phillies @ reds 5/13

[Wally Mo Pena]

Philadelphia 
AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG 
Rollins, SS 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .250 
Victorino, CF 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .405 
Utley, 2B 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 .308 
Burrell, LF 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .296 
Dellucci, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .214 
Howard, 1B 4 1 0 0 0 2 2 .291 
Bell, 3B 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 .270 
Fasano, C 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 .244 
Roberson, C, RF 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 .250 
Lieber, P 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000 
Gordon, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 
Totals 33 2 6 1 0 5 11   

Cincinnati 
AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG 
McCracken, CF 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200 
b-Griffey, PH 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .262 
Lopez, SS 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .303 
Dunn, LF 4 0 1 0 0 2 2 .228 
Kearns, RF 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .317 
Hatteberg, 1B 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .264 
Encarnacion, 3B 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .285 
Phillips, B, 2B 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .291 
LaRue, C 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 .195 
Williams, P 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .091 
Coffey, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 
a-Valentin, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .246 
Totals 30 0 3 0 0 7 3   

Philadelphia IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA 
Lieber (W, 3-4) 8.2 2 0 0 0 6 0 5.50 
Gordon (S, 12) 0.1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1.62 

Cincinnati IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA 
Williams (L, 2-3) 8.1 5 2 1 0 5 0 6.32 
Coffey  0.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.83

CINCINNATI -- Are the baseball gods messing with Dave Williams?
Battling inconsistency for much of his first season in Cincinnati, Williams put together his best outing with the Reds and one of the finer games of his career with 8 1/3 innings against the Phillies.

Too bad for him it was the second-best pitching performance on Saturday night.

That's because Jon Lieber had a perfect game going for 6 2/3 innings, before ultimately settling for a two-hitter over 8 2/3 innings. Lieber's dominance, an unearned run off Williams and a ninth inning run-scoring wild pitch were the Reds' undoing in a 2-0 loss.

"It's just tough to get that kind of pitching performance and not win the ball game," manager Jerry Narron said.

Changing speeds and throwing strikes, Williams was cruising towards a two-hit shutout of his own until there were two outs in the Phillies' seventh. Ryan Howard hit what should have been a routine fly to left-center field. The ball popped out of center fielder Quinton McCracken's glove for an error.

McCracken was showered with boos from an announced crowd of 32,620 fans at Great American Ball Park.

"I flat out just didn't secure the catch. It popped out," McCracken said. "Murphy's Law of baseball -- when things go wrong, they really go wrong."

Sure enough, this error immediately bit the Reds back.

David Bell laced a double to right field, easily scoring Howard with the game's first run.

"After the pop fly, I got a ball up. Bell is a good hitter," said Williams, who was charged with two runs -- one earned -- and five hits without a walk and four strikeouts. "I kept a changeup up, and he went the other way with it."

McCracken's error was particularly glaring since the veteran Lieber (3-4) was mowing down the Reds and retired his first 20 batters in order. It's been a tough couple of days for Cincinnati. One night earlier, rookie Cole Hamels held them hitless for 4 2/3 innings during his big-league debut.

Lieber's flirtation with perfection ended with two outs in the seventh. Adam Dunn's sharp liner up the middle darted past a diving Jimmy Rollins for a single to center field and prevented the 18th perfect game in Major League history from occurring.

It was the only hit Lieber allowed through eight innings.

"You go into the ninth inning with one hit and a chance to win, that shows you how good our guy pitched," Narron said.

Lieber retired another six in a row after Dunn's hit. Pinch-hitter Ken Griffey Jr. aired a two-out ninth-inning single off left fielder David Dellucci's glove at the wall that brought in closer Tom Gordon. The Phillies closer surrendered a single to Felipe Lopez before getting Dunn to swing and miss at a full count pitch in the dirt for his 12th save.

For the first time in 15 days, the Reds were out of first place. By winning their game, the Cardinals moved into first by one full game in the National League Central. By dropping two to Philadelphia, Cincinnati lost its first home series.

"If we make a couple of plays there, it'd probably still be 0-0," Narron said. "I'm sorry we wasted it."

With both starters enduring tough seasons, a pitching duel like this seemed unlikely. Williams went in with a 7.85 ERA, while Lieber was at 6.60 ERA despite having back-to-back wins.

Williams, acquired in the Sean Casey trade with Pittsburgh in December, had only pitched more than six innings once and was fortunate to have gotten great run support until now -- an average of six per game going in. Cincinnati was 4-0 in his last four starts.

"This game, you take your bumps and your bruises," Williams said. "You try to keep your head up and continue to do your job every fifth day. It's about keeping your team in ballgames. I've never felt down this whole season."

Williams declined to rate Saturday's performance.

"Those are the things you want to do every day," he said. "I'm not going to look at this game as my best game. I haven't been playing that long. If it was 10 years from now, hopefully that's not my best game."

Allowed to stay in for the top of the ninth, Williams hit leadoff batter Chase Utley, who stole second and went to third on Pat Burrell's single. After Howard hit into a fielder's choice play at second base, Williams was lifted for reliever Todd Coffey, whose wild pitch to Bell scored Utley with Philadelphia's second run.

"You talk about doing the little things, and the little things beat us tonight," Narron said. "In a close game like that, you definitely have to make all the routine plays. Tonight, we didn't."

Maybe in some bizarre way, it was a positive that Williams didn't go the distance. After his only complete game shutout last August with the Pirates, he suffered a rib cage injury and lost his final three starts.

"I'll try to move forward," Williams said. "It was a good game to be a part of. I would have liked to have won the game. I guess those even out."

At the very least, someone owes Williams that much for Saturday.

[Wally Mo Pena]

mvp: williams. can't waste starts like that from him.
the offense looks awful right now.

[Mr. D™]

This entire Reds Philly series I was just plain dissapointed, our offense looked crappy, Our defense held up a bit in the last two games but not good enough

[Wally Mo Pena]

i'll go ahead and give claussen the mvp for the 5/14 loss, unless there's some dissent.

[Mr. D™]

i'll go ahead and give claussen the mvp for the 5/14 loss, unless there's some dissent.

wth lol