Phils extend slump in ugliest loss to date

CINCINNATI - In the first two games of the Reds series, Phillies starting pitchers allowed two earned runs in 14 innings. The Phils lost both games.

Although the offense was nearly nonexistent on the six-game road trip, the rotation rebounded from a tough first week of the season.

After Kyle Kendrick's seven shutout innings on Tuesday, Phillies starters had posted seven straight quality starts. They had a 1.66 ERA over those seven games.

It was a remarkable turnaround from the season's first seven games, when they sported a 7.68 ERA.

But then John Lannan took the mound following the completion of Tuesday's suspended game and put an emphatic end to the rotation's streak while the offense continued its embarrassingly long run of ineffectiveness.

In what was easily the ugliest defeat of the young season, Lannan and the Phillies were beaten to the tune of 11-2 at Great American Ball Park. The Reds outhit the Phillies, 15-6, to complete a three-game sweep.

The only thing that prevented the Phils from their second straight shutout was Freddy Galvis' two-run home run in the eighth inning. Before Galvis' homer, the Phils hadn't scored in 17 innings.

"Bottom line is we have to play better. Our game is not together," manager Charlie Manuel said. "I think you guys have heard me say that. It's pitching, defense and offense. It goes together.

"When one night you get good pitching and you don't get good hitting, and the next night you get good pitching but you don't play good defense and you don't have any hitting, well then you're kind of out of whack. It seems like ever since the season started we've been out of whack. Things aren't working good for us."

Adding injury to insult: two Phillies players will see team doctor Michael Ciccotti on Thursday morning.

Lannan, who surrendered six runs on eight hits in 1 2/3 innings, has discomfort in his left knee. He first felt it in his last start in Miami, then aggravated it on his third pitch in a forgettable start on Wednesday.

"I had no push-off from the back side, couldn't get the ball down in the zone," Lannan said. "But you still have to make pitches, and I couldn't do that."

Domonic Brown will get an MRI after tweaking his back while making a diving catch in the first inning. He exited in the middle of the fourth.

"Pretty much as soon as I dove I felt a pop," Brown said. "I don't think it's anything major at all."

The major problem is an offense that not has only failed to score but has struggled to create scoring opportunities, period, in the last week.

Beginning with the road trip's first game on Friday in Miami, the Phillies were shut out in 48 of the 55 innings they played in six games.

An offense that was a question mark coming into the season - the majority of the lineup consists of older players in their decline, most outsiders said - has morphed into an exclamation point. And not the good kind.

How limp have the Phils' bats been? Since scoring 15 runs in their last two games at home, they scored a grand total of 10 runs in the six-game road trip. And half of those runs (five) have come on three swings: home runs by Galvis, Chase Utley and Laynce Nix.

"We're missing a lot of pitches as a team," said Brown, who has one hit in his last 10 at-bats. "It's going to come around. It's early."

In Cincinnati, the Phillies had four extra-base hits in three games. Three of those came from the ninth spot in the lineup.

But the lineup-wide struggles might as well start at the top.

New leadoff hitter Ben Revere is in an 0-for-14 slide and is batting .194 with a .242 on-base percentage. Manuel might not wait much longer to switch him out of the top spot in the lineup, but he still has faith in Revere.

"He's having a hard time getting some hits," Manuel said. "Nobody wants to go 0-for-14. But at the same time, too, I feel like he's gotta keep playing a while to see if he can help us and hit and get on base . . . He'll get it going. He hit .294 in the American League [last year]."

The slump has filtered into the next three spots in the order.

Jimmy Rollins' first-inning single ended an 0-for-15 skid. Although he hit a two-run homer on Monday, Utley still managed to hit .176 (3-for-17) on the trip.

After going 6-for-12 with four double in Miami, Ryan Howard went hitless in Cincinnati before an infield single in the final inning of the trip.

All told, the Phillies hit .205 with 13 extra-base hits, nine walks and 42 strikeouts on the road trip from hitting hell. The Phils managed to go their entire stay in Cincinnati without a walk. The Phils hadn't gone three games in a row without a walk since August 1995.

"At one time [reporters] were asking me about how we were getting them on but we weren't getting them in," Manuel said. "Well, now we're not getting them on. That's kind of how it's been. We have to play better. We have to hit better. And if we don't get good balls to hit, we should be adding some walks in there somewhere. Because the pitcher would be walking us if we have plate discipline and work the count and everything."

The offense will have its work cut out when the Phillies return home: St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright. Wainwright struck out 12 in a four-hit shutout in his last start. It was the third straight shutout thrown by the Cardinals.