Estrada, Hardy go deep, but Phillies rally
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
PHILADELPHIA -- Dave Bush, who had a huge welt complete with seams but little else to show for his effort on Monday, might have put it best when he said the Brewers would take this game and "flush it."
Looking like anything but the best team in the National League, the Brewers made mistakes on the base paths and in the field and suffered their first late-inning meltdown of what has been a nearly perfect month and a half. Former Brewer Wes Helms delivered the go-ahead hit in a six-run Phillies eighth inning that sent Milwaukee to a stunning 8-6 loss at Citizens Bank Park.
"Not a good day," said reliever Derrick Turnbow, and he would know.
Relievers Brian Shouse and Turnbow (1-1) were roughed up as the Brewers squandered a 6-2 lead and lost for the first time this season when leading after seven innings -- they were 21-0 before Monday -- and lost back-to-back games for the first time since the first week of the season.
The rally started against Shouse, but snowballed against Turnbow, who was tagged with four runs on four hits in two-thirds of an inning and saw his ERA jump more than two points, to 3.94.
"It was tough to stop, but it happens, and I should have been able to stop it," Turnbow said. "Things go downhill quickly in a game like that."
Brewers shortstop J.J. Hardy took the National League lead with his 12th home run, a three-run shot, and Johnny Estrada also homered to back 5 1/3 solid innings from Bush, who took a line drive off the inside of his left knee in the third inning, but soldiered on. Bush surrendered four hits, and was in line to win his second straight start.
Instead of going straight to Turnbow, the setup man for closer Francisco Cordero, Brewers manager Ned Yost opened the eighth inning with left-handed specialist Shouse. The idea, according to Yost, was to try getting through the eighth with Shouse and use Turnbow in the ninth, saving Cordero for a save opportunity. Had the lead been three runs instead of four, Yost said he would have gone straight to Turnbow for the eighth.
Shouse surrendered two quick hits to right-handed hitters, and on came Turnbow, who walked the first batter he faced, threw a wild pitch that made it 6-3 and then surrendered a two-run single to Chase Utley.
"We're going on matchups with a four-run lead," said Yost, pointing out that the first three Phillies hitters in the frame -- Aaron Rowand, Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins -- had lower averages against left-handed pitchers this season.
As the inning exploded, Cordero was warming up in the bullpen. Had the Brewers been presented with a four-out save opportunity, he would have gotten the call.
That never happened. Turnbow retired Pat Burrell, whose two-run homer back in the fourth inning off Bush briefly gave the Phillies a lead, but two more singles reloaded the bases.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz followed with a ground ball to first baseman Prince Fielder, who was shielded by the baserunner and then threw home too late, as Utley scored the tying run. Had Fielder just bumped into the runner, it likely would have been called interference, giving the Brewers two outs and a one-run lead. In that circumstance, Cordero would have faced Helms with a chance to end the game.
"He focusing on the ball," Yost said of Fielder. "You can't think of 90 different things."
Instead it was 6-6, and Helms followed with a go-ahead single off the right-field wall. Rowand, whose single sparked the rally, hit a sacrifice fly to cap the rally.
"I would do it again," Yost said of his pitching moves.
Was Turnbow just missing his spots?
"No," Yost said. "He was pretty much right down the middle."
Turnbow was the Brewers closer until a series of outings like Monday's forced the Brewers to make a change. He had a 13.06 ERA over his final 27 appearances in 2006, but said he came back this year better equipped to cope with bad games.
"Oh, yeah, definitely," Turnbow said. "I'm not going to be distracted by this. It's not going to affect me mentally or anything. I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing all year. Don't change a thing. Increase the focus a little bit.
"When you go through what I went through last year, you learn a lot of lessons."
Some Brewers miscues loomed large. Rickie Weeks made the final out of the third inning at third base when he tried to advance from second to third on a ground ball to the left side of the infield -- an uber-aggressive play the Brewers stressed in Spring Training. In the seventh, veteran Craig Counsell led off with a double but made the first out trying to steal third base -- a poor decision that Yost said did not come from the dugout. The Brewers went on to score two runs in the inning.
After the game, Yost cleared the air in a brief team meeting, the first this season to address a tough loss.
"I just told them to keep their heads up. It happens," Yost said. "Let's not dwell on it when we walk out that clubhouse door. When we walk back in [Tuesday] we'll be ready to go.
"You have to go through this," he continued. "A good team has to get through this. It's important to be able to get through this and bounce back. You wish it could be all hunky-dory for 162 games, but it's not going to be like that. You have to focus on staying constant, not getting into the 'Woe is me' train of thought. They're too good for that."
Bush said the Ruiz line drive that struck the inside of his left knee hit him in a good spot. He had thrown only 70 pitches but was facing a jam in the sixth, when Yost went to reliever Matt Wise to shut down the Phillies' rally.
Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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