to the right-field wall. Brewers rightfielder Corey Hart appeared to catch it as he hit the wall, but he lost it as he tumbled to the ground.

It was ruled a hit, and Werth scored on Howard's ground ball to Hall at third base to make it 3-1.

The Brewers tacked on another run in the seventh to make it 4-1.

The Phillies' offense, which had scored in just two of 16 innings in the series' first two games, finally couldn't hide. There were no Brewers miscues, as there had been in the second inning of Game 1. There was no Shane Victorino grand slam, as there was in the third inning in Game 2.

There was nothing.

And now there is something this afternoon at Miller Park, something Manuel did not want to talk about.

Contact staff writer Todd Zolecki at 215-854-4874

or tzolecki@phillynews.com.