After all of the injuries that the Phillies had suffered over the past month, it seemed almost right to have a four game series against Pittsburgh coming up. The Pirates have struggled so badly this season, amassing the worst record in the National League, and even with seven players on the disabled list, the Phils should have been able to take care of business right?
Well, not so much this time. The first two games went poorly, as the Phils dropped them both, even being shutout 2-0 in the second game. In almost a must win situation last night, the offense got itself back on track, and Kyle Kendrick pitched a complete game, the first of his career. It was just a solid effort by the entire team last night. Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard each drove in three runs, and Ben Francisco and Rollins had home runs. Meanwhile, every starter, Kendrick included, had a base hit, and everyone but Howard and Dane Sardinha scored a run.
It was a total offensive domination last night, but, believe it or not, Kyle Kendrick looked even better than the offense. Despite giving up ten hits and allowing two home runs, Kendrick only surrendered four runs, and just three of those were earned. It was Kendrick's first ever complete game, and one that came at a perfect time for the Phillies. The Braves have been one of the hottest teams in baseball for most of the past two months, and with each loss, the Phils are slipping more and more behind them. A big win like this one, coupled with a great showing by one of their weaker pitchers, had to be the thing that would push them to another victory today, right?
Wrong. Oh, was that wrong. For the first six and a half innings at least, it looked right, though. Joe Blanton gave up two first inning runs, but then shut down the Pirates for the next five innings, allowing just one baserunner through those frames. Meanwhile, the Phillies picked up where they had left off on offense, scoring four early runs in the second and third inning to give them the lead. Dane Sardinha homered in the top of the seventh inning to give the Phils a 5-2 lead, and it looked like smooth sailing ahead with just nine outs to play.
Of course, that's when the wheels came off. Blanton surrendered a home run to the very first batter of the seventh inning, and it was downhill from there. Blanton recorded just one more out, and Jose Contreras and Mike Zagurski couldn't stop the bleeding. Pittsburgh scored six times in the seventh and batted around. Just like that, a 5-2 lead had become an 8-5 hole. All the air had come out of the Phillies, and there was no coming back, not today. The Phils would go down in order in the eighth and ninth innings, and that was it. The Phillies had dropped three of four games to the worst team in the National League.
There isn't much to say about this series, other than the fact that it was outright embarrassing. The Phillies needed to win three of four, or sweep the Pirates, to get momentum going into their series with the Braves. Instead, the team looked flat and completely outmatched against a team that had compiled 51 losses before this series began. When the offense was able to get hits, most of the time the pitching would give runs back up. When the pitching was solid, the offense couldn't do anything. Other than Kyle Kendrick's complete game, the Phillies couldn't get anything done against Pittsburgh, and that's a big, big problem. Jamie Moyer and Cole Hamels suffered hard luck losses, and Joe Blanton looked good through six innings, but it wasn't enough. The bullpen and Blanton blew the game today, with the seventh inning being the downfall. Save for Saturday night's game, the Phillies scored just seven runs in the three losses. That isn't good enough, either. When you're playing a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates, you should be able to put up seven runs per game, not in three games.
I don't know what's going on with this team right now, I really don't. They seem like they're lost at sea, and that's the problem with a team that can manage itself most of the time. When it needs to be managed, sometimes the manager can't get it done. Right now, Charlie Manuel had better get his act together and get this team moving in the right direction again, because at the moment, they are not looking good, and they have to play the Atlanta Braves next. It's hard to say if this one series could determine how the rest of the season is going to go, but it very well might.
Tomorrow, the Phils start a huge three game series against the Braves. Roy Halladay (9-7, 2.42 ERA) looks for his tenth win of the season, as he faces off against Derek Lowe (9-6, 4.53 ERA).
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