Phillies bats fall silent in Game Two

The Phillies once again left a ton of runners stranded on the base paths and this time they didn't get a dominating pitching performance as the allowed the Rays to tie up the World Series at one game apiece. Philly got on base again and again throughout the game as they managed 9 hits and 4 walks, but, they only scored 2 runs and lost 4-2.

James Shields pitched for the Rays and allowed a number of batters to reach but did well to fight out of every jam. Brett Myers pitched for the Phils and didn't have a terrible game, although he did allow his fair share of runners, too.

The Phillies also have a legitimate beef about the outcome of this game as they were on the wrong end of two bad calls by the home plate umpire. In the 2nd inning, the ump initially called a pitch by Myers strike three until he allowed the first base umpire to overrule him and say the batter didn't swing. The other bad call happened in the 9th as the Phillies tried to fight there way back in the game and Jimmy Rollins clearly got hit by a pitch. The ball grazed his jersey which is, by rule, a hit by pitch. Those two calls came in critical situations when the Rays were starting to build their lead and the Phillies were trying to make their comeback.

While losing this game does hurt the Phils, in the bigger picture they were still able to split the games in Tampa Bay. Everyone should be happy with a 1-1 series tie as we shift back to Philadelphia. If the Phils can just get their bats going when runners are on base, especially since they are now 1 for 28 with runners in scoring position, things will look even better.