Have you seen the Phillies offense? It’s been missing for quite a while, so much so that we’re beginning to see this:
Have you seen them?
It was yet another odd evening all around. Cliff Lee walked six, John Mayberry, Ben Francisco, and Raul Ibanez all started in the outfield, and Albert Pujols started the game at third base for the Cardinals. In the end, neither offense did much, but the St. Louis lineup did more in their 3-1 win over the Phillies.
WEIRD:
-Cliff Lee walking six? He nearly matched his season total in 6 1/3 innings. Those six walks were also a career high. It didn’t help that home plate umpire Gerry Davis had the strike zone the side of a peanut. There was no inside corner. To be fair, Lee wasn’t very sharp, leaving a lot of balls up in the zone, but if you watched this game, he was getting squeezed. It happens.
-Even with the struggles of Lee, only three Cardinals crossed the plate, and they didn’t hit many balls all that hard, either.
-It was the Phillies first three game losing streak of the year.
UGLY:
-Wilson Valdez, Raul Ibanez, John Mayberry Jr., Pete Orr, and Carlos Ruiz, finished 0-for-17 combined. What the hell has happened to this offense? They can’t even find a hole, line drives are at a premium. It’s really ugly right now. I mean, the freaking Cleveland Indians put up 10 runs in the fourth inning on Monday night. The Phillies have scored 10 runs in a game four times this season.
-Over the last three games, they’ve only scored six runs and have hit about a handful of balls hard.
-Jake Westbrook, who entered the game with a 6.92 ERA, shut the Phillies down, of course.
NOT BAD:
-Mike Stutes impressed by getting Albert Pujols to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end a seventh inning threat. He has looked very solid – it’s gonna be hard to let him go back to Triple-A having gone seven of eight appearances without a run.
-Ryan Howard knew that Cardinals pitchers would not pitch to him – he took three walks. Good job by him not to swing at the garbage they were throwing.
HELP:
-Chase Utley played in all nine innings in Monday night’s Clearwater Threshers game, going 1-for-4 with an RBI single.
-Domonic Brown continues to rest a sprained right thumb, but as of this writing, he should be back in a few days. (UPDATE, 11:16 pm – Iron Pigs manager Ryne Sandberg says Brown will play on Tuesday). Help, guys.
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