Nationals Overcome Pete Orr and Ben Francisco in Doubleheader Sweep

Charlie Manual’s team has wrapped up a bunch of stuff already.  The Phillies have won the division and have locked up home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  I keep writing this is every recap in order to quell the growing sense of panic that I am sure is welling up inside every Phillies fan.  In every one of us, there is an inner crotchety old man spewing vitriol and reminding us about 1964.  “Fucking Gene Mauch pitched Chris Short and Jim Bunning every other day!  I’m sure that Charlie will find a way to fuck this up too.”  states the imaginary old man in your head, sounding remarkably like your high school gym teacher.

The hardest part about swallowing any type of underperformance is that the Phillies have been so damn good this year.  The series that they dropped to the Cardinals was the first four gamer that they lost all season.  Their current four game slide?  This is their longest such streak this season.  Cliff Lee may have just been outpitched by Ross Detweiler, but this is far from a disaster.

My recap of the first game in today’s double header will start with a listing of the starting line-up vomited out toward the field by the Phillies.  Victorino, Valdez, Mayberry Jr., Pence, Francisco, Kratz, Orr, Martinez and Kyle Kendrick was pitching.  The Phillies were shut down by Nationals starter Tom Milone (who?) and wasted a pretty good outing from Kendrick.  Raul Ibanez provided the lone bright spot by hitting his 20th home run of the year and driving in his 80th run.  For a guy that can’t play baseball anymore, these two milestones seem unachievable.  Apparently Raul has kept his bones from turning to dust just long enough to lull us all into a sense of false security.  Michael Stutes coughed up the lead in the tenth inning and the Phils were unable to mount a comeback against Nationals closer Drew Storen.

In game two the Phillies were just about no hit by Ross Detweiler.  That is all.  3-0 loss.

Tomorrow the Phillies look to quiet that old bastard screaming in your head with Vance Worley on the mound.  John Lannan goes for the Nationals.  He is not very good against Philadelphia.