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Werth fuels Phillies past Diamondbacks

Jul 12, 2008 - 4:46 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Philadelphia Phillies finally had somebody else step up aside from Ryan Howard.

Jayson Werth snapped a tie with a single to right-center field off Connor Robertson that plated So Taguchi as the Phillies recorded a 6-5 triumph over the Arizona Diamondbacks in 12 innings on Friday.

Rudy Seanez (4-3) pitched a scoreless 12th inning to pick up the win.

"Fortunately, we came out on top and that's all that matters," Seanez said. "(The games) are all important for us right now."

Robertson (0-1) was in his second inning of work when Taguchi began the winning rally with a leadoff single, then took second on a sacrifice by Chris Coste. After Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked, Werth grounded a 2-2 pitch through the hole to score Taguchi.

"I pride myself in getting hits in situations that call for it," Werth said. "Just happy to get the hit and get us out of here."

"Sometimes I get out there and I don't have confidence in some pitch instead of just throwing it," Robertson said. "I thought I made some good pitches tonight. I definitely made some bad ones and the last one cost me."

Werth came through after failing in a similar situation in the 10th inning when Rollins was intentionally walked with two outs to put runners on first and second, but Werth popped out to end the threat.

"I had an opportunity earlier in the game to drive in the winning run," Werth said. "That was a situation that called (for the intentional walk to Rollins). Hopefully, you can come through when they do that stuff.

"Unfortunately, it lasted a little bit longer than it should have, but I'm glad we came through with the win."

Shane Victorino had a two-run triple to tie the game at 5-5 in the eighth and Howard belted his major league-leading 28th home run in the first for Philadelphia, which increased its winning streak to three.

"It's a team effort. We need one through nine (in the lineup) to come through," Howard said. "Guys were asked to do things in certain situations and came through."

With the blast, his fourth in his last three games, Howard extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games.

"(The pitch) was a cutter away and I was able to drive it," Howard said.

Howard was more than happy to let Werth share the spotlight.

"It was big for him to come through in that spot," Howard said. "We had a lot of opportunities to get runs across early and late in the game and just weren't able to come through, but all it took was that one time."

The Phillies threatened to increase their margin later in the first inning when they loaded the bases on two walks and a line single by Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick that struck Davis below his left knee. Davis stayed in the game and recovered to get Jimmy Rollins on a shallow flyout to end the inning.

Arizona tied the game in the sixth when Chad Tracy blooped a two-out, RBI single down the left field line.

Philadelphia quickly regained the lead in the bottom half without benefit of an RBI. With two outs, the Phillies put runners on second and third before Davis uncorked a wild pitch to score a run. Victorino then scored when Carlos Ruiz got himself in a rundown on a stolen base attempt to give the Phillies a 3-1 lead.

Arizona answered right back in the seventh with three runs to take its first lead. Pinch-hitter Emilio Bonifacio tied the score with a two-run double and Stephen Drew added a RBI single to give the Diamondbacks a 4-3 advantage. Alex Romero's RBI double in the eighth made it, 5-3.



Davis went six innings and allowed three runs on five hits. The lefthander had four walks and four strikeouts.

Kendrick lasted 6 1/3 innings and surrendered four runs on nine hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

"Tonight's game was crazy," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "We stayed right with it and good things happened for us at the end."