Midnight’s Children

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 offense continues to slump and the result was a 3-2 loss to the L.A. Angels who swept the 3-game series this weekend. The Angels have the best road record in baseball and proved why as their pitching shut down the Phillies bats with some smart pitching. Their offense generated enough runs to give their team the lead so the pitchers could stick with their game plan of throwing mostly off speed stuff to the fastball hitting Phillies. Cole Hamels pitched pretty well today pitching 7 innings while allowing 3 runs on 6 hits. Chase Utley did start today after taking yesterday off amdist his 0-25 slump the longest of his career. He did go 1-4 today breaking the 0 for. The Phillies are of to Oakland & Texas this week and will face the A’s  tomorrow night after finishing their interleague homestand at 1-5. If this is how they will be playing if they reach the world series against American League clubs they might as well not bother.

The Phillies proved they still have a long way to go if they want to contend with the big boys after Boston came to town for an inter league series and took 2 out of 3. J.D. Drew went 4-5 leading the Red Sox in the victory. He tagged Kyle Kendrick with a 3-run homer in the 1st inning and the Sox never looked back. They built a 7-2 lead before the Phillies cut it to 7-4. That would be as close as the would get and once Jonathan Paplebon takes the hill in the 9th inning you can pretty much consider the game over. The Phillies won the 1st game on Monday but could not muster much offense over the last two games. Chase took another 0-4 and was hitless in the series. This is the longest draught in his career and when you take his bat and keep it silent you can deal with the rest of the Phillies lineup without too much of a problem. The Phillies have tomorrow off before the best road team in baseball the Los Angerles Angels comes to town on Friday. Should be a good series and the fans will enjoy seeing a team that they don’t get to see very often.

After returning from a 5-4 road trip to Atlanta, Florida & St. Louis the Phillies started inter league play tonight against the world champion Red Sox. Cole Hamels went 7 strong innings allowing just 2 runs on 7 hit while walking 2 and striking out 5. The offense was led by Ryan Howard who hit 2 home runs and had a triple while driving in 4 runs to tie for the league lead in rbi’s. Howard raised his average to .224 with his 3-5 night.  

The Phillies received a complete game shutout from Cole Hamels yesterday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. The 5-0 win put put the Phillies lead over the Florida Marlins at 2-1/2 games afdter Flordia lost to Atlanta. Hamels effort was his best outing in the last month. He threw a 3-hitter and was really on top of his game in the victory. The Phillies are now off on a nine-game road swing to Atlanta, St. Louis and Flordia. Jamie gets the start tonight against Atlanta’s Tim Hudson. The Phillies need a solid road trip to keep their lead in the National League East. Atlanta is currently 3-1/2 games behind Philadelphia and would like a sweep to get them even closer.

The Phillies continue their winning ways with a 5-4 win against the Reds Monday night in Philadelphia. Chase Utley led the way with his major league leading 21st home run. The Reds played without Ken Griffey Jr. who is still pursing his 600th home run. Kyle Kendick pitched 5 1/3 innings allowing 4 runs on 5 hits to improve to 5-2 on the seaosn. The bullpen threw scoreless baseball with Brad Lidge closing out the 9th inning for his 14th save. The Marlins lost to Atlanta so the Phillies lead in the N.L. East is at 1-1/2 games.

After a 7-3 loss to Flordia on Saturday night that dropped them back into 2nd place the Phillies rallied to beat the Marlins 7-5 on Sunday. Jamie Moyer got the win to improve to 6-3 on the season. He now leads all Phillies starters in victories. Chase Utley continued his hot streak with his major league leading 20th home run while Geoff Jenkins hit a pinch home un to tie the game at 5-5. Pat Burrel’s two run double in the bottom of the 7th inning was the game winner. Brad Lidge pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning to get his 13th save of the year. The win put the Phillies back in first a 1/2 game ahead of the Marlins.

The Philies offense continues to roll as they put up 12 mores runs last night in a victory over Florida to take over first place in the N.L. East. The Marlins tokk a 3-0 lead in the first off of starter Brett Myers who could not locate the plate and was very timid in his approach. Myers’ confidence was very shaky from the start and he is relying on his curve ball in too many key situations. Chase Utley tied the game at 3-3 with a 3-run shot and the Phillies bats were off to the races. They put up  4 more runs in the 2nd innning to take a 7-3 lead and never looked back. Chris Coste and Ryan Howard also homered in the win and Myers settled in to strike out 11 over 8 innings. This was by far his best outling in May and will hopefully give him the confidence he is looking for going forward.

After a road trip to Washington and Houston the Phillies returned home last night to the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park. They routed the undermanned Colorado Rockies 20-5 in route to their 29th win of the season. The Phillies pounded the Rockies pitching for 19 hits with Chase Utley and Chris Coste each hitting a 3 run homer. The offense was relentless as they pouned each pitcher that entered the game for Coloradeo. Jamie Moyer went 7 innings for the win and improved to 5-3 on the season. He had a rough 1st inning allowing a 3 run homer to Ryan Spilborghs but Chase Utley got it right back in the bottom of the 1st. Moyer settled in after that while the Phillies bats took it to Jorge De La Rosa. He lasted just 3 1/3 innings allowing 7 runs 6 of which were earned. The Rockies bullpen didn’t fare much better as the Phillies tacked on 13 runs in the remaining innings.

The Phillies won an inter-league game against the Toronto Bluejays 10-3 last night on the strength of Jayson Werth’s bat. He hit three home runs including a grand slam and had eight rbi’s in the win. That tied a Phillies record for most rbi’s in a game. Jamie Moyer evened his record at 3-3 by throwing seven strong innings allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and just 2 walks. The win lifted the Phillies record to 24-19 on the season.