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"We have an excellent offensive team," Burrell said.
It's just that the Phillies have been far from excellent lately, especially offensively. They lost, 2-0, last night to the St. Louis Cardinals for their sixth shutout of the season. They were shut out a combined six times in 2006 and 2007. They also have scored three or fewer runs 36 times after they scored three or fewer just 45 times in 2007, when they won the National League East championship.
"We've got a lot of good players," Burrell said. "Maybe it's that time of year when guys are tired or whatever, but there's no excuse. We've got to go out there and play."
The Phillies wasted another solid start by lefthander Cole Hamels, who allowed three hits and two runs in seven innings.
That can't happen.
"We've got to be able to score a couple of runs," Burrell said.
They've got to start winning. The Phillies are 9-17 since June 8, when they were a season-high 13 games over .500. They acknowledged their good fortune - remaining in first place in the NL East despite a month of losing baseball. But that division lead is shrinking quickly and could be gone before the all-star break if the Phils continue to play this way. The Florida Marlins started last night's game in San Diego just one game behind the Phillies, while the Mets moved to within 11/2 games.
"I feel very fortunate or lucky," manager Charlie Manuel said. "Ever since we had a four-game lead, we haven't played very good."
The Phillies had a four-game lead in the division after a 20-2 victory over the Cardinals on June 13. They are 7-15 since. They have hit .227 and averaged just 3.8 runs per game in that stretch.
"For some reason, we have trouble being consistent hitting the ball hard each night," Manuel said. "When we're playing real good, we're hitting the ball hard. When somebody shuts us out, we at least get good wood on the ball. We didn't hit too many balls hard tonight."
The Phillies had runners on second and third with no outs in the second inning when Jayson Werth struck out. Pedro Feliz followed with a walk to load the bases, but Carlos Ruiz, who entered the night with just one hit in his previous 24 at-bats, grounded into his 11th double play of the season to kill the rally.
Chris Coste hit into another rally-killing double play in the seventh.
"We've played so bad that we had an opportunity to really separate ourselves from the field and we haven't done that," Burrell said. "We're still there, but we've got to do a better job."
at 215-854-4874 or tzolecki@phillynews.com. Read his blog at http://go.philly.com/phillieszone.
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