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Inside the Phillies: Phillies defense fails them

PITTSBURGH - When you win the way the Phillies have won the last five seasons, the little mistakes not only don't add up, they often go unnoticed.

The Phillies lost consecutive one-run games to the Pirates over the weekend. (Keith Srakocic/AP)
The Phillies lost consecutive one-run games to the Pirates over the weekend. (Keith Srakocic/AP)Read more

PITTSBURGH - When you win the way the Phillies have won the last five seasons, the little mistakes not only don't add up, they often go unnoticed.

When you lose the way the Phillies lost Saturday and Sunday to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, the little mistakes no longer are hidden.

They are asked about, they are analyzed, and they are haunting.

That's bound to happen more in 2012 than it did a year ago, because the big bats of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are not here to serve as erasers.

"Even if they're here, we have to play right," third baseman Placido Polanco said after Sunday's fall-from-ahead 5-4 loss allowed the Pirates to win the three-game, season-opening series. "There are teams that when you make mistakes, they're going to take advantage of that, and the Pirates did today."

The Phillies lost consecutive one-run games to the Pirates. If they had been playing teams with better talent and a more potent lineup, the losses probably would have been more lopsided. And if they continue to play the way they did over the weekend, the losses will start to pile up as rapidly as the wins have in recent years.

Starters Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Vance Worley combined to allow two runs over 20 innings - that works out to a 0.90 ERA - and still the Phillies lost two of three. The Phillies pitching is good. It's not that good.

The offense's inability to put a dent in the Pirates' pedestrian pitching staff will be dissected most. That's where the manager predictably pointed after Sunday's defeat.

"I'm here because I was an offensive guy," Charlie Manuel said. "I'm a true believer you get better because of confidence, and the manager has to show that. We've got guys that in the past have been pretty good hitters, and we've got to get to where we want to be. I believe that we're going to score runs, and it's just a matter of getting a couple of guys hot."

Perhaps that's true, but during the three-game series against the Pirates, the Phillies scored a total of six runs and went 4 for 21 with runners in scoring position.

But a defensive failure was the primary reason for this defeat, and a defensive lapse also contributed to Saturday's one-run loss.

The most obvious mistake on Easter Sunday was made in the bottom of the seventh inning when the Phillies managed to turn an opposition strikeout into a game-changing rally.

Michael Stutes fanned Pedro Alvarez for what should have been the second out of the inning, but instead he landed on first base because Ty Wigginton - a defensive replacement for Jim Thome - couldn't handle the throw from catcher Brian Schneider, who had whiffed on his first attempt to pick up the ball.

What should have been a 1-2-3 inning ended up resulting in two runs for the Pirates. They also sent twice as many batters to the plate, which ultimately is why Manuel had to decide whether he wanted reliever David Herndon to pitch to Andrew McCutchen in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied.

"I thought about walking McCutchen and then walking [Neil] Walker to load the bases," Manuel said. "They've got [Rod Barajas] left. I didn't want to load the bases, and I didn't want him pitching against a lefty."

Herndon held righthanded batters to a .200 average last season, but lefties batted .354 against him. Walker would have batted left.

Again, the decision does not have to be made if Schneider and Wigginton make a routine play in the seventh inning.

Saturday night, the Phillies also whiffed on a chance to send the game beyond the 10th inning when shortstop Jimmy Rollins did not cover third on a sacrifice bunt by Clint Barmes. A call is supposed to come from the dugout for the wheel play, in that instance, but none came, according to Polanco.

"There was no wheel play," Polanco said. "That play, we were just seeing what was going on. On that bunt, we probably had a chance to get the runner at third if we have the wheel play on. The guy then gets an infield hit, and that's how they beat us."

Even when the offense was at its most potent, it was complemented nicely by the team's work in the field. The Phillies have been a top-six team in fielding percentage four times in the last five years. They had the best fielding percentage in baseball, which nicely complemented the best pitching staff a year ago when they won 102 games.

"You can play defense every day, and that's something that I've always felt," Polanco said. "If we do play the right way, we can win a lot of games."