It was a rough series in our nation’s capital for the Philadelphia Phillies these past three days, as they dropped two out of three games to the last place Washington Nationals. On Monday, Roy Halladay took the ball and earned the win as the Phillies rallied back from an early 2-0 deficit to top the Nationals 5-4. While they got the win, Halladay looked shaky for the second straight outing as he allowed ten hits, three of which were home runs, in his seven innings pitched, although he did strike out five batters and walked none. Ryan Madson earned his twelfth save of the season in fine fashion, striking out two, after Antonio Bastardo and Jose Contreras pitched a perfect eighth inning. Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez carried the team’s offense, each hitting a home run and driving in two runs, while Dom Brown drove in the teams other run.
On Tuesday, the Cliff Lee failed to make it through six innings as the Phillies fell hard to the Nationals 10-2. Lee allowed seven hits, two of which were home runs, and six runs while walking three and striking out four in just five and a third innings pitched. Danys Baez gave up three runs in the seventh inning, and recent call up Mike Zagurski allowed one in the eighth. There wasn’t much to celebrate during this game aside from the back to back home runs from Dom Brown and John Mayberry in the fifth inning, sparks that had the Phillies back within three runs. Unfortunately, that was the closest they would come for the rest of the game,
and Lee lost his fifth game of the season while his ERA climbed to almost four.
Wednesday’s rubber match looked to be advantage Phillies, with talented righty Roy Oswalt matching up against Nationals struggling lefty John Lannan, who was 2-4 with a 4.40 ERA entering the game. The Phillies’ pitching staff finally clicked, holding the National’s to just two runs, but their anemic offense continued to struggle to produce, leading to a 2-1 loss and overall series loss. Roy Oswalt managed to pitch just five innings, allowing six hits, one of which was a home run, and two earned runs while walking two and striking out three. The Phillies looked to be on the verge of an offensive outburst in the sixth inning, but a stellar diving catch by left fielder Laynce Nix on a Dom Brown fly ball cut them off without a run.
This series should be a wakeup call for the Phillies, who clearly have some issues to address. Roy Halladay, even while tying the league lead in wins with seven, is struggling to keep teams from putting the ball in play. Cliff Lee, the heralded staff’s highest-paid pitcher, is a game under .500 with a high ERA and issues with his release point. Roy Oswalt, who already spent time on the disabled list this season, seems to be having durability issues, as he was pulled in the third game of the series after just 79 pitches and five innings. Thankfully, Cole Hamels, who also has 7 wins, is set to take the mound in at the outset of the next series and can hopefully stop this slide at two games. Another positive that can be found here is that the staff allowed six home runs this series, an anomaly that one expects would not happen again.
The other issue this series resided in the Phillies offense, which continues to struggle to produce runs on an everyday basis. There are bright spots however, as Dom Brown raised his average to .324 and Raul Ibanez continued his hot streak, and center field sparkplug Shane Victorino is set to return for Friday’s game against the Pirates. The Phillies concluded this stretch of twenty games in twenty days at 10-10, and still hold baseball’s best record. However, if these struggles continue and the Phillies fail to win series against bad teams like the Nationals, that may not be true for long.
As an avid baseball fan I have traveled to quite a few major league ballparks. Whether it was for Phillies road games or just to watch a game, I’ve done my best to make it to a solid number of major league stadiums. So far I’ve been to:
Maybe I'm bad luck or maybe the Phillies are just taking an offensive vacation. Either way I'm 0-2 this weekend at PNC Park and I'm beginning to get frustrated with this inconsistent Phillies offense. Usually I'm pretty even keeled and try to keep a good perspective when the Phils struggle at the plate. But after tonight's disappointing performance in which the Phils managed just 3 runs, I've had just about enough of this non-existent offense. 
After an almost 6 hour drive through the beautiful state of Pennsylvania, my family and I finally reached PNC Park in Pittsburgh to watch the Phillies take on the Pirates. The weather was nice, the stadium was beautiful and the stage was set for a classic inter-state battle. 
This weekend the Phils will travel to Pittsburgh to take on the 26-29 Pirates. After a disappointing series against the Nationals, the Phils will look to get back on track and try to maintain their status as the best team in baseball. 
