Phillies rookie Vance Worley had a rare rough outing giving up 4 runs on six hits, 2 of them homers, and walking 3 in six innings of work to lose his 1st game against the Washington Nationals.  The Phils’ season-worst losing string hit 5 on Wednesday.   Lefthander John Lannan won only his 2nd career game vs the Phillies as the Nationals scored 2 runs in the second inning, on catcher Wilson Ramos’ 2 out homer and 2 more in the sixth on 2nd baseman Danny Espinoza’s 1 out shot.   The Phils tied the game in their second inning on RBI singles by rightfielder Ben Francisco and Worley, but after the Nationals went ahead in the sixth, they scored 3 more in the eighth and the Phils couldn’t catch up.   The Phils had 10 hits off of Lannan and 4 Nationals relievers and had bases loaded with 1 out after the 2 second inning runs scored but came up empty.   They had 2 men on with 2 out in third as well but again came up with nothing as offense continued to be flat in the clutch.  Nationals’ lefthanded reliever Atahualpa Severino pitched 1/3 inning in the eighth giving up a 2 run shot to subbing 1st baseman John Mayberry Jr. after issuing a leadoff walk to 2nd baseman Chase Utley, but it was too litttle, too late.  Relievers Justin De Fratus and Antonio Bastardo gave up 3 runs in the Nationals eighth as Worley was pounded and the Nationals beat the Phillies again, by 7-5 to win their 3rd game of the 4 game series.

The Atlanta Braves saw their NL Wild Card lead shrink to 1 1/2 games after being shut out by the Florida Marlins while the St. Louis Cardinals edged the Mets.   The Braves have 6 games left to play while the Cardinals have 7.

The Phils season-ending offensive drought and losing string can be summed up in one word — EMBARRASSING, for a team about which many felt 105 wins was a lock.   Mayberry Jr. and Ben Francisco were the ONLY bright spots in the Phils offense, each getting 3 hits with Mayberry Jr. scoring 3 runs and driving in 2 with his homer, and Francisco singling in a run.

The AP recap of Wednesday’s game for Yahoo sports notes:

The Phillies scored only three runs in the doubleheader defeat and have been shut out twice over the five-game losing streak. They’ve scored three runs or less 12 times in the last 14 games.

That kind of anemic run support will shift even more pressure to produce on the Lee-Halladay-Hamels-Oswalt postseason rotation. Even the so-called “Four Aces” need more than a run or two each start if the Phillies are going to win the World Series for the first time since 2008.

Philadelphia’s top four hitters— Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco, and Chase Utley—went 0 for 16.

“I’m concerned about it,” Manuel said. “At the same time, I’ve seen them hit. I think they’ll hit.”

And just as concerning as the offensive drought itself, if not more so; check out the Manuel quote above; ” I think they’ll hit.”   That doesn’t necessary evoke either player or fan confidence.

For all of Wednesday’s scores and recaps, click here.

In Thursday’s final, the Phillies look to show signs of offensive life for Roy Oswalt, as they hope to avoid the embarrassment of a season’s final stretch sweep by the Nationals on Fan Appreciation Day.   Oswalt is opposed by rookie Brad Peacock who won his only MLB start, going five scoreless innings as part of a Nationals 2-0 shutout of the Mets on September 14th.    On Friday, the Phils go on the road to play their final six games of the regular season; 3 games against the Mets and before finishing the regular season with 3 inconsequential games with the Atlanta Braves.

For all of Thursday’s scheduled games throughout MLB, click here.

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The offensively bone-cold Phillies extended their losing string to 4, their season worst and were humbled by 2 mediocre pitchers who on Tuesday took on the appearances of Giant-killers, make that Phillies killers.  In game 1, Rookie lefthander Tommy Milone, originally slated to start in nightcap, dueled evenly with Kyle Kendrick, with both throwing up goose-eggs for six innings.   But Kendrick, at 79 pitches through six innings was replaced by Michael Schwimmer in the seventh and the Nationals went right after him with two 1 out singles putting runners at the corners.   After getting the 2nd out on a fielder’s choice grounder and a play at the plate, rightfielder Roger Bernadina picked on Schwimmer’s 2-0 pitch slamming a 3 run shot to rightfield to put the Nationals up 3-0.   The Phils showed brief signs of life in their seventh on none out back-to-back singles followed by pinch hitter Raul Ibanez’s 3 run game-tying blast to rightfield after falling behind 0-2 to reliever Tyler Clippard.    The Phils muffed game-winning opportunities in both the ninth inning, loading the bases with 1 out, and in the tenth when recently called up catcher Erik Kratz opened the inning with a double, but was left stranded along with 12 other Phillie runners for the game.   The Nationals notched the winning run in their tenth inning as pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman followed 2 Michael Stutes with an RBI single to centerfield.   In game 2,    lefthander Ross Detwiler totally befuddled the moribund Phillies offense holding them scoreless and to 3 hits over 7 1/3 innings to win his 3rd game of the season while his All Star lefthanded counterpart Cliff Lee suffered through a rare sub-par outing.  As written previously, stars like Lee or Roy Halladay, need offensive support to have the luxury of overcoming an occassional mistake.   Well Lee made a mistake — a second inning solo homer to 2nd baseman Danny Espinosa, and gave up a total of 11 hits in a 120 pitch, seven inning, 9 strikeout performance which included Detwiler’s 2 out RBI single in the sixth and former Phil Jayson Werth’s seventh inning leadoff double.   Werth scored the final run on an errant pick-off throw by catcher Carlos Ruiz.  Two Nationals relievers followed Detwiler by going clean on the Phils in the eighth and ninth with closer Drew Storen notching his 40th save as the moribund Phillies offense fell to Nationals by  4-3 and 3-0 in a doubleheader sweep.

The Atlanta Braves maintained their 2 1/2 game lead in the NL Wild Card race after shutting out the Florida Marlins while the St. Louis Cardinals kept pace in the race by rallying to beat the Mets.

Kendrick worked another gem over six innings in game 1, his 6th such performance in his last 7 outings in a starting role.   But the Phils could do nothing with rookie lefthander Milone.   How Charlie (manager Charlie Manuel) could pull Kendrick after merely 79 pitches is beyond me, particularly when he knows that the best that can be said for the Phils offense is that it is sputtering, and that recent call-up Schwimmer had bombed out in his previous such situation.

Ibanez’s homer came off of Clippard with 2 of the 3 runs being charged to reliever Doug Slaten who gave up the preceding hits.

In game 2, the score could have been much worse with the 11 hits which Lee gave up — testament to Lee’s ability to keep the Phils in the game.  But, as with Milone in game 1, Detwiler took on the look of an All Star seemingly dominating the Phils while holding them to a mere 3 hits.  He walked 1.

Young relief call-up Justin De Fratus tossed his 2nd effective inning in 2 opportunities going clean on the Nationals on 8 pitches in the eighth inning of game 2.

AP’s game recaps of both games for Yahoo sports can be found here and here for the masochists among you.

For all of Tuesday’s scores and recaps, click here.

The Phillies look to show signs of offensive life and to get back to winning ways in Wednesday’s game 3 as rookie Vance Worley, 2-0 against the Nationals this season and 3-0 career, tries again for his 12th win opposing lefthander John Lannan was shelled by the Phils in his 2 August starts against them and is 1-3 this season and 1-12 lifetime against them.

For all of Wednesday’s scheduled games throughout MLB, click here.

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Pitchers need to have the luxury of an occassional mistake, which comes with offensive support — that which the Phillies have had problems with recently, as well as at various points throughout the season.  The  Cardinals hit the scoreboard for a duce off of Roy Halladay in the first inning on a leadoff double, a passed ball and a ground out driving in the 1st run.  Then, leftfielder Lance Berkman slammed a 2 out solo shot putting the Cards up by 2-0.   The Phils came back with a second inning run on catcher Carlos Ruiz’s 2 out RBI single after 3rd baseman Placido Polanco singled and went to 2nd base on a Cardinal fielding error by 2nd baseman Nick Punto on 1st baseman Ross Gload’s grounder.  Despite getting 7 hits off of Kyle Lohse, who went seven innings while throwing 112 pitches and striking out 5 to win his 14th game, the Phils could put nothing else on the board through eight innings.   Meanwhile, Lohse helped his own cause with a third inning double and scored on Berkman’s single to make the score 3-1.  1st baseman Albert Pujols doubled in the Cards’ 4th run in the seventh.   The Phils offense finally awakened in the ninth inning with 2 outs to score 2 runs against relievers Jason Motte and Arthur Rhodes.  But it was too little, too late as Octavio Dotel came on to notch his 2nd save getting rightfielder Hunter Pence to ground out to 3rd base on a 1-2 pitch to end it as Lohse bested Halladay and the Cardinals edged the Phillies 4-3 to win their series by 3 games to 1.

The Cardinals’ win over the Phils coupled with another Atlanta loss, this time to the Florida Marlins, cut the Braves’ lead over the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card race to 2 1/2 games.    With the Milwaukee Brewers losing to the Chicago Cubs 5-2, the good news from Monday is that the Phillies clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs, despite Monday’s loss.   And, if they reach the World Series, they will have home field advantage there too, by virtue of the NL’s All Star win.

How far can great pitching take you?  The Phils may have reached the limit of stretching that envelope of great pitching as their flat offense drifted off to la-la land in yet another game.   They better pump some new life into the offense that we thought would take off with the addition of what we thought was the missing piece — Hunter Pence.   But, once again, for the 3 game of this 4 game series, Cardinal pitching, this time Kyle Lohse, man-handled the Phils’ offense while ace Roy Halladay was a little off from what we’re accustomed to expect walking an uncharacteristic 4 hitters.

With Cards leading 3-1, having scored their 3rd run on Berkman’s RBI single to left centerfield, the Phils had their one real opportunity, in the third inning, to chase Lohse.   With 1 out in the third, centerfielder Shane Victorino singled to rightfield.  2nd baseman Chase Utley reached on shortstop Rafael Furcal’s fielding error, with Victorino advancing to 2nd base.  Pence then singled to leftfield to load the sacks.   But then Lohse struck out both leftfielder Raul Ibanez and Polanco to end the threat and the inning.

AP’s game recap for Yahoo sports provides more lowlights of Monday’s fiasco.

For all of Monday’s scores and recaps, click here.

There is no rest for the weary Phillies offense as the Washington Nationals come to town for 4 games, including a Tuesday doubleheader.    In game 1, Kyle Kendrick is opposed by lefthander Ross Detwiler.   In the nightcap, 2 lefties go as Cliff Lee goes for his 17th win opposed by recent call-up Tommy Milone who notched his 1st MLB win in his last start.

For all of Tuesday’s scheduled games throughout MLB, click here.

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