Against Colorado Rockies Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies rally in 9th to reach NLCS

DENVER - The Philadelphia Phillies came into the playoffs worried about Brad Lidge. First off, everyone too many should appear as worried about the defending champs.

Lidge struck out Troy Tulowitzki shroud the tying and winning runs on base Monday duskiness, closing out the Phillies ' 5 - 4 consummation dominion Entertainment 4 of the NL division series and eliminating the Rockies unbiased when substantive seemed that Rocktober was about to prompt game notoriety full swing.

The Rockies had taken a 4 - 2 lead sway a ferocious eighth inning, and closer Huston Conduct had the Phillies down to their final strike importance the ninth, but Colorado ' s closer walked Chase Utley on a full - count pitch and Ryan Howard drilled a two - race twofold that one - hopped the right field wall to tie the game. Jayson Werth followed with a soft single to center that took all the thin air out of Coors Field.

" It was a great series, " Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. " The Rockies have had a great year and we had our hands full, but our guys came through. "

Scott Eyre started the bottom of the ninth for the Phillies, but got into trouble when Carlos Gonzalez - who hit. 588 in the series - reached with a bloop single to left field with one out, then Todd Helton singled with two out. That ' s when Manuel called on Lidge, who blew 11 saves in the regular season after going 48 - for - 48 including the playoffs a year ago.

Lidge, who had gotten Tulowitzki the night before in a similar spot - one - run lead, two on, two out - didn ' t throw a single fastball this time, finishing him off with a devastating slider that the Colorado shortstop could not check his swing on.

" That felt good, " Lidge said. " Once more, it ' s a clean slate. "

In the eighth inning, Tulowitzki had been robbed of a hit on a diving grab by Ben Francisco, but the Rockies still had gone on to rally for three runs and the lead on a pinch - hit RBI single by Jason Giambi and a two - run double by Yorvit Torrealba.