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Phillies rally to hand Brewers rare setback

May 15, 2007 - 4:02 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Wes Helms and Chase Utley came through to hand the Milwaukee Brewers a rare loss.

Helms and Utley had key hits in the eighth inning and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied for an 8-6 victory over the Brewers on Monday in the opener of a a three-game series.

Milwaukee took a 6-2 lead into the eighth and it seemed like a safe bet that it would avoid losing consecutive games for the first time in over a month.

The Brewers had been 21-0 this season when leading after seven innings but that perfect record is now gone as the Brewers have lost consecutive games for the first time since a three-game skid from April 4-7.

"To come back on a team that has not lost a game after the seventh inning after being up all year and has the best record in baseball gives your team confidence that you can be the best and that is what we need as a team," Helms said. "We did not give up. Everybody contributed.

"We got the singles and we played small ball that inning and got the runs. No one tried to be a hero and hit the homer. You have to tip your hat to the whole lineup that inning."

Pinch-hitting in the eighth, Helms snapped a 6-6 tie with a long single off the wall in right. The Phillies scored six times in the frame, getting the best of Brewers relievers Brian Shouse and Derrick Turnbow.

Shouse gave up a single to Aaron Rowand and a double to Shane Victorino before exiting. Turnbow came on and promptly walked Jimmy Rollins to load the bases.

"You're gonna have these days," Shouse said. "Everything's been going so well for us that it's just kind of a little roadblock, but we should be able to bounce back (Tuesday) and be ready to go again."

The inning got worse for Turnbow, who uncorked a wild pitch to bring in one run and Utley cut the deficit to 6-5 with a two-run single. Turnbow got Pat Burrell to fly out but Greg Dobbs and Abraham Nunez had consecutive singles to load the bases again.

"I think we were just able to take advantage of his (Turnbow's) pitches that were in the zone, lay off the split, because it is pretty nasty and try and barrell up his fastball," Dobbs said. "Chase started us off with barrelling him up and giving us that hope and energy that we need there to mount that big inning and take this win from him."

Carlos Ruiz then hit a ground ball to Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder, who tried to go home to force Utley but he beat the throw to tie the game, 6-6. Rowand capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 8-6.

Turnbow (1-1) allowed four runs and four hits in two-thirds of an inning.

"It's tough for the whole team. You can't stop (their comeback) from happening. You're trying to stop it from happening," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "Good teams bounce back from that, so we'll see what happens (Tuesday)."

Clay Condrey (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Brett Myers retired the side in order in the ninth for his fourth save in four chances.

J.J. Hardy hit his National League-leading 12th homer, a three-run shot in the fifth, to give Milwaukee a 4-2 lead.

Burrell gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead with a two run homer in the fourth. Johnny Estrada had put Milwaukee up 1-0 with a solo homer in the second.

A disappointment to start the season, Philadelphia has won four of its last five games and is 14-9 since a 4-11 start.