Finger's Instant Replay: Rays 3, Phillies 2

The matchup between potential future lefty Cy Young Award winners lived up to its billing as the Phillies’ Cole Hamels and the Rays’ David Price were stingy in allowing runs and hits on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

Both pitchers lasted seven efficient innings, allowing seven hits and one lonely run between them. However, in line for his 11th win of the season, Hamels could not get the support from the Phillies’ bullpen in the Rays’ 3-2 victory.

Antonio Bastardo came on in the eighth inning and gave up a pair of walks and a three-run homer to lefty Carlos Pena while recording just one out. As a result, the Phillies fell to 34-39 to remain 8½ games behind the first-place Washington Nationals in the NL East.

Hamels allowed three hits and three walks on 111 pitches. He retired the first nine hitters he faced and 10 of the first 11 before allowing a hit. He also got seven strikeouts in his seven innings to move him into a tie with Jim Bunning for sixth place on the Phillies’ all-time strikeout list. Hamels and Bunning both have 1,197 whiffs with the Phillies, including 106 in 104 innings this season for the 28-year-old lefty.

Price threw 112 pitches in his seven innings and scattered four hits with three walks. The only run he allowed came on a solo home run by Jimmy Rollins to lead off the sixth inning. After Hunter Pence legged out a double with two outs in the first inning, Price retired 11 straight hitters.

The victory improves Price’s record to 10-4.

The one-out, three-run blast by Pena off Bastardo was all the offense the Rays needed on Sunday. After walking the first hitter he faced, Bastardo recorded an out before walking B.J. Upton on four pitches. His first pitch to Pena was blasted into the seats in right field.

Chad Qualls recorded the final two outs in the eighth while Michael Schwimer pitched a perfect ninth. 

For the Rays, righthander Burke Badenhop held the lead in the eighth before turning it over to Fernando Rodney in the ninth for his 21st save of the season.

Jimmy Rollins slugged a homer for the third straight game, marking the third time in his career that he performed the feat. The solo shot was Rollins’ eighth homer of the year. 

Rollins also singled in the ninth as well as in the first inning, but was thrown out attempting to steal second base. Had he made it safely, he likely would have scored on a bloop double by Hunter Pence, who added another double and scored on a single by Ty Wigginton in the eighth inning.

Cliff Lee (0-3, 3.48) goes for his first win in his 12th start of the season in the nightcap of the day-night doubleheader. Lee is the second Cy Young Award winner to go winless through his first 11 starts of a season. In 1983, Vida Blue went 0-5 in his first 19 starts of the season for Kansas City

Lee is 6-5 with a 2.87 ERA in 13 career regular-season starts against the Rays. However, Lee beat the Rays twice during the 2010 ALDS as a member of the Rangers, posting a 1.13 ERA while allowing just 11 hits and notching 21 strikeouts in 16 innings. 

The Phillies continue the homestand on Monday when the Pirates come to town for four games. In the opener, Joe Blanton (6-6, 5.04) faces lefty Erik Bedard (4-7, 4.13). In five career appearances against the Pirates Blanton is 1-1 with a 3.29 ERA and has 27 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings. He faced the Pirates in a relief role this season allowing a run on two hits in two-thirds of an inning.