From Manuel on down, the Phillies are a total mess.


In the top of the seventh inning of the Phillies' 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night, the Phillies had runners on first and second with two outs and Carlos Ruiz at the plate.

Recognizing this, the Cardinals elected to have pitcher Jaime Garcia work around Ruiz, walk the bases loaded, and go after pitcher Joe Blanton hitting in the ninth hole.

Keep in mind that at this point the score was only 1-1.

Ruiz walked after five pitchers, and, to the dismay of every Phillies fan watching, Blanton came up to the plate to work against the left-handed Garcia. Needless to say, Blanton struck out, the Phils left three guys on base, and eventually went on to lose the game after Blanton fell apart in the seventh and eighth innings.

So why didn't Charlie Manuel pinch hit for Blanton in that spot? The offense has been lethargic, to put it nicely, and even a single would have gotten them at least two runs and a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

One reason is the lack of options on the bench. With Ben Francisco playing left field for Raul Ibanez, the only righty available was Wilson Valdez. Valdez hasn't exactly been great this year, but he's certainly been hitting better than Blanton and quite obviously gives them a better chance at scoring some runs.

Another reason is the limited amount of time a new pitcher would have had to get warmed up considering there were already two outs in the inning.

But, again, that's Manuel's fault. He should have realized what the Cardinals were doing while Ruiz was at the plate and got someone up in the bullpen. And if Valdez is able to come through, that gives the guy in the bullpen plenty of time to be loosened up.

And even if the guy Manuel called upon wasn't loose, he still probably couldn't have done any worse than Blanton did after that as he gave up three more runs and turned the ball over with a 4-1 deficit in the eighth inning.

To me, it looked like Manuel has fallen into the same slump as his team and is making conservative decisions in an effort to avoid a loss rather than being aggressive and going for the win.

Anyone watching Blanton this year knows he's worthless after six innings, so it was the perfect time to put him on the bench, give him an "atta-boy" for six solid innings, and hand the ball off to, ideally, Ryan Madson.

So now that Manuel has joined in on the bonehead mistakes, the Phils have essentially assured their fans one miserable October.
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Kendrick got blasted by the Cardinals for four homers.


It's not getting any prettier for the Phillies after the All-Star break as now not only are the bats suffering, but the pitching is starting to slide as well.

The latter has become most evident after Roy Halladay got knocked around Sunday night and Kyle Kendrick got knocked around even worse on Monday night.

Kendrick, who only pitched five innings against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, gave up seven runs -- four of them home runs, and five of the seven runs coming in the fifth inning. Up until that point, Kendrick had been an impressive 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA against the Cardinals.

I'm not exactly a math whiz, but something tells me that will be going up a little bit.

"My command was off all night," Kendrick said after the game. "I got behind, I left pitches up. They should be hit where they hit them."

Kendrick, however, isn't the only guy to blame. He did give up a 3-0 nothing lead the Phillies' bats gave him in the first inning, but it's also worth noting that the Phils wound up with only four runs on the board when it was all said and done.

Jayson Werth, who could have only about 10 days left as a Phillie, continued his struggle with runners in scoring position. In the first inning, he had guys on second and third with only one out, and couldn't even manage to just hit a ground ball and get a run home.

Instead, he hit a weak pop-up to Albert Pujols at first base. Shane Victorino came up afterward and hit a shot back in the middle to bring both guys home, but had Werth done that and gotten on base, Victorino's hit could have brought him home and put four runs on the board right out of the gate.

Later, Werth decided to get cute over at first base and take a monstrous lead. Yadier Molina would have none of it, stood up, and gunned Werth easily.

It sincerely doesn't even look like he's trying anymore.

Also figure in that Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco went a combined 2 for 10 and you've got a lot of hits coming with the bases empty and not a lot of RBI opportunities. If someone doesn't grab Rollins by the neck and convince him to stop swinging for the fences, his average could soon fall below .200 and the Phils could soon fall below .500.

Jamie Moyer (9-9, 4.88 ERA) takes on Chris Carpenter (10-3, 3.16 ERA) Tuesday night in game two of the series, so it's either going to be a 2-1 Phillies win or a 13-1 Phillies loss. There really is no in between with Moyer on the mound, is there?
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