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As he has done before, Robert Person dominated early before giving up a big inning. (Julie Jacobson/AP)

That's what five Philadelphia pitchers issued to the Giants, with only one of them intentional and two coming with the bases loaded to break a 5-5 tie in the seventh.

"The 10 walks is ridiculous, ridiculous," said an exasperated Bowa. "At this level, it's ridiculous."

In watching his team blow a 5-0 lead and lose its sixth straight game, Bowa felt caught between the same rock and the same hard place that has plagued the Phillies' 2002 season. His starter, Robert Person (0-3), continued his trend of dominating early, and then suddenly coughing up a big inning.

Unable to trust his bullpen in a tight game, Bowa let his No. 1 starter pitch the sixth. Barry Bonds threaded a single between two of three Phillies piled onto the left side of the infield and Jeff Kent followed with a homer to cut the lead to 5-3. Person then issued his third pass of the night to his final batter, J.T. Snow.

But as Bowa feared, his 'pen didn't fare any better. Rookie Carlos Silva, who had been the team's most effective reliever, walked Reggie Sanders, the first batter he faced, and then watched as Marlon Anderson dropped a relay from Jimmy Rollins on a potential inning-ending double-play ball. Another run scored on this play. Pedro Feliz singled in the tying run, setting the stage for a passed ball and four walks in the pivotal seventh that led to a pair of Giants' runs when David Coggin issued two bases-loaded walks.

"Because of the way they've been pitching, yeah," said Bowa when asked if he was afraid to turn it over to the bullpen. "I mean, 5-1 lead with [Person] out there, you gotta figure he's going to get you to the seventh.

"You gotta get your starter to the seventh or eighth inning, your No. 1 pitcher. It's not getting done."

Though Bowa said since Person was leaving his pitches up, he must have been either tired or overthrowing, Person didn't think that was the case.

"I just missed pitches," he said. "I didn't make my pitches. ... I felt confident going in and confident during the game, throughout the game. The unexplainable happened -- I made a bad pitch. It just seems like if I make three bad pitches a game, it's four runs, or if I make one bad pitch a game, with two men on, that's three runs. I'm not getting away with mistakes this year."

It seems like the Phillies aren't either. Ten of their last 13 games have seen their opponent post a big inning, scoring four or more runs, and nine times out of those 10, the Phillies have lost. Person's been the primary culprit in three of those, though he's not the only reason the team is 8-18 and losers of 14 of their past 17 games.

"It's tough because my last few starts, it just seems like it's always one inning," he said. "I don't know if it's lack of concentration or just missing spots or what. But somehow we gotta get over that and make pitches deep in the game, prevent the big inning."

The pitching implosion snuffed what had been an encouraging night offensively. The Phillies took advantage of a rare Bonds error in the third to score the game's first run when a nonchalant Bonds saw a fly ball clang off the heel of his glove.

They posted four more in the fourth on two singles and two doubles, including Travis Lee's second hit in as many at-bats after being dropped to the eighth spot in the order.

But Bobby Abreu, who drove in the Phillies' fifth run with a fourth-inning single, was the last baserunner Philadelphia would have. The Giants bullpen made their Philly counterparts look worse by retiring the next 16 batters, striking out six.

"You can tell the differences in the two teams right now," said Bowa. "They go to their bullpen and you get 1-2-3 innings. I can't remember the last time we had a 1-2-3 inning from the bullpen."

Person said pitching with a five-run lead was almost an alien concept to him, given the Phillies' lack of offensive punch the first month of the season. Only once have they scored as many as eight runs in a game.

"That's why it's that much more frustrating, because the boys went out and played hard and got five," he said. "You go figure down the line, at the end of the season, when you look at it and say, 'Well, they scored five runs this game,' that's a game you should have won."

But while Person seemed at a loss to explain what happened to him and his teammates -- "you can't explain it, the things that happen" -- Bowa knew what the problem was, just by glancing down at the piece of paper on his desk.

"Ten walks is self-explanatory."

Chris Shuttlesworth is the editorial producer of sfgiants.com and can be reached at sitecontent@giants.mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.