Phillies Continue Hot Streak of Wins, Stupid Injuries

Even a win can feel like a loss.

Jimmy Rollins went down yesterday with a bad case of “foul ball to the shin,” and Shane Victorino followed that spritely bit of fun dip with an oblique injury for the ages.  Or hopefully just 15 days, if not less.

Maybe that’s what you get for dicking around in an airport.

Phillies 9, Diamondbacks 5

Like a couple who just don’t love each other anymore, the Phillies and Dbacks casually bumped into each other over of the first half of this game, barely making eye contact, slowly gnawing away at each other’s sanity.  Passive aggression seered through both of their silent arguments; one would score, the other would score… somebody would make a dumb mistake, the other would jump at the chance to point it out in front of their friends.

Until eventually, like all these soundless domestic volcanoes primed to erupt, the Phillies were pushed too far, and filled the Dbacks’ dinner with enough rat poison to bring down a bull elephant.

Arizona starter Rodrigo Lopez’s exit in the fifth inning brought on a whole mess of offense from the Phillies, who did not hesitate to capitalize on a bullpen full of fried Snakes.  Jayson Werth stopped his suck-streak long enough to powerhouse a home run to straight away center field, Ryan Howard stepped up in the 6th and sent a raucous two-run how-do-ya-do into the seats, and Cody Ransom… also… did that.  In the seventh.  It was 9-5.

But, of course it wouldn’t be a Phillies game without horrific casualties.  Shane Victorino left the game with a strained oblique, joining the other two thirds of the top of the lineup in the netherworld of unscheduled off time.  Splendid.  As Ruben Amaro makes prank phones calls or heats up last night’s Ramen or whatever the hell he’s doing in his office, yet another need becomes painfully visible.

Starters are dropping off the table like the eating utensils of a recently poisoned husband, as the options get fewer and the days creep forward, you’ve got to assume Amaro’s master plan is a real humdinger.  Is he looking at Brett Myers (I know, but just… look at all this)?  Is he changing focus with less starters available?  Any day now, we’ll find out just to what degree of genius his blueprints are.  Heh, heh.  Yep.  Big things are in the works, you’ll see.

We can fill an outfield roll from within.  He can keep plugging bench players into the infield holes.  We can pray that the offense holds together and Jayson Werth’s little outbursts are no temporary goofballing.  If the Phillies can’t stop bleeding starters, there’s irreversible damage to be done, damage that no trade deadline can stop.  Even if our plan is “Eh… whatever.”

And then Cliff Lee said he’d love to play with the Phillies or Yankee next year, blowing minds and stopping hearts.  So now nobody knows what to think.  Nobody, except Ryan Howard:

"“We’ve had so many injuries, but we have to continue to go.”"

Yeah!  Let’s go!

Uh.  Where are we going.