Game 86 - Saturday Night, July 7th in Philadelphia
Record - 37-49, 5th Place, 14 games behind the Nationals
One Sentence Summary: The Phillies were never really in this ballgame, as the Braves easily handled the reeling last place team, 6-3.
What It Means: The Phillies have lost nine out of their last ten. They continue to explore new and painful levels below rock bottom. Mathematically, it's going to be next to impossible for the team to wriggle its way back into any kind of play-off contention at this point. The 2012 Phillies are also on pace to record one of the worst (if not the worst) turn-arounds in Major League Baseball history. Coming off their record-setting 102-win 2011 season, they are on pace to lose 92 games.
And here's more doom and gloom - their 17-26 home record is the worst in baseball. The last time the Phillies were 12 games under .500 was back at the end of 2000, when Terry Francona was the manager.
Maybe it's time for a change. I'm starting to agree with everyone who has been saying all along that the return of Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Roy Halladay wouldn't just automatically flip on the "win" switch. I'm starting to wonder how this team would react to having Ryne Sandberg at the helm.
What Went Wrong: Spotty pitching and shoddy offense.
Featured Card: I'm trying to like Hunter Pence. It's just that his free swinging, tongue wagging, Juan Samuel knocking down ways are starting to get to me. Not to mention that Pence takes some of the most awkwardly zig-zagging routes on balls hit to the outfield that I've ever seen.
In the second last night, Pence completely took out Samuel, the third base coach, as Pence took an extremely wide turn at third while coming home to score on a Juan Pierre double. Pence and the players in the dugout were shown cracking up after Samuel had picked himself up and dusted himself off. Samuel was shown to be seething mad. I'm with Samuel on this one, and I tried to find the meanest looking Samuel card in my collection for this post.
Sloppy baserunning by Pence (although not surprising, given his sudden loss of rudimentary baseball skills this season).
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