There is precious little about this installment of the Phillies that is consistent or predictable save one thing: they are are predictably inconsistent.
Rarely does the offense, defense and pitching come together for a single game and last night's loss before a national television audience was another prime example. One hopes viewers had the good sense to tune out early and get a good night's sleep .
The Phils sent ace Roy Halladay to the mound and it was clear from the opening frame he didn't have his best stuff. Of course a nightmare second inning replete with a two-run homer, poor defense, a hit by the opposing pitcher and, insult added to injury, great base-running by that same pitcher in scoring from second base on a single to right, spelled doom for the night. The final run the Cubs scored in that fatal inning came with men or first and third and two outs. When the runner broke for second, Carlos Ruiz threw to second but the ball bounced away from Jimmy Rollins and the runner on third scored.
In one of those rare moments when I had the volume on for Jon Miller, Joe Morgan and Orel Hersheiser, they all agreed between their usual inane twitter that the Phillies of 2010 showed none of the polish or confidence of the 2008 or 2009 teams. I had to agree and not only turned off the sound but the channel, too, shortly thereafter.
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