Charlie Gets Tossed, Phils Drop Late Inning Game.

Sunday's rubber match between the Phillies and the Cubs featured Jamie Moyer against Jason Marquis and represented the Phillies first chance to bring their record above .500 for the first time this season. Moyer struggled in his third start of the season and ended up being taken out after 5.

The momentum of the game shifted from the Cubs to the Phils in the top of the 6th inning when Mark Derosa hit a fly ball to left field and in a poorly called play by the third base umpire the ball was called a home run when it was clearly a foul by the replay. The stadium erupted as Pat Burrell raced in from left to argue the call claiming that the ball was obviously foul. After a quick meeting of the umpires the ball was ruled a home run and the fireworks began.

Charlie Manuel stormed out for the dugout to argue and in a game in which the Phils were down 3-1 already, the only option was to back his left fielder and got tossed over the call. Manuel was eventually tossed from the game and stormed off the field to a parade of cheers from the fans. Moyer was pulled from the game and replaced by Chad Durbin who continued to be a strong bullpen presence, pitching 2 strong scoreless innings.

With the Phillies up 5-4 in the 8th, the Cubs managed to chip away at Tom Gordon and JC Romero for a run and tied the game up. Unable to score a run in the 9th despite having 1st and 2nd with one out, the game entered extra innings.

In the top of the 10th, Rudy Seanez walked Roddy Cedeno to start the inning, Ryan Theriot bunted him over and Geovany Soto walked. In a surprising move, Carlos Zambrano pinch hit for Kerry Wood and after hitting a ground ball to Eric Brunlett, Chase Utley forced the throw to Ryan Howard and the ball ended up in the bullpen allowing Cedeno to score what would be the winning run.

If the Phils had managed to win this game, Charlie would have managed to win his first managerial game of the year, by firing up the team when they were down and backing up his players. Unfortunately though, the team couldn't pull off the win.

In an interesting footnote, for the first time in remembrance, the Phils successfully executed a double-switch.... it just so happen the Charlie Manuel had already been tossed..