The Good Phight lays the blame for this loss squarely on the shoulders of one Charles Fuqua Manuel. With two out and the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, the pitcher's spot was due up to bat. TGP takes it from there.
To that point, Blanton had worked six innings of one-run ball, and his pitch count was reasonable. But this was a game situation, a prime opportunity for a struggling offense against a starter who seemed on the ropes… and more to the point, Blanton’s 2010 body of work in the seventh inning of his starts had been something out of an Adam Eaton nightmare: hitters had gone 15 for 31 against him with 5 home runs and a triple-slash line of .484/.500/1.032.
You know the rest. Blanton strikes out, Matt Holliday homers off him the next inning … game over. Cholly dun messed up.