These two were eating windfall apples on the road yesterday. After I stopped, they finally moved to the side.
Quality Joe Blanton, who has pretty much been a model of consistency for months, was dreadful last night, lasting 4.2 innings and giving up eight runs to a National offense led by rookie call-up Ian Desmond. The Phillies scored two runs in the first, then let Livan Hernandez have his way. Only in the 9th did they rally, with a grand slam by Matt Stairs, who had his first hit in almost forever. Nice as that all was, with Victorino on third and Utley on first, Ryan Howard feebly grounded into a game-ending doubleplay and the Nationals won 8-7. As radio color guy Larry Andersen aptly said, it felt like "losing a doubleheader."
The defense, putrid last night, has been bad for all of this 2-5 roadtrip. Jimmy Rollins, who had had only three errors all year, made two last night. That broke a sting of 86 errorless games at shortstop for the usually-silky Mr. Rollins. Jayson Werth again misplayed a couple of balls in right. He didn't get errors on them but in my book he would have. Is Werth wearing down in this his first full season? But what about Pedro Feliz, who's got an unnerving number of errors this year?
If the Phillies don't stop playing down to the competition, they're soon going to find themselves down in the standings with them. Again, anytime the offense wants to show up, we'll get out the welcome wagon. It's been almost a month since Rollins and Victorino have been on base together.
At the very least, how about a return to the crisp baseball that has been a hallmark of this team?
