Phillies score 4 in 9th to beat Marmol, Cubs 4-1

The ugliness was of historic proportions, even for the Cubs.

The fact that the guilty parties faced up to their contributions did little to take the sting out of a 4-1 to the Phillies Saturday at Wrigley Field.

With a 1-0 lead heading into the ninth, manager Lou Piniella turned to his closer, Carlos Marmol, who was unhittable the day before as he struck out all three batters he faced to nail down a 4-3 victory.

Before Saturday’s ninth inning was over, the remaining fans from the crowd of 40,924 witnessed this:

• Marmol retired the first batter of the ninth but wound up walking five, one intentionally.

• On one of those walks, Marmol uncorked a wild pitch to allow a run to score.

• The game looked to be over and in the books as a 1-0 Cubs victory when Placido Polanco singled to left field with two outs and runners on first and second. Tyler Colvin’s throw to the plate came in on one hop, but catcher Geovany Soto dropped it, even with time to get the slow-footed Brian Schneider coming to the plate.

The inning, and the game, fell apart after the tying run scored.

“It was a perfect throw, ť Soto said. “Colvin got the ball in plenty of time. He got a perfect throw to me. Plain and simple, I missed it. I rushed to grab the ball to make a tag, and I took my eyes off the ball. Plain and simple, I just missed it. ť

Marmol, who battles control problems at times, would not allow his catcher to take the blame. His 5 walks in a relief outing of 1 inning or shorter were the most since Johnny Vander Meer walked five of the 10 batters he faced in 1 inning at Philadelphia on July 27, 1950.

“I didn’t feel right when I was throwing sliders today, ť said Marmol, who threw 38 pitches. “I don’t make excuses. I walked a couple guys, and that’s what happened. Then a basehit.

“That’s my responsibility. ť

The Cubs looked like they were going to make a winner of starter Randy Wells, who worked 7 shutout innings. The Cubs scored their run on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze in the bottom of the seventh, with Ryan Theriot bunting home Starlin Castro and getting a basehit to boot.

Dependable Sean Marshall held the Phillies in the eighth before Marmol made his entrance and got pinch hitter Greg Dobbs to flyout.

The next two batters, pinch hitters Schneider and Ross Gload, walked before Shane Victorino struck out. Polanco’s single went right to Colvin, who fired it home, but Soto couldn’t hang on.

“He’s right in front of me, ť Soto said of Schneider. “The play’s in left field. He’s coming from second, so I can see the runner. Polanco hit the all fairly good, so Colvin came up with it fairly quick. He was just stepping on third while Colvin was holding the ball. It was a perfect throw. There’s actually nothing to say, no excuses. Nobody’s responsible for this game than me. ť

The Cubs won the first two games of this series, but they fell back to 10 games under .500, at 41-51.

“One-run game, it’s hard to walk people, ť said manager Lou Piniella. “Should have been out of the ballgame at home plate with the third out, but the catcher hurried too much. Should have secured the ball and just tagged the runner. It was the opposing catcher running, so he had time. Didn’t work out. ť

<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Phillies 4, Cubs 1</b></p> <p class="factboxtext12col">Welcome back: Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco had the game-tying single in the ninth inning. Earlier in the day, he came off the disabled list as he rehabbed a left elbow injury. </p> <p class="factboxtext12col">Dueling pitchers: Cubs starter Randy Wells worked 7 shutout innings while Phillies lefty Cole Hamels gave up 1 run in 7 innings. Wells turned in the Cubs' 58th quality start. They're 32-26 in quality-start games.</p> <p class="factboxtext12col">Byrd is the word: Marlon Byrd singled twice for his 36th multihit game. He had 39 multihit games last year with Texas. Entering Saturday, Byrd was second to the Braves' Martin Prado in multihit games. Prado entered with 40. </p>