One night after Philadelphia ace Cole Hamels held the Dodgers to five hits in a complete-game shutout, 46-year-old left-hander Jamie Moyer pitched seven innings of four-hit ball, allowing two runs and leaving with a one-run lead.
But Brad Lidge blew the save for the fifth time this season after a costly error by third baseman Pedro Feliz, and the Dodgers pulled out a 4-3 victory Friday night that ended the Phillies' seven-game winning streak.
"It's just persistence," said L.A. Dodger Andre Ethier, whose two-out, bases-loaded double in the ninth drove in the tying and winning runs. "We kept waiting for that door to open for us, and we had to take advantage of it. Fortunately we were able to get a couple of guys on base and have an error bounce our way. We were able to turn it in our favor and capitalize."
Casey Blake started the two-out rally with a single, James Loney walked and Russell Martin reached when Feliz botched his routine grounder. Ethier then lined a fastball into the right field corner on Lidge's next pitch, giving the defending NL West champions their fifth walkoff win of the season and improving the best record in the majors to 38-19
"He's a slider guy who likes to keep his pitches down, so that's going to take something out of his game -- with the bases loaded and two outs," Ethier said. "You look for something else, and that is what I got."
Lidge (0-3) has converted only 13 of his 18 save chances, after going 41 for 41 last season and 7 for 7 in the postseason to help the Phillies win their second World Series title.
"The season hasn't gone quite as smooth as last year. I know that, but I've been feeling great," the two-time All-Star said. "I felt really good again tonight. It's frustrating. You want everything to go well, then something like that happens."
The Phils hit the fields Saturday at 4 p.m. in their third game of a four-game series against the Dodgers.
