MIAMI — Pinch-hitter Brett Carroll capped a two-run rally against closer Brad Lidge in the ninth inning with an RBI single, giving the Florida Marlins a 7-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.
Jorge Cantu tied it with a single off Lidge (0-8), who blew his major league-leading 11th save opportunity.
Lidge entered to start the ninth and promptly gave up a double to Ross Gload, who advanced to third on Chris Coghlan’s flyout.
Lidge, a graduate of Cherry Creek High School, struck out pinch-hitter John Baker before walking Hanley Ramirez. Cantu then lined a single to left-center to score Gload and make it 6-all.
Carroll fell behind 0-2 before singling to center to score Ramirez.
Dan Meyer (3-1) pitched an inning of scoreless relief for the win in the soggy game.
A 45-minute delay in the middle of the eighth inning significantly thinned the announced crowd of 31,042. Florida has drawn more than that just seven times this season.
Ryan Howard doubled, homered and drove in four runs for the Phillies, whose magic number to clinch the NL East remained five.
The Phillies went ahead 6-3 in the seventh on Howard’s two-run homer but pinch-hitter Gaby Sanchez homered off Cole Hamels in the bottom half and Cody Ross had a two-out RBI single in the eighth to make it 6-5.
Hamels gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings. He struck out four and hit a batter.
Raul Ibañez’s solo homer tied it at 3 with one out in the sixth.
Ibañez sent an 0-2 pitch into the right-center field seats for his 33rd home run.
Pedro Feliz followed with a hard double down the left-field line. After Paul Bako flied out, Hamels singled hard past second baseman Dan Uggla to score Feliz with the go-ahead run.
In the seventh, Chase Utley walked off reliever Renyel Pinto with one out. Howard then homered to left to give Philadelphia a 6-3 lead. It was Howard’s 42nd home run.
Florida took a 3-2 lead in the fifth.
Ross led off with his 24th home run. Ronny Paulino followed with a double to right-center and took third on starter Rick VandenHurk’s sacrifice. Coghlan followed with a run-scoring single to left.
