Phillies lose to Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3, in Vance Worley's return from injury

His fate already sealed, Jonathan Papelbon wanted to ask umpire D.J. Reyburn one question before he departed in the ninth inning of another Phillies loss Monday at Citizens Bank Park. The pitcher pointed at the umpire.

"I wanted to know," Papelbon said later, "if he could throw me out for what I was thinking."

And what was that?

"I thought he sucked," he said. "It's that simple."

This game was decided in the ninth when Papelbon turned a tie game into a 4-3 defeat by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Papelbon never had his peace; he believed he had struck out Dee Gordon on an inside fastball only to watch it called ball two. The next pitch was smoked for a triple, and one batter later, Gordon scored.

Papelbon was enraged, the fitting embodiment of a frustrated Phillies team confined to a .500 record after 56 games. They may have lost in the ninth inning, but once again an offense fell comatose in the later innings. A comeback or dramatic victory was dubious before Papelbon's ire, which likely will cost him in the form of a fine from Major League Baseball.

For eight innings Monday, the Phillies matched reigning Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw with a starter who hadn't pitched in 24 days and two lefthanded relievers stretched to their limits.

Hours before defeat, manager Charlie Manuel spoke of the importance of the series opener against the team with baseball's best record and Kershaw on the mound.

"We have our work cut out for us," Manuel said, implying victory could be even sweeter.

Ultimately, Manuel had to fetch Papelbon from an argument with two umpires once the damage was done. Both sides were unhappy — Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was earlier ejected along with bench coach Trey Hillman. Reyburn is a triple-A umpire who regularly substitutes in the majors.

"Put a veteran guy back there or something," Mattingly said. "It was bad. It was bad both ways. Papelbon, I'm sure, is not a happy camper right now, either."

Something like that.

"He probably needs to go back to triple A," Papelbon said of Reyburn. "That's not a knock on him. That's not a knock on the umpires. You're up in the big leagues for a reason: to do a good job. If you don't do a good job, you should be demoted or fired. It's just like anybody's job."

The Phillies had done enough to render it a tie game through eight. Vance Worley, making his first start since May 11 because of a bone chip in his right elbow, labored through four innings. A makeshift bullpen needed to record 15 outs, and the lefthanded combo of Joe Savery and Antonio Bastardo accounted for 12 of them.

They dented Kershaw, but it was not enough. When Placido Polanco tagged a third-inning Kershaw slider over the left-field fence, the lefthanded pitcher bent over with his hands on his knees.

The scoring ended there. In the seventh, Kershaw barely escaped harm. Freddy Galvis and Jimmy Rollins singled. Polanco floated one up the middle that second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. stabbed. But it rolled away from him, probably far enough to score Galvis, who had stopped at third. Galvis said third-base coach Juan Samuel had told him to stop.

That loaded the bases for Hunter Pence, who promptly bounced out to second. It left him 2 for his last 31 at-bats (.065) with runners in scoring position.

A hole was dug quickly. Predictably, Worley was rusty. The Phillies opted not to send him to the minors for a rehabilitation start mostly out of necessity — Roy Halladay's injury created another hole in the rotation. So Worley started Monday on 24 days' rest with a restricted pitch count.

It required 32 pitches to navigate a shaky first inning, one riddled with close plays that did not go the Phillies' way. But Worley did himself no favors. His control was wayward — mostly up in the zone — and he put Elian Herrera on base with a four-pitch walk. Andre Ethier drew an eight-pitch walk. A meaty slider and fastball yielded two run-scoring singles.

Papelbon believed the umpires were consistently bad, even with Worley and Kershaw on the mound.

"It affected the outcome of the game," Papelbon said.

The Dodgers, of course, had to endure the same umpiring. They won, and the Phillies stewed.