Phillies hammered by the Cardinals, 12-4

A MEDIUM-SIZED rodent - perhaps about the size of the pitching rubber - deftly scaled the screen behind home plate in the second inning of last night's game between the Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals.

It distracted everyone on the field and in the stands, which wasn't the worst thing in the world. The people, after all, came to be entertained.

The Citizens Bank Park Squirrel, no relation to the 2011 NLDS Busch Stadium Squirrel, according to a baseball source, didn't stop with his high-wire act.

With a hop, skip and a jump, our hero was suddenly dancing on the dugout. He was trying to steal the Phillie Phanatic's job. For shame.

The Citizens Bank Squirrel played to the crowd. He capped his night under the lights by leaping from the top of the dugout onto Chase Utley's lap - or at least in the tiny space between Utley and Odubel Herrera.

"When I saw it in my face, I just brushed it away," Odubel Herrera said of his close encounter with the Citizens Bank Park Squirrel.

This, dear readers, was the best thing that happened at the ballpark. When the squirrel left the premises, the focus was back on bad baseball.

Former beleaguered pitching prospect Phillippe Aumont, who shifted into a starting role this spring, walked seven batters and served up a pair of two-run home runs in his debut as a major league starting pitcher as the best team in baseball, the Cardinals, walloped the worst team in the game, the Phillies, 12-4.

It was the second blowout loss in four nights for the Phils (23-46), who have won only one of their last 10 games. Since the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the Phillies have lost 20 of 24 games.

"Tough - tough game," manager Ryne Sandberg said. "Not much out there going right out there tonight. We fell behind early and with not swinging the bats, it was a tough combination. Right from the get-go it was a tough game."

Aumont, the last man standing from the December 2009 trade that sent Cliff Lee to Seattle, was designated for assignment this spring. Not a single major league team scooped him up.

So Aumont, 26, who has a 6.13 ERA in 45 major league games as a reliever, got his first start in place of Cole Hamels, who was scratched a day earlier with a minor hamstring injury. When Aumont's start was over after four innings, he had issued the most walks by a Phillies starting pitcher since Paul Abbott walked nine on Aug. 7, 2004.

The game was the last of Abbott's 11-year big-league career. It's unlikely Aumont will stick around so long.

"It has to be between the ears," Aumont, a former first-round pick, said of his big-league struggles. "It's frustrating to be in the position, fighting it. I'm just out there trying to stay positive. … It was just a constant battle with myself. That's what it's been my whole career, just me, myself and I out there. Battling. Nobody else. Because when my execute pitches, I get these guys out. Down there and up here."

Kolten Wong and Yadier Molina both hit two-run home runs off Aumont in the second inning. After the second home run - a line-drive shot into the rightfield seats from Wong - the Citizens Bank Park Squirrel made his grand entrance.

Later, Justin De Fratus took over for Aumont. He allowed just as many runs - six - in two fewer innings.

Ryan Howard prevented the Phillies from being shut out for the fourth time in the last eight days when he hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning. It was Howard's 13th of the season and second in the last two games.

Phillies top outfield prospect Roman Quinn will be sidelined longer than the organization hoped. Quinn suffered a tear in his hip flexor and is out for at least six weeks. The 22-year-old Quinn, a second-round pick in the 2011 draft, suffered the injury on June 12.

Quinn is hitting .306 with a .791 OPS and 29 stolen bases in 58 games at Double A Reading. Before the injury, Quinn was likely a candidate for the MLB Futures Game, the annual All-Star Game for prospects, which will take place next month in Cincinnati.