Thursday, July 2, 2009

No end to June swoon for Phils

June is over for the Phils; their June swoon is not.

If anything, things managed to get worse last night. The Phils sent their ace to the mound last night. And for the second straight outing, Cole Hamels came up small.

Hamels again failed to get past the fifth inning, last night he only managed four. It wasn’t pretty. Hamels gave up nine runs on seven hits.
Seven of the runs were earned. His ERA is now a decidedly un-ace-like. 4.98.

Just to complete the picture, the team is not hitting either. Last night somebody named Jair Jurrjens continued his mastery of the Phils, no-hitting them for six innings. He’s now 3-2 against them with an ERA of 2.50 in six career starts. The Phils managed all of two hits last night.

And of course no mention of the Phils’ struggles would be complete without a mention of Jimmy Rollins. The leadoff man continues to spin his wheels. Hey, he actually got on base once last night. He managed to work a walk. But he is now hitless in his last 27 at-bats. Not good.

Forget the Mets. The Phils now are clinging to a half-game lead over the hot Marlins.

They get one more shot at the Braves tonight before returning to Citizens Bank Park for a weekend set with the Mets.

They announced that Rodrigo Lopez will get a start Friday night in the spot vacated by Antonio Bastardo, who was filling in for Brett Myers.
Fans no doubt would rather see one of their young hotshots, such as Carlos Carrasco or Andrew Carpenter get the call.

Not going to happen.

The Phils have squandered a great chance to put a huge cushion between themselves and the rest of the NL East. Now they are in another dogfight. Yes, it’s a long season. We’re not even at the All-Star break yet.

But the Phils have problems. They’re not pitching or hitting. Kind of tough to win that way.

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