Playoff Elimination: Check; Howard Injury to End Season: Check.

The end of this Phillies season seems to be a long, painful check list of unfortunate events.  And there are still 4 games to go, so the list may not yet be complete.  Let us see where we are so far:

- The Phillies have been eliminated from the playoffs.

- Ryan Howard dropped a warm-up bat on his toe and broke it, ending his season.  That makes 2 straight seasons that will end with a Howard limping off the field.  Maybe the Phillies need to invest in a lot of bubble wrap?

- Rookie pitcher Tyler Cloyd has been shut-down early with a “tired arm.”

- In what seems like an attempt to get the media to talk about anything other than the worst Phillies season in a long time, the Chase Utley 3rd base experiment has been deemed “over.”  He will not play 3rd base.

- Speaking of 3rd base, the Phillies have absolutely no idea who will play there in 2013.

- Last night, Roy Halladay pitched fewer than 6 innings for the 6th time this season and gave up more than 3 runs in a game for the 9th time, unofficially announcing to the world that getting old sucks.

- For the 6th time in his career, Jimmy Rollins will end the season with at least 100 runs scored.  However, he will also finish having batted well under .250 for 4 out of the 6 months of the season.  He also came in 4th in all of baseball in fly ball outs and 2nd in the National League.

I think those were enough depressing thoughts for the day.  On a happier note, despite Halladay allowing 4 runs in 5 innings last night, the Phillies did pull out a 9-5 win over the last place Marlins.  5 players had a multi-hit game, including Utley who picked up 3 RBI.

The win puts the Phillies dead-even at 79-79 for the season with 4 games to go.  The goal in these last several games should be to finish above the .500 mark.  They will go after the Fish one more time today at 1:10pm.

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Head shot by Jenn Zambri Photography