Phillies can't hide their frustration

PITTSBURGH -- The frustration is evident in this Phillies team and how can it not be? They dropped to 37-49 with Friday's 8-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.

The Phillies managed just two hits, one off starter Gerrit Cole, who had to leave after five innings with a lat injury.

As usual, the Phillies hit some balls hard, but right at fielders, the story of the season.

The Phillies, who were just 3.5 games out of first place on June 20 when they won their fifth consecutive game, have now lost 11 of their last 14.

"I guess when it rains it pours," first baseman Ryan Howard said.

The pouring how shown little letup recently.
"It's been tough," Howard said. "We are just missing pitches that we normally wouldn't miss. I don't know, it's tough to explain."

What made this more difficult is that the Phillies were coming off a 5-4 comeback win at Miami on Thursday.

The players surely hoped that they could gain some momentum, but it was immediately taken away when the Pirates jumped to a 4-0 first inning lead.

"We play every single day so you don't really have time to get down, down," Howard said. "But it is something where you do want to change it but you come back tomorrow and have a chance to try to do that."

It's the right attitude to have, but as anybody following the team realizes, the Phillies are running out of tomorrows.