Phils Score 10 in Ninth to Beat Marlins

Posted 5:29PM on Saturday 17th September 2005 ( 19 years ago )

MIAMI (AP) - Once the Philadelphia Phillies broke up Dontrelle Willis' shutout in the ninth inning, there was no stopping them. Helped by the Florida Marlins' inept bullpen and defense, the Phillies' first 10 batters in the ninth reached base, and they scored 10 times to beat Willis 10-2 Saturday afternoon. Willis (21-9) was three outs from becoming baseball's first 22-game winner when he took a three-hit shutout into the ninth. Instead, his streak of wins in six consecutive starts was snapped. The Phillies won for the sixth time in seven games and moved into a virtual tie for the NL wild-card lead with Houston, which played Saturday night against Milwaukee. The Marlins fell two games back with their fourth consecutive loss. Florida allowed four unearned runs in the nightmarish ninth, committing four errors and at least two other fielding lapses. Todd Jones blew a save for the first time in his past 28 chances. He faced five batters, gave up five runs and committed a throwing error that allowed Philadelphia to score the go-ahead run. Going back to last weekend, the Phillies have scored 52 runs in their past five games against Florida. Jimmy Rollins started the comeback with a single leading off the ninth, extending his hitting streak to 23 games, longest in the NL this year. Jason Michaels walked - the only base on balls allowed by Willis - and second baseman Luis Castillo failed to glove Bobby Abreu's sharp grounder for an error, scoring a run. Jones came on to face Pat Burrell, whose short fly dropped in front of center fielder Juan Pierre for an RBI single. With runners at first and second, Chase Utley bunted, and Jones made a wild, off-balance throw to first that sailed down the right-field line, putting the Phillies ahead 3-2. David Bell hit a fly similar to Burrell's, and again the ball dropped for a single, scoring another run as jeers from the crowd of 27,203 grew louder. Mike Lieberthal hit an RBI single, and pinch-hitter Ryan Howard hit a grounder that rolled between the legs of first baseman Jeff Conine for another error, scoring another run for a 6-2 Phillies lead. Pinch-hitter Michael Tucker singled off Ron Villone to load the bases, and Rollins hit a two-run single. Endy Chavez and Shane Victorino, who entered the game as pinch runners in the ninth, closed out the scoring with RBI singles. Manager Charlie Manuel earned his 300th career win for the Phillies, who are 10-8 against Florida this year with one game left. They won the season series for the first time since 2001. Moved up to eighth in the order for the first time thanks to a .259 batting average, Willis went 0-for-3 despite hitting the ball hard twice. On the mound he delivered - until the ninth. The left-hander threw 119 pitches on a sunny afternoon with temperatures in the low 90s. Florida scored an unearned run without a hit in the third inning, when Vicente Padilla walked three batters. Those were the only walks allowed by Padilla, who gave up four hits in seven innings, retiring the final 10 batters he faced. The Marlins added a run in the eighth off Ugueth Urbina (4-2). Pierre led off with an infield single and stole second, took third on a flyout and came home on Conine's sacrifice fly. Notes:@ Willis became the first starting pitcher to bat anywhere other than ninth for the Marlins. He's the first in the majors since Tomo Ohka batted eighth for Montreal on May 30, 2004. ... Felo Ramirez, a Spanish-language radio announcer for 60 years, was honored during the pregame ceremony. He has been with the Marlins since their first game in 1993. © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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