Phillies end crummy first half on high note | Marcus Hayes

THE PHILLIES ARE, by any measure, the worst team in Major League Baseball. The Phillies have, by any measure, lost a basketful of games in excruciatingly heartbreaking ways.

The Phillies could not, by any measure, have finished the first half in better fashion.

They hit six home runs in front of a home crowd on sunny Sunday. They beat the Padres, 7-1.

Freddy "F-Bomb" Galvis, their plucky little leader, had two of the homers. He now has 10, and, incredibly, he is nearly on pace to hit 20 for a second straight season. Aaron Altherr hit one 421 feet, his 14th, second-best on the team. Odubel Herrera, the knucklehead centerfielder who last year was preparing to go to the All Star Game, hit his sixth of the season; and, ultimately, did not drop a fly ball in the outfield in the fifth inning, but he came pretty close.

Two assets from the 2015 trade of Cole Hamels shined, too. Nick Williams, in his 10th big-league game, hit his first homer. He's hitting .281. Jared Eickhoff, who has had the worst run support of any starter in the majors, came off the disabled list, tossed five scoreless innings, struck out eight and got his first win of the season ... in his 15th start of the season. Eickhoff occasionally struggled in the first 14, but he also had given up two earned runs or fewer in six of those starts.

The bullpen gave up four hits and a run over four innings.

The Phillies did not look like a team that is is 29-58.

"I think we can play this well a lot more games," Galvis said. "We can try to carry this game to the second half of the season. I believe we have a pretty good team, and can do much better."

Better than a 54-win pace? You would hope so.

"This is exactly what you wanted to draw up going into an All-Star break," said Altherr, who, in his first full, healthy season, has been the team's best everyday player. "Hopefully we can keep this good high, these good memories, and when we come back we can keep it going. It's definitely good for the confidence. Good for morale."

The importance of morale cannot be overstated in a 29-win clubhouse populated largely by marginal young talents with minimal veteran leadership. General manager Matt Klentak tried to sprinkle in a few vets, but fate foiled him. Starting pitcher Clay Buchholz pitched just twice before a forearm injury ended his season. Howie Kendrick has been limited to 33 games by injury. The Phils released Michael Saunders last month.

It was left to Galvis to sound an alarm, and he did so two weeks ago when he let fly a scathing and profane review of the Phillies' general efforts. The team responded with four wins in their next six games ... then lost five in a row entering Sunday.

"Sometimes, we try to do too much. Try to hit homers. Whatever," Galvis said. "The past is the past."

Their past is hard to forget:

April 16: Jeanmar Gomez had given up seven runs in his first five appearances, so he was replaced by Joaquin Benoit - who gave up a three-run homer to Bryce Harper that turned a 4-3 lead into a 6-4 loss at Washington.

April 29: Hector Neris, the third closer of the season, gave up three straight homers to the first three Dodgers he faced in the ninth inning, plus another hit, before the Phils lost later in the ninth. They were 11-10 at that point. They are 18-48 since.

May 10: Benoit gave up five runs in the seventh inning of a tie game against the Mariners and former Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz got the key hit. Afterward, Benoit, usually a setup man, criticized Mackanin for continually pitching him in an inning other than the eighth - except Benoit had pitched in only the eighth inning in his seven previous appearances.

May 20: Vince Velasquez, a hard thrower whose mental game comes and goes, again struggled late in his start. He gave up four runs in the sixth inning. Afterward, Velasquez called himself "clueless." Two starts later he hit the DL. He has not yet returned.

June 21: The most unforgettable loss had to be this melodramatic mess. Odubel Herrera blew through a stop sign at third and made the third out in the ninth inning at home in a tie game. Also, four different relievers combined to give up four runs on five hits and two walks over the last three innings, turning a 5-3 lead into a 7-6 loss. Also, All-Star reliever Pat Neshek and manager Pete Mackanin disagreed on whether Neshek didn't want to pitch or was due for a day off; either way, Neshek sat. Also, when the Phillies lost in extra innings it was their 13th loss in 14 games; their fifth loss in a row; and their third straight extra-innings loss.

Sure, there are plenty of other losses to re-live. After all, their 23 L's in one-run games is seven more than any other team, and it's a team record for one-run losses before the All-Star break. No team has more extra-innings losses than the Phillies' eight.

None of that seemed to matter in the afterglow of a six-run win. Altherr, for one, can't wait to resume: "It's certainly a good way to end the first half."

It's certainly better than the alternative.

hayesm@phillynews.com

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