Phillies lost to Orioles 5-4 in 10 innings

BALTIMORE — The Philadelphia Phillies are in last place, Cliff Lee is still winless and injured stars Ryan Howard and Chase Utley remain unavailable.

In spite of it all, manager Charlie Manuel remains hopeful, even after the Phillies lost 5-4 in 10 innings to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, their eighth defeat in nine games.

"If we can get better, we definitely will," Manuel said. "I see we've been losing a few games, quite a few lately. I think we'll win some games, of course."

It had better happen soon, because the Phillies are eight games behind first-place Washington in the NL East.

"You got to keep going," Manuel said. "We've always rebounded by the end of the season. We're thinking about winning."

So is Lee. The former Cy Young winner allowed four runs over six innings in his 10th start of the year, striking out eight. But his record remained at 0-3 after Steve Tolleson's fourth-inning homer wiped out Philadelphia's 4-1 lead.

"A cutter up and in," Lee said. "Right where I wanted to put it. He put a good swing on it. You have to give him credit right there."

Before this season, Lee had not gone more than three starts without a win to begin the year.

"I guess it seems to be frustrating, but I can only control what I can control," he said.

Baltimore took two of three from the Phillies, including a 12-inning win on Saturday. The nine straight extra-inning victories is an Orioles record, breaking the mark of eight set twice previously.

In the 10th, Baltimore's Adam Jones reached on a fielding error by third baseman Ty Wigginton. Matt Wieters then launched a drive to right off Joe Savery (0-1), that hit the scoreboard, inches over the outstretched glove of Hunter Pence. The bouncing ball eluded Pence long enough for Jones to score the unearned run.

"I wasn't sure it was going to go quite far enough, and it went just out of Pence's reach," Wieters said. "With Jonesy's speed, you know he's going to score if you can get it off the wall."

The Phillies left 10 on base and went 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

"I've been in this place before," Manuel said. "You got to keep going."

Baltimore starter Jason Hammel gave up four runs and six hits over six wild innings. The right-hander issued a season-high five walks, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch.

But Hammel limited Philadelphia to 3-for-8 hitting with runners in scoring position and retired the last seven batters he faced.

The game attracted 45,267 fans, many of them clad in red and rooting for the Phillies. It was the second straight sellout crowd at Camden Yards and third of the season.

After Philadelphia loaded the bases with one out in the first inning and failed to score, the Orioles went up 1-0 in the bottom half on singles by Jones, Wieters and Ronny Paulino.

The Phillies again stranded three runners in the second, but not before taking a 3-1 lead. With the bases loaded and two outs, Pence grounded a two-run single up the middle and Jim Thome followed with an RBI single.

Hammel had a 1-2-3 third but struggled again in the fourth. A single and two walks loaded the bases before Juan Pierre scored on a wild pitch. But the Phillies stranded runners at the corners, upping their left-on-base total to eight.

"In the first four innings if we got another hit we'd score some runs," Manuel said. "We scored four runs but it didn't hold up. We just didn't get it done."

In the bottom half, Philadelphia's lead vanished. With two on and two outs, Tolleson hit a 1-2 pitch into the left-field seats.