They Certainly Look Distracted;Phillies Need To Rediscover Their Sense Of Timing, And Very Soon

PHILADELPHIA - It was just a month ago that Raul Ibanez stood in front of his locker and told a visitor, hey, distractions be damned.
"We know what we're here for," the Phillies left fielder nfl jerseys
said. "And it doesn't matter if it's hot, cold, raining... We've got to go out and play and get it done."
That was in the aftermath of game No. 97, and the Phils had just spent the afternoon pounding the hottest pitcher in baseball, Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez, sending him to the showers in the third inning of an eventual 10-2 romp. The NL champs' locker room was a heady place, and the stated feeling among many of the club's key veterans was that they knew what was expected of them entering the season's stretch run.
"The bottom line," shortstop Jimmy Rollins said, "is playing winning baseball."
Regardless, it might have been added, of the circumstances.
Fast forward to Game No. 127, Thursday's sun-soaked 5-1 loss to Houston in the finale of a startling four-game sweep that prevented Charlie Manuel's outfit from gaining ground on Atlanta in the East and on San Francisco and St. Louis in the wild-card chase, and the bottom line remains the same. The circumstances surrounding it, however, have changed.
Rather dramatically.
The Phils' big bats have grown silent as a snowfall. Thursday's loss marked the seventh time in eight games Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth and Co. have produced two runs or less. Not surprisingly, the Phillies are 2-6 in that stretch.
"If you only score one or two runs," Manuel reasoned, "you're not going to win too many games."
This time it was Saints jersey
Astros southpaw Wandy Rodriguez holding the Big Boppers hitless through four innings while his mates roughed up Kyle Kendrick. Look up and down the Phils' lineup and the names are the same. But as August melts into September, this squad barely resembles the swaggering bunch that shouldered its way into the South Bronx last fall for a World Series showdown with the Yankees.
It's all a bit puzzling.
"I don't know what to say," Manuel said with some embarrassment.
Neither, it seemed, did Kendrick.
"It's a tough game," he said in words barely above a whisper, "a humbling game."
Yeah, it's late August and Utley and Howard are rusty and trying to get into a groove at the plate after time on the DL. And yes, the Phils have endured a run of injuries so severe their Opening Day starting eight has appeared in the same lineup just six times this summer.
Call it a big departure from 2009 when they were the healthiest team in baseball. Considering what has happened this season, it would seem the law of averages has caught up with them. And maybe it has. But it's also true that this squad has struggled mightily between the white lines as well.
Witness its .206 team batting average in its last seven games prior to Thursday. Witness Werth, undoubtedly feeling pressure to produce in his contract year, batting .157 with runners in scoring position, the worst mark in the majors.
Witness the top half of the lineup -Rollins, Utley, Howard, Placido Polanco and Werth - going a combined 2-for-19 Thursday. Finally, witness Ben Francisco on Wednesday night being picked off third to end the seventh inning in an eventual 3-2 defeat.
For a team that just a month ago was declaring all distractions be damned, the Phillies - even with their season hanging in the balance - seem quite easily distracted.
"It's a sign of not being focused," Manuel stated, "not being in the game."
He paused, and his face reddened with anger.
"Saw a helluva lot of it (in this Houston series)," he said.
"It shouldn't happen," Rollins acknowledged, "but it does... Good thing is, San Diego Chargers jersey
we've been here (in the playoff race) before."
All of which makes their current funk even more confusing.
Manuel, for his part, sounded certain of one thing.
"If we're going to go where we want to go," he remarked, "we better get out of it."