D-backs fall to Phillies on walk-off walk in ninth

PHILADELPHIA -- With the bases loaded and just one out in the ninth inning, the D-backs needed an out to extend their game with the Phillies on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.   

The objective, according to catcher Tuffy Gosewisch, was to keep the ball down and get a ground ball or a strikeout. Goosewisch called for a slider from reliever Eury De La Rosa. The pitch had good movement, but just not the type of movement the D-backs needed

"The last pitch just started in," Gosewisch said. "It started right at Chase [Utley]. It just didn't come back enough. It barely missed on the inside corner, I thought. It just broke around the plate."

Utley walked with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to force in the game-winning run as the D-backs fell, 4-3. Heath Bell took the loss in the first game of a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park

The D-backs wasted a strong outing by starter Wade Miley, who held the Phillies off for the better part of six innings before a pair of runs in the final inning of his night proved to be costly for the visitors.

"That game's on me, I let it get away in the sixth inning," said Miley, who allowed three runs on five hits and left with the score tied at 3. "It should have been 3-1. We should have won the game 3-1. I missed on the next few pitches with the game on the line and it cost us."

Still, Miley left the game long before it was decided. Pinch-hitter Cody Asche led off the ninth with a single through the right side off of Bell. Jimmy Rollins, who pinch-hit in the seventh for Phillies starter Cole Hamels, worked a 1-1 count before a perfectly executed hit-and-run single moved Asche to third.

Bell intentionally walked Michael Young, and Kevin Frandsen struck out to keep the bases loaded with one out. De La Rosa entered the game to set the stage for Utley's walk-off walk and a tough one-run loss.

The D-backs trailed 1-0 in the fourth when Hamels hit Adam Eaton with a pitch. Hamels then got Paul Goldschmidt to hit a high popup into left field, high being the operative word becauseDomonic Brown lost track of the ball after it went above the lights from his vantage point. Brown indicated he did not see the ball, and neither third baseman Young nor shortstop John McDonald had a shot at the ball, which landed 10 yards from the foul line. Goldschmidt was credited with a double and Hamels seemed to lose his concentration for the rest of the inning as the D-backs continued to attack.

Martin Prado followed with a double into the left-center gap past Brown to score both Eaton and Goldschmidt for a 2-1 lead. Aaron Hill grounded out to first to move Prado to third, and Prado strolled home on a single into left by Matt Davidson for the final run of the inning.

"[Hamels] is always good," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "Commands all of his pitches. We got a break when they lost the ball in the twilight. But you have to tack on, and we weren't able to do so.

"We didn't get it done here today. I'm not worried about the past. We have to find a way to win. Not that we played poorly, we just didn't play well enough to win."

Miley, meanwhile, dominated the Phillies through five innings with the exception of Darin Ruf's 10th home run, a shot to center that gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead in the second. Of the first 15 outs, 12 were ground balls, and the only other hit, a single by Hamels, was a ground ball up the middle.

In the sixth, the Phillies finally got to Miley as he gave a single up the middle to Frandsen with one out. Utley reached when he was hit by a pitch, and Brown hit a flare into left for a single to load the bases.

Carlos Ruiz turned on an elevated pitch and doubled into the left-field corner to score both Frandsen and Utley as Phillies third-base coach Juan Samuel held up Brown at third. Miley recovered to strike out Ruf, and after intentionally walking John Mayberry Jr., got McDonald to strike out looking to end the threat.

"With Ruiz, I probably shouldn't have thrown him that changeup," Miley said. "I felt good about it then, but looking back, the at-bat before he hit it really hard. It's on me. I may have thrown him one too many changeups today. I just left it up. He did what he's supposed to do."