Phillies' winning streak ends as bullpen falters in Denver

DENVER - Justin De Fratus turned around and watched as the ball traveled toward the wall in left-center at Coors Field. His two-strike, two-out pitch in the eighth inning quickly became Nick Hundley's third home run, and the Phillies trailed again.

They could not battle back from their third deficit of the night. A 6-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies snapped the Phillies season-high winning streak at six games Tuesday night.

"A pitch I was trying to get in the dirt," De Fratus said. "It went to the one spot it could not go."

John Axford closed the game for the Rockies with a 1-2-3 ninth. The Phillies squandered a chance to tack on runs in the eighth when Carlos Ruiz grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.

Maikel Franco's two-run single in the eighth tied the score at five. The base knock highlighted Franco's first three-hit game as a major-leaguer. The Phillies' 22-year-old third baseman also drove in a run in the third inning, giving him his first three-RBI game in the big leagues. His second-inning double was his first two-bagger since Friday's promotion."It's good to see what he's doing now with the bat," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "This was a big game for him. Really something he could really feel comfortable with. And he's a righthanded bat for us, so he's kind of a needed guy in the lineup.

"So far, so good."

The two-run eighth came just a half-inning after the Rockies tagged Jake Diekman for two runs. The lanky lefthander began the frame with two strikeouts but allowed a single to DJ LaMahieu and walked the lefthanded-hitting Charlie Blackmon before Troy Tulowitzki's two-run double.

Aaron Harang lowered his season ERA to 1.82 with six innings of three-run ball. Each of the first-inning runs against him were unearned because of a Franco fielding error. The 37-year-old righthander allowed only three hits. He struck out seven but issued a season-high three walks.

Each of the Rockies' six runs came with two outs.

"It was a hard-fought game," Sandberg said. "We kept coming back, especially after the first inning, [we] bounced back. Harang really settled in."

Franco, Chase Utley and Ruiz strung together doubles in the second inning to score the Phillies' first two runs. Franco's third-inning RBI single knotted the game at three. For Utley, the double was his fourth in as many games since Sandberg dropped him from the third spot in the order to No. 6.

Ryan Howard, who entered the game having raised his average .075 points since May 2, struck out three times.

The Phillies managed 11 hits in the defeat. On a high-scoring night, one pitch - a 1-2 slider De Fratus mistakenly elevated - proved the difference.

"That's the most deflating part about it, because our offense grinded so hard, man, all day," De Fratus said. "We were behind all day and they kept coming back, kept coming back. And then we tie it and you get two quick outs and you're feeling really good about yourself and then literally one pitch changes the entire game.

"It's just tough. But, I mean, we'll be back here [Wednesday] fighting."

@jakemkaplan