Mahar caps off torrid June with walk-off homer

By Tony Zonca

READING, Pa. -- The Phillies’ Kevin Mahar ended his torrid June with a two-out walk-off home run in the 12th inning Tuesday for a 6-5 victory over the Altoona Curve.

Mahar turned on a 3-2 fastball from right-hander Sean Smith and sent a bolt into the night in left for his eighth home run and sixth in June. He finished the month with a .378 batting average, half of his 26 RBIs and 17 runs scored in 20 games.

It was the first professional walk-off home run for the 28-year-old veteran. Mahar is batting .308 overall in his first season in the Philadelphia organization.

His blast made a winner of Chance Chapman (4-1), the last of four Phillies relievers. Chapman, Alex Concepcion, Jason Mackintosh and Mike Zagurski combined to throw six shutout innings, allowing a pair of singles and no walks. They struck out nine batters.

Smith (3-3) took the loss for the Curve (27-51), who fell to 4-10 against the Phillies (44-32), who won their fourth straight.

Both teams put up some early crooked numbers. The Curve scored five in the second, a Miles Durham two-run triple and a Brian Friday two-run homer the big blows.

The two had batted a combined .163 with one RBI over their previous 10 games.

The Phillies came back with four in the third, delivering five straight two-out hits, the key blow a two-run single by Brian Stavisky. Neil Sellers and Mahar added RBI singles and the Curve committed three errors in the inning.

It stayed that way till the ninth, when pinch-hitter Jeremy Slayden coaxed a leadoff walk out of hard-throwing right-hander Dustin Molleken after looking at two straight strikes to begin the at-bat.

Quintin Berry, up to sacrifice, fouled off two straight bunt attempts and found himself down in the count 1-2. He drove the next pitch to the gap in right-center for a tying triple, his third hit of the night.

With the defense playing in, Molleken got Brad Harman and Michael Taylor swinging at third strikes. Sellers flied out to the wall in center to end the inning.

The run in the ninth was the first allowed by Altoona’s bullpen in 17.1 innings.

Left-hander Yohan Flande, up from Clearwater and making his Double-A debut, succumbed to that one bad inning in his six innings of work. He allowed the five runs on four hits, walked three and struck out four.

PHILLERS: The Phillies released right-hander Sam Walls to make room for Yohan Flande on the roster. . . . Michael Taylor, batting .476 over his previous 10 games to boost his Eastern League-leading average to .351, was also the league leader in hits (93), runs scored (51) and slugging percentage (.600). He was second in RBIs (56), tied for third in home runs (14), third in extra-base hits (34) and fifth in on-base percentage (.414). . . . Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro was at the ballpark Tuesday. . . . Kevin Mahar extended his hitting streak to seven games with a third-inning single. . . . Curve shortstop Brian Friday saved arguably three runs with three terrific defensive plays through five innings. . . . The Curve began the night as the worst hitting team (.234) in the league. . . . From the fourth through the 12th innings, the two teams combined for eight hits and 20 strikeouts. . . . Jose Alicea, 44, Gilbertsville, won the Spam carving contest. The annual event raised $500 for Opportunity House ... Scott Eyre, on Philadelphia's disabled list, will start and pitch one inning for the R-Phils on Major League rehab on Wednesday.  Kyle Drabek will follow him.  

This story was posted on June 30, 2009