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Blind Faith?June 25th, 2008
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I promised myself. Even in the face of everything I know about Phillies’ baseball, I promised myself. Upon starting this column, I promised myself. Even against my own intuition, I promised myself that this would be the one year I would believe, without reservations or criticism, in my beleaguered ball club. Don’t let me fool you though. It’s the same promise I and millions of Philadelphians make every year. Even now, as I watch Pedro Feliz feebly ground out to short to end the game- I want to believe, but this team sure finds ways to make it tough.
The last two weeks have been, in a word, brutal. With tonight’s 5-2 loss in Oakland, the Phillies have now lost six straight games. They’ve lost four straight series’. Since sweeping the Braves in Atlanta two weeks ago, the Phillies have won only two of their last 13 games. Despite their abysmal performance, they’ve managed to hold onto first-place in the NL East. However, their recent slide has allowed the Marlins to climb back within one game and opened windows of opportunity for both the Mets and Braves to rejoin the race.
What’s particularly menacing about the Phillies’ recent woes has been their performance against the American League. While the junior circuit has dominated interleague play this season across the bigs, the Phillies’ series’ against the Red Sox and Angels were predicted to be possible World Series previews. If in fact they were previews, it’s fitting that a horror movie would be the theme for the October classic.
The Phillies went 1-5 on their homestand against each of the American League’s elite clubs. The numbers tell the story: outscored 26-9, a .166 batting average, .156 with men in scoring position, one homerun, and only six extra-base hits. That won’t get it done.
The Phillies’ wildly inconsistent offense derailed the team again over the disappointing homestand. Chase Utley suffered through the worst slump of his career facing an 0-for- 24 streak that ended mercifully when he laced an RBI double on Sunday afternoon. He’s hitless in his last 3 at bats since. Geoff Jenkins is currently mired in his own 0-for-22 nightmare.
The 2008 version of the Phillies is squarely built around the offense and when that fails, the team fails. Not only did the Phillies not pass their midterm exams this week, they bombed. Still, it’s not panic time yet. We haven’t even reached the All-Star break. There is much to fix and much time left to fix it.
Meanwhile, I’m just left to believe. At least I have company. “Every team goes through their ups and downs and right now we’re down,” said Jimmy Rollins on the team’s recent performance. “But we’ll come out of it, I’m not worried about that.” At least someone seems brimming with confidence.
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