The Phils are 2-1 (and winning 8-0 against Houston as of this writing), but several red flags have been raised, as pointed out by The Good Phight:
• They've scored 19 runs in 18 innings. Do you realize that they're just barely over the 1 run per inning mark? How are they supposed to thrive if they can only slightly eclipse that mark?Funny stuff. I'm just wondered that they resorted to signing a Brandeis alum to pitch for them.
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• Ryan Howard's power is diminishing. In game 1, he hit his home run into the second deck. In game 2, he could only manage hitting the facade of the second deck. If his home run tonight just reaches the lower deck, watch out. You might as well ask him to retire after the game.
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• Placido Polanco is cooling off. He started the season batting .600 with 6 RBI. He now has played twice as many games and his RBI total is . . . still 6. And don't get me started on his batting average. It's plummeted 44 points. How bad do you have to be to lose 44 points in batting average?
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• 20% of the runs the team has allowed are unearned. Last year, they only gave up 36 unearned runs all year. Those 36 runs accounted for only 5% of the team's 709 runs allowed. The team defense really needs to improve.
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• Chase Utley is in a career-threatening power outage. All of his hits are singles. In fact, you have to go back over six months to find his last regular-season extra-base hit.
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• Jimmy Rollins is averaging 2 walks per game. Now, I'll give you this is a huge positive . . . normally. However, the Phillies have never before thrived with Rollins walking at that clip. This is obviously the sign of the end of times, and last I checked, it's very unlikely the Phillies would reach the playoffs, let alone get another World Series trophy, if time were to end.
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• Roy Halladay let the Nationals score a run.
I'm sure this list is incomplete, as I'm so distraught I can hardly think straight. Bottom line: I'm worried. Aren't you?