With tonight's 5-2 loss, finishing off a three-game sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies have now lost 14 of 18 games and are in a virtual tie for first with the Florida Marlins. They wasted a good 7-inning start by J.A. Happ, with Ryan Madson giving up 3 in the 8th for the winning margin. Madson's been a mess recently, even after returning to his setup role when closer Brad Lidge returned from the disabled list.
While the hitting hasn't been good lately (but hey, Jimmy Rollins got 2 hits!) it's the pitching that's been poor night after night after night. Some nights it's a bad start, other nights (like tonight) it's a lousy bullpen, some nights it's both. No trades are on the horizon yet as very few teams consider themselves out of the playoff chase and, thus, willing to be a seller. Even when that happens, lots of teams need pitching. The bidding will presumably be high.
The Phillies have to somehow stay afloat until some team makes a quality pitcher available, and the way things are going, the only reason to think they can stay afloat is that most of the National League is as mediocre as they are. The Phils are back home starting tomorrow night. Of course, now that they're losing road games maybe they'll win home games. (For those who don't know, this paragraph is an example of "grasping at straws.") The Mets are in tomorrow; they're only a game out of first place, and the Braves are now just two back.
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