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September 24, 2011, 11:21 pm
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NEW YORK ? What, the Phillies worried? Nah, not them. Not the five-time defending and reigning NL East champions. Why should the Phillies worry? They?ve won 98 games 150 into the season ... who cares if they haven?t won a game since clinching the division last week?
Actually, a lot of folks are worried. Considering the last time a Phillies club lost eight games in row was 11 years ago and that team went on to lose 97 games, yeah, it?s not a weird thing to be a bit concerned. That only makes sense, right?
After all, the 6-3 loss (see game breakdown) to the Mets during the second game of a day-night doubleheader on Saturday night at CitiField was the seventh time in the last eight games in which the team scored three runs or fewer. Worse, the Phillies have scored just 16 runs during the skid.
So worry? Yeah, why not?
?I?m not worried,? said Shane Victorino, who went 1 for 3 in the nightcap. ?Yeah, you lose eight in a row people are going to panic and it is close to the postseason, but no, I?m not worried.?
The Phillies have not been playing with their regular lineup and are out of sync, according to manager Charlie Manuel, who seemed more frustrated and perturbed than worried after the latest loss. In fact, in his postgame press conference, Manuel spoke for nearly five minutes after just two queries and may not have answered the actual question.
Manuel, it seemed, needed to get a little something off his chest.
?I don?t know what to say. I sit there and watch and I put the lineup in. Actually, when you start messing with your lineup ? I?ve said this over and over and you guys have heard me for five years, always talking about rest players, do this, do that. All of a sudden we start giving them two and three days off, on one, off one, start deciding when to play them. Look around, and pretty soon you lose your mojo,? Manuel said. ?You lose your time and you lose your rhythm. I know what I?m talking about. I?ve been in the damn game for 50 years. I know exactly what I?m talking about. I preach about it every day.
?People hear it but they look at me like I?m stupid or crazy. Maybe I am. But that?s what?s happening. That?s what you?re seeing. We?re out of sync. We?re out of focus. We?re searching and nothing?s going right. We jump out there tonight and get six guys on base the first two innings and we score two runs. The other night we got five straight hits and we scored two runs. What the heck? We?re supposed to be scoring three or four runs in a situation like that, but we make mistakes.
?When we do score two or three runs, then our pitching falls apart. We?re way better than that. Really. We?ve showed we?re better than that. We?ve got 98 wins. We were set to have the biggest year of any Philly team and we got out of sync. If you want to know the truth with our lineup? It?s like you?ve got seven relievers down there and you keep changing relievers and everything, they?ll find somebody to beat. Does that make sense? That?s kind of like our lineup is.
?We keep bouncing around, we keep doing things, we keep getting well and all of that ? we?ve played all year with people hurting. Every day you play the game of baseball, you hurt. Somehow, you hurt. You have aches and pains ? ankle, knee, elbow, whatever. Headaches. Believe me. You can ask anybody who ever played this game. I played this game for 20 years, I can tell you. When you lose focus and you get out of sync, you?ve got to get it back.
?Do we have time? I don?t know. We?ll see. But also, too, it?ll be a test of how good we are. How about that? This will be a good test. This is the first time this year that we?ve actually gone bad. And it?s not a real good time to go bad. But at the same time ? we?ll see. This is a good measuring stick for us. You might not like it, but it is. We created that ourselves, so we?ll see. That?s all I?ve got to say.?
In the clubhouse, players like Victorino and Ryan Howard seemed to welcome a chance to speak about the bad turn, too. Victorino was approached by the writers to discuss the swoon, but soon Howard was chiming in and waiting for his turn to explain what?s going on.
When asked if he thought the Phillies weren?t focused since clinching the division, Howard said it was simply a matter of execution.
?It?s not that guys are going out there and going, ?Hey, you guys feel like losing today?? No, we want to go out there and we want to try to win,? Howard said. ?We had, what, nine or 10 hits? We just didn?t get the runs across. So that?s the biggest thing, we need to execute on getting those runs across. Right now, as a team, we just hit a little bit of a wall.?
Plus, Howard didn?t play in the nightcap and Chase Utley and Hunter Pence did not play in the opener. The Phillies have not had their regular lineup together in a week and even then it was a rarity. Look at it: Placido Polanco is playing with a sports hernia, Jimmy Rollins was on the disabled list with a groin injury when September began, Chase Utley missed a week with a concussion, Howard missed a week with bursitis, even pinch hitter Ross Gload has a torn labrum in his hip.
Perhaps we haven?t even see the Phillies play yet.
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?When you get your lineup out there, get me out there, get Hunter some ABs, get back in there in game mode. It?s going to take some ABs for the two of us to get back into a rhythm,? Howard said. ?Hopefully we can catch on and get hot.?
The Phillies have four games to go before the playoffs begin and three of those are against the Braves, who are fighting for the wild-card spot. Moreover, Manuel says his regular lineup is going to be in there in Sunday?s series finale against the Braves, so we?ll see if getting the gang back together again helps.
Victorino and Howard seem to think some meaningful baseball games will get the team back in sync.
?The real test will be Atlanta. They?re playing for something, right?? Victorino said. ?When I say that it?s not to take anything away from right now, but we?re not going out there with the mentality we just want to roll over and go through the motions or anything like that. It might seem that way, but for the most part we have to relax and just let it happen.?
Four games is more than enough time to get it right, too, says Howard. When it ends, the team will have played 33 games in 31 days, which is no small feat.
?I think all it will take is one. It?s a build-up. Yeah, we have to pick up the intensity a little bit, but it?s a build up,? Howard said. ?I don?t think it?s a lack of focus. The intensity can probably be a little better. We?re getting hits. It?s just a matter of getting those hits with runners in scoring position.?
So sit tight, Phillies fans. The Phillies have this under control (they hope).
?Tell them to relax, don?t panic,? Howard said. ?If we?re not panicking, they shouldn?t panic.?
E-mail John Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com
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