Alvarez Comes Back to Earth

PHILADELPHIA —  The architect who designed Citizens Bank Park obviously didn’t come from a family of pitchers.

The ball flew out of this new ballpark with alarming regularity Tuesday night, especially as far as Dodger pitchers were concerned, during an 8-7 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in which the hosts clubbed five of the nine home runs.

Wilson Alvarez gave up four homers, watching his 0.00 earned-run average as a starter and 17 1/3-inning scoreless streak come to a quick end in the first inning when Pat Burrell whacked a two-run homer to left.

Bobby Abreu, Burrell and Jim Thome also tagged Alvarez for back-to-back-to-back homers in the fourth as the Phillies overcame deficits of 3-0 and 6-2 to extend the Dodgers’ season-high losing streak to five games.

“That game was very remini- scent of a few we’ve seen in Coors Field over the past several years,” said Dodger Manager Jim Tracy, whose team didn’t even take batting practice because of pregame rain. “Nine home runs in one game, that’s a lot of home runs to hit between two teams.”

The Dodgers lost the home run derby even though Jason Grabowski hit two homers for the first time in his career, Adrian Beltre smacked a three-run shot and Olmedo Saenz belted a solo homer in the ninth that pulled the Dodgers to within a run.

Philadelphia closer Tim Worrell then walked Grabowski to bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate with one out, but pinch-hitter Juan Encarnacion popped to first on the first pitch and Milton Bradley grounded into a game-ending fielder’s choice.

The postgame discussion centered on a park all of 15 games old that is already developing a reputation as a hitter’s haven. Thirty-nine homers had been hit in the park before Tuesday, an average of nearly three a game.

Philadelphia helped increase that average in the fourth inning, when Abreu walloped a leadoff homer to right, Burrell belted one just out of Grabowski’s reach in left and Thome thwacked one to right-center. The trio became the first to hit consecutive homers against the Dodgers since the Cincinnati Reds’ Ken Griffey Sr., George Foster and Dan Driessen accomplished the feat on May 27, 1980.

Tracy called several of the Phillies’ homers “very questionable,” a sentiment catcher Paul Lo Duca echoed by saying Burrell “didn’t hit any” because his homers traveled an estimated 351 and 352 feet.

Alvarez, who had yielded only one homer before Tuesday, said he didn’t make any mistake pitches.

“None of those pitches were in the middle of the plate,” said Alvarez, who gave up eight hits and six runs in five innings.

“They were in, up and in -- I can’t really say they were bad pitches. I checked the replay, and they were right where I wanted to throw them.”

Said Tracy: “He was victimized a couple of times where he made good pitches and was penalized for them. Yet he kept pitching, and we had a 6-6 game after the fifth inning.”

But Mike Lieberthal jumped on reliever Guillermo Mota’s first pitch of the sixth for a solo homer to left-center to saddle the Dodger bullpen with its first loss of the season.

Marlon Byrd added a run-scoring single off Darren Dreifort in the eighth, moments before a cascade of rain prompted a 41-minute delay.

“Maybe [the way the ball was carrying] was just tonight. I had heard it was a pretty decent hitter’s ballpark, but that’s pretty nice if it sticks like this,” Lo Duca said.