Phillies give up 17 hits in 11-7 loss to Minnesota Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — Joe Savery handed B.J. Rosenberg a can of Bud Light and the two 26-year-old Phillies relievers drank because that was all they could do. They had thrown 21 1/3 major-league innings before Tuesday and were responsible for five runs in the latest bludgeoning, an 11-7 defeat to the last-place Twins.

"The young guys," Savery said, "we didn't do our job tonight."

The Phillies have called up who they can. Their injured players are weeks away. There are no trades to be made because no one is moving players yet.

Times are desperate. They are 9 1/2 games back of first place, a place they haven't been since 2006 before they started their postseason run. They are five games under .500 this late into a season for the first time since Aug. 1, 2006. Heck, even the Phanatic was sued Tuesday.

"What can I say?" Charlie Manuel said. "It's hard for us to put together a solid game."

The manager and his optimistic players keep speaking about rock bottom as if it has already happened in this charmless 2012 season. A week ago, Manuel said, "Hopefully that was tonight," and his team has won one game since. The players talk about grinding and doing the little things and overcoming bad luck.

They pulled up their red socks in unity Tuesday. They wore red T-shirts before another loss with the words "Fake Tough," a not-so-thinly-veiled shot at Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, who presides over a team on pace for 100 victories.

The Phillies have lost nine of their last 10 and have 99 games to save a sinking season. It is increasingly obvious by the day their current roster is ill-suited to do such a thing.

"Our young pitchers got work in, and that's good," Manuel said, clinging to the faintest of moral victories.

The days of Four Aces are long forgotten. A pitching staff that entered Tuesday with the 12th best ERA in baseball allowed a run to Minnesota in every inning but two and a season-high 17 hits.

The Phillies offense showed life, but still has not erased a lead larger than two measly runs for a comeback victory in 2012.

Starter Kyle Kendrick dug a five-run hole, lasting four miserable innings and 77 pitches. The second ball he threw was launched deep to right by Denard Span for a leadoff solo blast and harbinger of forthcoming doom.

Trevor Plouffe took Kendrick deep in the second for a three-run homer, making it the first time this season Kendrick had allowed more than one home run in a start. Since his seven-hit shutout of St. Louis on May 26, Kendrick has morphed into a pumpkin. He's allowed 13 runs in 15 innings.

His most demoralizing act Tuesday may have been allowing a run in the fourth immediately after his teammates rallied to close the gap. Span walked on six pitches and scored on a Joe Mauer double smashed off the center-field wall.

Hunter Pence made things doubly worse in the fifth when a Ryan Doumit single to right off Savery easily bounced past his glove and became a two-base error. That runner scored. So did another when Jamey Carroll doubled to left. That one should not have counted because Plouffe missed third base on his way home. But second-base umpire Manny Gonzalez did not see the gaffe and it was meaningless once the Phillies minor-league relief arms tossed gasoline on a season-long inferno.

"There's going be some growing pains there," Manuel said. "But they have talents, they have arms, they have good fastballs. It's going to take some time to get them some experience."

Can this team accommodate growing pains?

"We can't afford to lose too many," Manuel said.

Talking in dire tones about a season only 63 games old is hazardous, but with Washington soaring atop the division, it's not preposterous. The Phillies have spent more on their roster than any National League team and it has bought only mediocrity to this point.

Sometimes, Manuel will admit his deficiencies. When guys like Trevor Plouffe, Brian Dozier and Jamey Carroll make life miserable, it says enough. The pressing question for these middling Phillies is have they even contemplated how deep rock bottom could be?