Phillies 4, Kansas City Royals 3

Phillies (2-3), Royals (2-3)

WP: Antonio Bastardo (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

LP: Greg Holland (0-1, ERA)

By the time Kevin Frandsen had stepped to the plate, the vibe had fallen flat.

Even with the bags full in the bottom of the ninth, as they were with consecutive lead-off walks from Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Michael Young, the angst of iffy early clutch hitting lingered. Then Domonic Brown and John Mayberry struck out in back-to-back at-bats.

But Frandsen came through, smacking a walk-off double to score 3 and lift the Phillies to a 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals, their first at Citizens Bank Park this season, to avoid their first 1-4 start since 2007.

Support John Lannan!

Lannan pitched about as well as you could’ve asked of a No. 5.

In 7 innings, he allowed just 2 runs on 3 hits, and struck out 5 with no walks, working through all his pitches – sinker, slider, changeup, his out pitches – and forcing his usual ground-outs.

The 28-year-old lefty was perfect through four, before Chase Utley muffed an Alex Gordon grounder.

But he ran into trouble in the fifth, when he allowed 2 of his runs. After hitting Lorenzo Cain, Lannan served a double to Jeff Francoeur, RBI ground-out to Miguel Tejada, Eric Johnson RBI single, before getting outs in 2 of the next 3 batters to get out of the frame.

Just two hits followed, though Tejada and Francoeur turned it into another run.

Of course, no run support followed, turning a could’ve-been win into a no-decision.

In 135 career starts, Lannan has had 2 runs of support or less in 50. He’s 6-35 in those games.

The Other Guy

Luis Mendoza went 6 strong, allowing just 1 earned run on 2 hits with 7 strikeouts and 3 walks.

Only 57 of 92 pitches were strikes, but he dealt first-pitch strikes to 17 of 23 batters.

Not bad for a guy whose competition this spring for the No. 5 spot in last year’s fifth-worst rotation was Bruce Chen.

After walking his first two times up, John Mayberry had a streak of 3 plate appearances ending in a walk. He struck out his only other two times up.

Fielding Fun

Chase Utley erred in the top of the fourth to break up Lannan’s perfect game. Humberto Quintero put a ball wide left of Utley on a steal attempt by Jarrod Dyson in the eighth.

Though Quintero came up big earlier, picking off Miguel Tejada at third in the seventh.

Utley (2) and Quintero have committed each of the Phillies 3 errors through 5 games.

Relief

Mike Adams and Antonio Bastardo came through.

Adams needed 24 pitches to get through his only inning, the eighth, but he fanned his first batter and allowed just one hit, showing he can be effective when he’s not at his best.

Bastardo walked his first batter, but recovered where he wouldn’t last season, forcing Francoeur to fly out and inducing a ninth inning-ending double play ball from Eric Hosmer.

If not for that, who knows if it's close for Frandsen to shine.

Aaron Crow and Kelvin Herrera each threw a scoreless, hitless inning, upping the count of the Royals relief staff to 8 in the series.

Then came Holland – and Frandsen.

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