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Phillies hang on for wild win over Mets

Aug 30, 2007 - 5:14 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) - Pat Burrell homered and drove in two runs and the game ended on an interference call as the Philadelphia Phillies took their third straight game from the New York Mets, 3-2, at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday.

With runners on first and third and one out in the ninth with Philadelphia closer Brett Myers pitching, pinch hitter Shawn Green hit a ground ball to short. Jimmy Rollins flipped the ball to Tadahito Iguchi, but before he could try and complete the double play, he was shoved by baserunner Marlon Anderson.

Second base umpire C.B. Bucknor called interference on Anderson for the third out, drawing a protest from Mets manager Willie Randolph and Anderson, but to no avail.

Marlon Anderson went after the second baseman to break up the doubleplay and did not, and could not reach the base, which is what he argued," Third base umpire and crew chief Joe West said. "He went out of his way to interfere with the play.

"C.B. made a great call, made a gutsy call and he didn't back down from the call at all. Granted, it's a tough way to lose a game, because there's a lot of tension out there on the field, but he made the right call. The Mets will see that if they look at the play.

Randolph had a different take on the controversial call.

"It was a good, hard slide," Randolph said. "It's baseball. (This call was made) just because we're not used to seeing good, aggressive baseball anymore. There was no doubt the slide was hard, but he slid into the base. He was able to touch the base with his foot. It's unfortunate."

It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Phillies (70-62), as they pulled within three games of the first-place Mets (73-59) in National League East. New York has dropped four in a row.

"We're in a position now where can take four (games) and we need to do that," Burrell said. "We've got a chance to get it down even more."

Philadelphia starter Jamie Moyer (12-10) went six innings and allowed two runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts. The 44-year-old rebounded from two straight poor outings where he gave up a total of 16 runs over 8 2/3 innings.

"Again, it was a battle, but I'm making steps forward," Moyer said. "When I needed to make some pitches, I was able to do so. We played some good defense. It's nice to win a 3-2 game."

J.C. Romero and Tom Gordon each tossed a scoreless inning with Myers surviving the ninth and notching his 13th save.

"Our bullpen's been great," Myers said. "Yeah, we had our downfalls this year, but I feel with this bullpen, that we're gonna have a better chance to get the job done than to screw it up."

Oliver Perez (12-9) started for New York and tossed six innings, yielding three runs on five hits. He struck out 10, but walked five and gave up two home runs.

Philadelphia had just regained the lead, 3-2, in the fifth but missed an excellent chance to break the game open. Perez walked Moyer, then gave up singles to Rollins and Tadahito Iguchi to load the bases with nobody out.

"You can't walk the pitcher in a situation like that," Randolph said. "Oliver can't afford to walk the pitcher and it ends up being the winning run."

Burrell drove a 1-0 pitch down the left field line that appeared to be a grand slam, but hooked foul at the last minute. Later in the at-bat, he hit a sacrifice fly to score Moyer that made it 3-2.

"I was fortunate to get another pitch to hit and put it in play," Burrell said. "Thankfully, we got one (run) and that was enough. I was hoping it was gonna be fair, obviously. We wouldn't have had all the suspense in the ninth."

Perez came back to strike out Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand each for the third straight time to end the inning.

New York had four hits in the first inning, but managed only one run to take a 1-0 lead. Jose Reyes led off with a bunt single, but was caught stealing when he broke for second as Moyer threw to first. One out later, David Wright hit a 3-2 pitch over the center field fence for his 24th home run of the season.

Carlos Beltran and Moises Alou both singled to put runners on the corners, but Carlos Delgado swung at the first pitch and popped out to end the inning.

The Phillies answered with two runs in their half of the frame to go up 2-1. Rollins led off with his 24th home run of the season after driving a 1-0 pitch down the left field line. The blast was also Rollins' seventh leadoff homer of the season and 24th of his career.

One out later, Burrell blasted an 0-2 pitch from Perez over the left-center field fence for his 22nd homer and 39th career against the Mets.

New York tied it in the fourth when Beltran led off with a double, took third on a groundout and scored on Delgado's RBI single.