Midnight’s Children

In his second start since returning from the minors Brett Myers was looking like the Brett Myers of old as he threw 7 solid innings allowing on 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk. The Phillies have been hoping for an outing like this from Myers for many months now. He had control of all his pitches and you could see his confidence growing with each inning he pitched. Granted he was facing the last place Nationals but the Phillies will be hoping he can keep this up for the remainder of the season. It does not apprear the team will be able to trade for a quality starter before the deadline so having Myers turn it around now will be the only option the Phillies have at solidifying their rotation.

The Phillies offense was pretty quiet tonight with the exception of a 2-run homer from the ailing Chase Utley whose hip may require surgery at the end of the season. After having an unusual dry spell for the last few months the Phillies finally announced that Utley has had some discomfort with the hip and it has been hindering his swing. The fans kind of knew something was wrong but with the team not announcing it until today they were left to sit and wonder what was wrong with the always reliable Utley.

As the race for the National East pennant tightens up thePhillies are looking to bolster their pitching staff. There are not many quality starters available and with C.C. Sabathia being traded to Milwaukee and Rich Harden going to the Cubs the list has shortened considerably. The Phillies are desperate for a starter with the recent pitching of Adam Eaton reaching an all time low. They traded 3 minor leaguers to the A’s for Joe Blanton who has a 5-12 record this season. This is not the kind of move that will help the Phillies get to the World Series. The Phillies brass does not want to spend the money to get the necessary players to put this team over the top. One thing is for sure, the Mets will do whatever is necessary to put their team in a position to win. The Marlins will do less than the Phillies so the real competition will come from New York. The Phillies management wants nothing more than to take the hard earned money from their fans while giving them the best team they can for the least amount of money.

The Phillies watched their lead in the National League East dwindle to just a 1/2 game after another horrific outing by Adam Eaton. Hopefully the Phillies will not allow him to start another game after he lasted just 3-2/3 innings allowing 8 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. The Phillies are assured of one sure thing every 5th day. The bullpen will be pitching long innings trying to hold the other team scoreless while the rest of the team tries to put a large numbrer of runs on the board after Eaton has left them in a huge hole. It is time to cut the ties with Eaton and accept the fact that management made a bad decision signing him to a 24 million dollar contract. We the fans can see how much of a mistake this was why can’t the management. Bring up ANYONE from the minors and they can not do a worse job than Eaton.

The Phillies are approaching the all star break after a weekend series with the Diamondbacks. They are hanging on to a slim 1-1/2 game lead over the surging Mets who have won 7 in a row while the Phillies are not playing good baseball. They have only won one series in their last ten and have wathced their record drop form 12 games over 500 to a mere 5 games. The hitting has been the main reason for the decline with the pretty much the entire lineup in a slump for the last month. With Jimmy Rollins not getting on base like he was at this time last year you can see it affecting the rest of the lineup. He is the catalyst for this team and as he goes so does the rest of the team. Ryan Howard has been the only bright spot in the last month as he has taken over the home run lead with 28 and rbi ttotal is now at 84. Howard’s average has risen to .234 whidch doesn’t sound impressive but remember he was hitting .190 in May. Brett Myers was sent down to the minors to work on his mental approach to starting. What a bunch of crap that is. Either you adjust to your role and accept it or find someone who wants the job. The Adam Eaton is back to normal as he has been absolutely bombed his last two outings. They Phillies are probalby not going to pick up a prime starter to help out for the stretch run so they better get their act together internally and figure this thing out or they will be blowing a real chance to repeat as National League East Champions. The Mets are waking up and will do exactly what the Phillies did to them last year if they get the opportunity. The Phillies are in the weakest division in baseball and should be up by a wider margin.