Phils ignite in 7th to win a wild affair

DENVER - There was no reason to expect anything less bizarre from this one-night stand in the middle of a pennant race. The Colorado Rockies interrupted a crucial road trip to return home for a day. The Phillies made a layover on their way home from a six-game West Coast swing. And the two teams convened for this makeup game Thursday night at Coors Field, where inexplicable baseball happenings occur more often than Charlie Manuel uses one of his favorite phrases, "What the hell?"

Indeed, what the hell?

Twelve Phillies batted in the seventh inning. Three of them homered, capped by Chase Utley's grand slam. Nine of them scored. The Phillies won, 12-11, and gained a game on the first-place Atlanta Braves as the Phils finished a seven-game road trip 6-1.

Their prize? A red-eye flight home to Philadelphia - expected time of arrival 4 a.m. - with a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citizens Bank Park to follow 15 hours later.

"I'm all wound up," Manuel said.

Three hours and 51 minutes after it began, Placido Polanco fielded a grounder and barely beat Troy Tulowitzki to third base to end the game. Polanco raised his hands in the air. It was over. The two teams combined for 35 hits and 14 pitchers used.

Utley delivered the biggest blow as his grand slam put an exclamation point on an already ridiculous seventh inning. Utley had five RBIs in the seventh and tied a career high with six RBIs. In 15 previous games since coming off the disabled list Aug. 17, he had six RBIs. The home run was his first since June 18.

The Phillies tied a season high for runs in an inning. In addition to Utley's blast, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth both homered.

"We haven't done that in a while," said Ben Francisco, who had the pinch-hit, go-ahead single in the seventh. Utley batted only because Francisco kept the inning alive.

Of course, even a nine-run inning was hardly enough to prevent drama. This is Coors Field, after all.

In the seventh, Chad Durbin allowed three runs. In the eighth, Jose Contreras loaded the bases but escaped on a grounder to short.

The first batter Brad Lidge faced, Dexter Fowler, reached on an error by Howard. Carlos Gonzalez followed with a single to right. Fowler scored on a fielder's choice. Then, Lidge walked the tying run into scoring position. But on the 358th pitch of the night, Ryan Spilborghs hit the ground ball to third.

"In the end," Lidge said, "we were the last ones standing. It shows the character of our guys."

The teams were here Thursday only because rain (and some snow) twice forced the postponement of a May 11 game. Maybe a late-season trip to Coors Field is exactly what the Phillies' bats needed. The 12 runs were the most since July 3, a 12-4 win over Pittsburgh.

Oh, there were more oddities. Colorado's Jim Tracy was ejected in the sixth inning. That created an awkward situation in the eighth, when an acting manager (Tom Runnels) signaled to the bullpen for a reliever (Esmil Rogers) to pinch-run.

The Phillies won despite a horrendous effort from Joe Blanton. The righthander was smacked around for 41/3 innings, his second-shortest outing of the season. Most of those 13 outs were loud and deep. In the third, after Blanton served up his first home run of the game, he spiked the rosin bag. He allowed two more long balls after that. But he ended up being forgotten.

"That's always good," Blanton quipped.

Then there were innings like the sixth. Young lefthander Antonio Bastardo pitched for the first time in nine days. He threw three overwhelming sliders to perhaps the hottest hitter on the planet, Gonzalez, and struck him out looking.

But Bastardo allowed four hits - a bloop to shallow center off the glove of a diving Shane Victorino, a bunt single that just eluded Bastardo's glove, another bunt that Howard held too long and allowed the speedy Fowler to reach on, and then a comebacker that Bastardo deflected away from a double play and into no-man's-land for a run.

Bastardo responded by striking out Todd Helton and inducing a deep fly out off the bat of Melvin Mora. He limited the damage. Then the Phillies' offense exploded.

As the game unfolded, Manuel could also easily see the out-of-town scoreboard from his perch in the visitors' dugout. (The manager mused about this very fact days ago. It always seems to be that way, doesn't it?) Before the Phillies won Thursday, the Braves lost.

That called for a celebratory nap on the plane ride home.