May 25 -- VICTORINO: 'I F'D UP'

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Shane Victorino screwed up.

He knows it, too.

Trailing 5-3 in the ninth inning tonight and facing hard-throwing Marlins closer Matt Lindstrom, against whom the Phillies staged a seven-run ninth-inning rally April 24 in Miami, Victorino drew a leadoff walk. Matt Stairs, the free-swinging slugger with the flair for pinch-hitting dramatics, stepped to the plate as the tying run. But Victorino was caught stealing second (it wasn't even close), killing the potential rally.

"I made a stupid mistake," Victorino said later. "I'll face the questions. I told myself to stay out of the double play, but I need to be safe. There's no excuses to the fact that I f'd up. Stupid situation there. But, hey, I made a stupid mistake. I'm not going to second-guess myself right there. I'll face the reality that I messed up. Charlie [Manuel] spoke to me about it, told me I needed to be safe. I told him, 'The fact of the matter is I'm out.' That's where we are right now. All I can say is it was a stupid play on my part, and I need to be safe."

Manuel lectured Victorino in the dugout. He acknowledged that Lindstrom is relatively slow to the plate (the Phils timed him at 1.37 seconds, and anything over 1.35 is considered slow), but in that situation, with Stairs representing the potential tying run, Victorino has to stay put.

"Evidently, it was his decision," Manuel said. "It was a mistake. We like to talk about our running game, but you've got to know when to run."

And in that situation, you don't run.

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Something that didn't make its way into your newspaper: Jamie Moyer made a close pitch to Wes Helms in a 2-2 count in the fourth inning, but plate umpire Marvin Hudson called it a ball. One pitch later, Moyer served up a middle-of-the-plate changeup that Helms hammered into the left-field seats for a three-run homer. Asked if he thought the questionable 2-2 pitch was a strike, Moyer said, "It doesn't really matter what I think. You need to go ask Marvin."

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In case you were wondering (I was), Manuel said the Phillies were trying to pitch around Ronny Paulino in the sixth inning, forcing the Marlins to either pinch-hit for pitcher Chris Volstad or send him to the plate. Moyer ran the count to 3-0 before Paulino laced an RBI single up the middle. "It was a pitch-around, and I really didn't do a good job with that either," Moyer said. "I should've thrown it to the backstop."

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Adding insult to injury, Helms and Paulino, both Phillies castoffs, drove in all five Marlins runs. Helms had his first four-RBI game since 2004.