PHILADELPHIA_The path to a Philadelphia Phillies victory Saturday night was muddled before the game even started. Pete Mackanin's two most trusted relievers had each pitched the previous two nights. The Phillies do not often drub their opponents, so the bullpen would be needed.
Then Jerad Eickhoff labored for 98 pitches in five innings, and the weight of a 4-3 Phillies comeback win shifted to the depleted bullpen. Joely Rodriguez, Luis Garcia, Pat Neshek and Edubray Ramos held for the next 11 outs.
Then Ramos blew his first save chance with a hanging slider to Brandon Phillips. The Phillies crumbled. And they still, somehow, won.
They committed two errors in the 10th inning to fall behind. But, in the bottom of the 10th, they loaded the bases on three singles, two of which did not leave the infield, and won on a Maikel Franco walk-off single that dinged the outfield wall.
These Phillies, if anything, have displayed a resilient attitude in the season's first three weeks. Franco tossed his helmet in the air after stepping on first. He ran to right field as his teammates chased him, a 3-hour, 32-minute marathon of mistakes complete.
This was another game that stayed close, a frequent characteristic this April. The Phillies have played 17 games. Twelve have been decided by two runs or fewer. The bullpen has blown some. It has preserved others.
Ramos pitched because Mackanin had leaned on Hector Neris and Joaquin Benoit. It is April. The Phillies are not yet interested in overusing their relievers.
Rodriguez and Garcia navigated the sixth and seventh innings. He survived two deep flies Saturday, one of which required an incredible catch by Odubel Herrera, who glided to the warning track in right-center and smashed into the out-of-town scoreboard with the ball in his glove.
Neshek, who had left the team for the birth of his daughter, pitched for the first time in six days. Freddy Galvis made a slick play, with a fine Tommy Joseph scoop to start the inning. Then Aaron Altherr robbed Freddie Freeman of a hit with a diving catch to end it. Neshek raised both of his arms in the air to celebrate.
The bullpen boosted Eickhoff, who lacked his typical command but still limited the Braves with some sharp pitches. Atlanta nicked Eickhoff with 20 foul balls, including 10 in the fifth alone. The steady righty could not avoid deep counts. He threw 58 strikes and 40 balls. Still, he kept the Braves from a big inning.
Eickhoff owns a 3.36 ERA through his first 45 big-league starts. That is the lowest mark for a Phillies pitcher at that point in his career since Bruce Ruffin (3.27) from 1986-87, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
He departed Saturday with a 1-0 deficit. The Phillies, again, failed to support him. They awoke in the sixth inning. Cesar Hernandez singled. Altherr doubled. Herrera singled. Franco plated the go-ahead run with a deflected groundout.
But the Phillies kept the door open for Atlanta with haphazard base running. Franco forgot how many outs there were in the sixth and was caught in a rundown after a strikeout. Galvis was erased when trying to steal third base with one out in the seventh inning. Altherr was eliminated at the plate on a shallow fly in the eighth inning.
The game devolved later. Joseph, booed in the ninth inning after he struck out on three pitches in the dirt, inexplicably fired to an unmanned third base after stepping on first during a bunt play. The runner moved to third. It scored on an Adonis Garcia tapper to Franco, who wildly threw past first base.
The fans who dotted the Citizens Bank Park seats on a bitter night booed again. Minutes later, they cheered a weird win.
