Offense Still Missing

After the amazing perfect game by Roy Halladay yesterday, today’s game against the Marlins was bound to be disappointing.  But for the Phillies to fall 0-1 to the Fish with their 5th shut-out in the last 8 games is not what anyone expected.

Every player is struggling to hit the ball right now.  Charlie Manuel may want to give Dr. House a call to either diagnose the problem or provide some sort of magic pill, because no one seems to have an explanation for this awful offensive output.  Jayson Werth wore the Golden Sombrero, striking out 4 times today and looked very, very bad doing it.  Ben Francisco played left in place of Raul Ibanez and went 0 for 4 and also missed a fly ball he should have caught, which bounced off his glove.  Francisco is batting .194.  Juan Castro, who is doing a fine job in the field, cannot seem to buy a hit.  He went 0 for 4 as well today and is hitting .253.

Placido Polanco had an MRI on his sore elbow which showed a “contusion,” basically a bruise.  He is flying back to Philly to see the team doctor.  So, Polanco has been out of the line-up for 2 games now with no word on when he may return.  This also does not help.

But mainly, the Phillies are just swinging at bad pitches.  They look befuddled at the plate.  And Jamie Moyer did a great job pitching today, making the lack of offense even more glaring.  Moyer gave up just 1 run over 6 innings and again, the bullpen held the opposition right there.  Watching Moyer and all Phillies pitchers getting no support, Halladay is probably counting his blessings right that the team scored him a run yesterday. 

The Phillies have 3 games in Atlanta next.  The Braves have some really good pitching and if the Phils do not bust out of this slump immediately, the Braves are going to pounce right into first place, as they are only 1 game behind.  Game time tomorrow is 1:05pm on Memorial Day.