Phillies muster just four hits in another loss to Cubs

CHICAGO - They say it is the Year of the Pitcher, which is why the Phillies think their hearts are in the right place when they talk about the need to upgrade their staff. But even after Aramis Ramirez lifted the Cubs to a 4-3 win with a solo home run off Ryan Madson in the eighth inning yesterday, a simple fact remained:

The Phillies have failed to score more than three runs in 45 of their 89 games. Only one other team with a winning record has done so in as many games - the San Diego Padres, who play in one of the top pitchers' parks in baseball and lead the majors with a 3.25 ERA.

Meanwhile, the 11 teams with the fewest offensively challenged games in baseball this season all have winning records. And 10 of them have better records than the Phillies (47-42), who have opened the second half of the season with two straight losses to fall six games behind the Braves in the NL East, pending the outcome of last night's game in Atlanta.

"We just need runs," said Ryan Howard, who contributed a two-run home run off Ted Lilly in the sixth inning. "We need to keep them from scoring runs. It's simple. The laws of baseball. Outscore the other team."

The concept sounds simple. The execution has looked anything but. The only thing keeping the Phillies from having been held under four runs in four straight games was a mail-it-in ninth inning Thursday, when they scored four runs to turn a 12-2 deficit into a 12-6 loss. Otherwise, they have struggled mightily. Yesterday, they put only five runners on base: one on a solo home run by Shane Victorino in the fourth that gave them a 1-0 lead, two more in the sixth on a walk by Jayson Werth and Howard's third two-run home run in two games, and two in the fifth, when they had runners on the corners with one out, but failed to score.

In the 15 games since Chase Utley and Placido Polanco went on the disabled list, the Phillies are hitting only .230 with a .285 on-base percentage.

"We get three, four, five hits, and we don't get men on base – that's kind of how we've been hitting," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We haven't hit. But, there again, we're missing two .300 hitters, too. And you can say whatever you want to, that's quite a bit of offense there."

It could have been enough, but righthander Joe Blanton failed to hold either of his leads for long. In the fifth, with a 1-0 lead after Victorino's homer in the fourth, he had Lilly, the opposing starter, in an 0-2 hole with the bases loaded and two out but walked him to force home a run and tie the game at 1. After Howard's home run off Lilly in the sixth - the first baseman's 20th of the season - Blanton surrendered a two-run home run to Marlon Byrd in the bottom of the frame to tie the game at 3.

"It's kind of one of those where it is frustrating to give up a lead when I just got it on a good swing," said Blanton, who allowed three runs and struck out eight in seven innings to lower his ERA to 6.21. "At the same time, it was a good pitch, so there's not a whole lot I can do about it."

In the eighth, Madson hung a two-out changeup to Ramirez, who clobbered it out of the park for what proved to be a game-winning solo home run.

"He didn't miss it," said Madson, who took the loss in his fourth appearance since a 10-week stay on the disabled list with a broken toe.

That said, in 2008 and 2009, the Phillies won 76 percent of the games in which they held an opponent under five runs. This year, they have won 68 percent of them.

Werth looked at four straight balls to earn the walk that preceded Howard's home run, but struck out looking in his three other plate appearances, swinging at two of the 14 pitches he saw. In Werth's first 29 games of the season, he hit .359 with a .420 on-base percentage, six home runs, 16 doubles and 24 RBI. In 57 games since, he is hitting .232 with a .335 on-base percentage, seven home runs, 11 doubles a triple, and 25 RBI.

"Swing," Manuel said. "When the ball is close to the plate, especially with two strikes, you're supposed to expand your zone."

Jimmy Rollins, who went 0-for-4, is hitting .190 with a .274 on-base percentage in the 21 games since he returned from the disabled list. Victorino, whose home run improved his total to a career-high 15, is hitting only .252 with a .318 OBP on the season.

Only Howard, who is hitting .318 with 12 home runs, 38 RBI and an on-base plus slugging percentage over 1.000 since June 1, has provided the Phillies with the type of performance they need to counteract the losses of Utley, sidelined until late August with a surgically repaired thumb, and Polanco, expected to return today from an 18-game absence. *