Cards take third straight from Phils

Written by Mike Mariano | 22 July 2010

I'm thinking about just setting up a generic post for games like this.  It'll read like:

Opponent's starter went seven, rarely losing command of the game, and left with a nice lead.  The Phillies couldn't really get much going and didn't hit consistently throughout the lineup. Stifled for most of the game, the struggling offense didn't produce and the Phillies pitching wasn't good enough to get a win without it.  Ryan Howard homered in the game.

Maybe I can connect it to ESPN.com so it'll just read the boxscore and when it happens just automatically throw that paragraph up and fill in the blanks.

The Phillies are not a good team right now and we're reaching the breaking point.  The Braves and Cardinals continue to distance themselves from the Phillies who doing everything short of free-falling in the standings.

Per the usual and as the generic future post says, the pitching was decent but not good enough when it counted from Blanton and Ryan Howard hit another home run, smashing a first pitch offering into the seats and sending his XXXL-family into a frenzy.

Tough call for Manual when Blanton came up with the bases loaded in a 1-1 game (7th inning).  There were 2 outs and Joe was only at 74 pitches so Charlie let him hack and hack he did.  He took three MASSIVE swings, all whiffing and the threat was over.  Probably the right move with Blanton pitching as well as he was at that point, the low pitch count, and the two out situation, but in hindsight it obviously doesn't come out so well.