Phillies 4, Padres 2: Little mistakes add up as slide continues

Despite some hot defense and a pretty solid seven innings of work from Tyson Ross, the Padres lost their fifth game in a row tonight. If you want an upside, well, tonight's game got the Phillies out of the cellar, so it's impossible for the Friars to lose six in a row against last place teams.

The worst trouble came in the first inning. Chase Utley led off the game with a double and scored when Odubel Herrera knocked a single to right. Herrera then stole second and moved to third on a ground out. A wild pitch to Ryan Howard didn't get far from Derek Norris, but Herrera was fast enough to slide in under Ross's tag. The Phillies picked up one more in the third. Cesar Hernandez hit a single and then swiped second. He'd score on Herrera's second RBI single of the night. Tyson shut them down after that, retiring the next fourteen batters.

The Padres got on the board in the fourth when Yangervis Solarte and Derek Norris led off with back-to-back singles. That put runners on the corners for Matt Kemp, who hit an RBI single. But the rally never really got started, when Glenn Hoffman had Norris try to take third on the play, where he was easily gunned down. The call was extra costly given the rest of the inning. Justin Upton drew a walk, and Jedd Gyorko flied out to center, deep enough that Norris might have scored in that bases loaded scenario.

The Friars got another in the sixth when Upton hit a two-out single and took second on Cody Asche's error. Gyorko followed that up with a comebacker that bounced off the mound, then caught the edge of a diving Utley's glove. Upton scored easily. They had one more good opportunity in the seventh when Clint Barmes and Melvin Upton, Jr. led off with a pair of singles. But then Ross popped up the bunt meant to move them over, and the next two batters were retired harmlessly. Joaquin Benoit gave up one run in the eighth, but it didn't make any difference at that point.

Andrew Cashner will try to salvage a series split tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 PM.