Ugh. What a dreadful weekend. I couldn't even listen to much of the game and missed Victorino getting thrown out for supposedly showing up the umpire from center field. Was that a first in the annals of baseball? It was a bad day for home plate ump Ed Rapuano, who also had a phantom strike zone.
That aside, this was a bad weekend---and an ugly day today---of baseball for the home team, who were swept by the Marlins. I thought out in San Francisco that the Phillies were in trouble and the way they sleepwalked through the weekend suggests that they are. They could have put the NL East away this weekend. Instead, they were totally outplayed, and the Marlins and Braves are now right there.
The Phillies have now lost eight of their last 11 games, scored three or fewer runs in eight of those games, and won only five games all season when scoring three or fewer. Ugh. Howard shows small signs of coming out of his funk but all week he and Utley were basically ohfer. Speaking of Howard, he has yet to get hot this year. As with Hamels, it's getting late early. Since coming off the DL, Raul Ibanez has been a shell of his former self; Jayson Werth, either hot or cold, is again in the polar regions.
With the exception of Joe Blanton, the pitching was pretty much putrid. Jamie Moyer did not get it done today and takes the loss in the 12-3 blowout. The bullpen, in the person of Rodrigo Lopez, was even worse. But who expected Lopez to be pitching in the 'pen at this point? Or Kyle Kendrick? Chad Durbin is still on the DL, so is Clay Condrey, and J.C. Romero is now headed for an MRI in Philadelphia.
Inconceivable as it sounds, I've got to wonder if the Phillies have already been Metsied. They certainly are playing like the '07 and '08 Mets did down the stretch. Ugh. And they are now back to .500 at home.
