Saturday, Phillies 8  Rangers 6

winning pitcher: Cole Hamels, losing pitcher: Vincente Padilla, save: Brad Lidge

home runs: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Michael Young

Sunday, Phillies 1  Rangers 5

winning pitcher: Eric Hurley, losing pitcher: Jamie Moyer

home run: Chris Davis

Finally the Phillies are admitting that Brett Myers can’t cut it as a starter this season.  They’re looking at putting him into the bullpen and pulling JD Durbin in as a starter.  Other options are to pull some players up from the minors but that’s less likely as Cla Condrey would have to go on waivers, which they don’t want.   So they’re finally getting to the point where they realize that they just can’t let this continue!

The bats started to actually do some hitting on Saturday but it’s just not enough when they face a pitcher who just is dialed in and has their number on Sunday.  They head to Atlanta Tuesday night to take on the Braves as the Marlins are starting on their own winning streak, looking to take away first place.  But unless Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard can keep a streak alive together, this offense will continue to be flat.  Come on, guys!  Make it happen.  Take a break in a couple of weeks and come back renewed and kicking butt!  and in first place….

Phillies 7, Rangers 8

winning pitcher: Josh Rupe, losing pitcher: Clay Condrey, save: CJ Wilson

home runs: Chris Coste, Pedro Feliz, Jayson Werth, Milton Bradley, Chris Davis, Ian Kinsler

Brett Myers is officially DTM — Dead To Me.  I cannot have him on a fantasy team again this year unless he has 5 good outings in a row and that’s just not going to happen, apparently.  He was out of this game early after allowing 5 runs in the 3rd inning and that’s just not going to help the Phillies win!  The offense went ballistic with Pedro Feliz getting a grand slam home run but without the pitching for the Phillies putting the Rangers’s hitting on hold, the wins are just not going to happen.  So another loss to add to the column…

Phillies 0, A’s 5

winning pitcher: Rich Harden, losing pitcher: Adam Eaton

home run: Carlos Gonzalez

At least the Phillies aren’t falling behind in the standings as the Marlins aren’t doing well either.  So tonight was a case of Rich Harden shutting down the Phillies as they just couldn’t score a run off of him the entire night.  Adam Eaton didn’t do himself any favors by giving up a couple of runs in the first inning, to be sure, but without the bats to help him out of the jam, there was no way he was going to win.

Most of the Phillie pitchers need that hitting help behind them to win their games.  They have the occasional good outing but for the most part, if the other team scores 5 runs, they can count on the Phillie offense to score 7 or 8 runs.  Unless, of course, the opposing pitcher catches them on a down part of the season and can just baffle the hitters throughout!

Phillies 4, A’s 0

winning pitcher: Kyle Kendrick, losing pitcher: Greg Smith

Manager Charley Manual shook up his lineup a bit, with Jayson Werth batting first and Chase Utley second, and it worked!  They double-stole 2nd and 3rd base in the first and Werth scored their first run on Pat Burrell’s sacrifice fly.  It was enough because Kyle Kendrick had a fantastic outing, keeping the A’s off balance with his sinkerball.  They didn’t get a hit until the 4th inning!  Finally the pitching managed to keep up with expectations and hitting got it done.

Phillies 2, A’s 5

winning pitcher: Joe Blanton, losing pitcher: Jamie Moyer, save: Houston Street

home runs: Pat Burrell, Emil Brown, Jack Cust

This feels like the beginning of the year again as the hitting is just doing nothing these days.  These guys can’t get it together at the same time!  I don’t want to belabor the point since in 2 weeks this slow streak will be just a memory but perhaps the all star break couldn’t've come at a better time.  The team can just relax for a few days, have fun at the All Star game, and come back refreshed and renewed.  Until then, they will continue to struggle.

Even Jamie Moyer, the sly veteran, made a mistake at the wrong time, giving up a 3 run homer to Emil Brown, breaking the game open in the 7th inning.  And they were done.  Let’s hope they can figure it out and not race to the bottom of the standings in the meantime!

Phillies 2, Angels 3

winning pitcher: Jered Weaver, losing pitcher: Cole Hamels, save: Francisco Rodriguez

home run Casey Kotchman

Despite Cole Hamels’s good pitching performance today, the Phillies’s bats just aren’t out of their slump yet.  The Angels scored 3 in the 2nd inning and the Phillies scattered two runs, one in the third and seventh innings, but couldn’t come up with the hits to win it.  So we move on to the Oakland A’s Tuesday night and hope that the day’s rest gets the Phillies out of the doldrums.  They will come back, it’s just a matter of time.  But don’t wait too long, fellas!

It looks to be Jamie Moyer versus Joe Blanton Tuesday night.  Go Phils!

Phillies 2, Angels 6

winning pitcher: Joe Saunders, losing pitcher: Brett Myers, save: Francisco Rodriguez

home run: Jayson Werth, Vladamir Guerrero, Eric Aybar

The Phillies are definitely on a down streak.  Myers is doing better but the offense isn’t doing much.  Utley had the night off as he’s on a 0 for 23 streak that’s just a balancing out of his insanely hot start.  Burrell, Utley, and Howard are all doing poorly at the same time so it makes it seem like the Phillies aren’t hitting at all.  But it’s just a slowdown in the offense and though Myers is doing better, he can’t win on his own.  Yet.  He’ll get there eventually but only Hamels and Moyer seem able to stump the opponents to win the game on their own.  It will pick up again but in the meantime, the Marlins may pass the Phillies in the standings…

Phillies 1, Angels 7

winning pitcher: Ervin Santana, losing pitcher: Adam Eaton

home run by Vladamir Guerrero

Adam Eaton allowed 12 hits which is more than he’s allowed in one game over the last 4 years.  The Angels just chipped away at Eaton and the Phillies couldn’t do anything against Santana.  The hot streak is done for a bit so now they have to get over their struggles, which are happening at home.  Here’s hoping it’s a short cold streak and they actually shop for, and acquire, a new pitching arm for the staff to keep them in contention.  Because this pitching staff isn’t going to win the Phillies a World Series, that’s for sure.

Phillies 4, Red Sox 7

winning pitcher: Justin Masterson, losing pitcher: Kyle Kendrick, save: Jonathan Papelbon

home runs: JD Drew and Mike Lowell

In three innings, Kyle Kendrick gave up 6 of the 7 runs the Red Sox would earn.  When the kid implodes, he doesn’t mess around.  It was bound to happen–Kendrick had a bad outing.  But the Phillies can’t recover from these bad outings ever day and with Jamie Moyer not having a good outing Tuesday and Kendrick today, the pitching is making me nervous.  The Phillies are a championship team if they can just get the pitching to rise to the occasion most days!

Phillies 0, Red Sox 3

winning pitcher: Jon Lester, losing pitcher: Jamie Moyer, save: Jonathan Papelbon

home run by Coco Crisp

The Phillies just couldn’t get their bats moving tonight! As I figured, I put Jamie Moyer on my team and his fantasy value went down. He came out of the game in the 5th inning after allowing a home run to Coco Crisp in the 2nd inning. He only got 3 strikeouts so it was mostly a matter of Jon Lester doing a good job of shutting down the Phils. Tomorrow night is the deciding game!