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 started off their 9 game road with losing 2 of 3 to the A’s. They dropped a 5-0 game yesterday after sanpping their six gaming losing streak the day before. This now makes 5 consecutive series the Phillies have lost. They remain in 1st place in the National East by 2 games over Flordia only because the Marlins have lost 4 in a row. The hitting has been the big problem for the Phillies who have been in a team slump since they cored the 20 runs in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Their pitching has been suspect also with Adam Eaton taking the loss yesterday with a less than stellar start. He has fallen back into his old ways of getting in early trouble in the count and once he does that he is done. Brett Myers gets the start tonigght which could be his last if it is not a qality performance. The Phillies front office can’t afford to wait any longer on Myers and his mental status. He can’t re-adjust to being a starter and wants to be in the bullpen again. That’s a bunch of crap. If you are a pitcher it doesn’t matter if you start or relieve. You’re in there to do a job and if you can’t get it done then they should waive his ass goddbye. Enough is enough.

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.

Brett Myers had another lack luster performance in Washington last night as the Nationals beat the Phillies 4-0. Myers dropped to 2-5 on the season  after pitching 6 innings and allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks. He has got to figure out what the problem is if the Phillies are going to make a run at repeating as National League East champions. Brett was the intended number one starter but has looked like a pithcer that has no confidence in his fast ball and his location is the primary concern. The Phillies are not going to wait long before making a move to trade him if the right conditions confront the team.

The Phillies ended their road trip with a 4-3 loss in San Francisco yesterday. J.C. Romero surrendered a 2 run homer to Steve Holm in the 7th inning to give the Giants the lead for good. This was the 1st homer allowed by Romero who had allowed only 1 earned run in 14 innings. Even the Phillies broadcast team was shocked by the homer by Holm who had replaced Bengie Molina who had been lifted for a pinch runner in the 6th. When Romero enters a game it is usually lights out. The loss gave the Phillies a 3-4 road trip as they head home to face Atlanta on Tuesday. The Phillies fans were treated to a rare triple by Ryan Howard who chugged his way around the bases after hitting the ball into the deepest part of the park. You could see how out of shape he is as he was gasping for air when he finally reached 3rd base. Well at least he got a hit and only struck out twice yesterday. That is becoming a good day for Howard.

The Phillies were beat today by the Giants 8-2. Tim Lincecum pithced 8 innings allowing just 4 hits and 2 earned runs. He was in command from start to finish. The lone bright spots for the Phillies was a solo home run by Ryan Howard in the 2nd inning and Chris Coste in the 8th inning. Jamie Moyer lasted just 4 innings allowing 6 earned runs on 9 hits. Tough day for the Phillies who were just man handled by the young Lincecum.

The Phillies lost to the Diamondbacks 6-4 yesterday. Adam Eaton took the loss after pitching 4.0 innings and alllowing 6 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks. The Phillies insist on sending this loser to the mound and this will be the end result every time. He proved it last season and should not be on the major league roster. I don’t think he should be in a Phillies uniform. Charlie Manuel must be really thick headed to keep running this guy out there. Eric Bruntlett had 2 hits and 3 rbi’s in the loss including a homer. That was about the only bright spot for the Phillies. They did give Ryan Howard the night off against lefty Randy Johnson although he did pinch hit and strike out.

The Phillies ended their road trip with a 5-1 loss against the Pirates today. Paul Maholm pitched a complete game allowing just 2 hits and 4 walks while striking out 2 to even his record at 2-2. Nate McLouth hit two home runs for the Pirates in the victory. The Phillies bats did absolutely nothing against Maholm managing just a double by Pat Burrell and a single by Eric Bruntlett. Brett Myers allowed 4 runs ons 8 hits in just 5 innings of work as his record fell to 2-2 with the loss.

The Phillies fell to the Mets 4-2 last night at Citizens Bank Park. The Mets are picking up the pace against the Phils after losing 9 straight. They have taken the first 2 games in this series and the pitching of the Mets is frustrating the Phillies batters. Johan Santana shut them down on Friday night and Oliver Perez shut them out for 5.2 innings before turning it over to the bullpen that was able to finish the job. Jose Reyes hit a two-run homer in the 7th inning to seal the victory. Billy Wagner threw a scoreless 9th to get his 4th save of the seaon. The loss drops the Phillies to 8-10 on the season while the Mets improved to 10-6.