The Phillies fished around for the ball, but they didn't find it very often, and that was pretty much how things went. It was another game to tick off the calendar and nothing more. After winning four games in a row and seven of nine, it was a silent shrug.
Out the door of the clubhouse and down the hallway that leads to the dugout, the stillness was broken by the rhythmic crack of balls being hit in the indoor batting cage. Thwack!-2-3-4-Thwack!-2-3-4-Thwack! And on and on.
When Raul Ibanez finally finished, dripping sweat, he carried his two bats to the locker room and, not for the first time, had the place to himself.
In a season in which the Phillies suffered through an extensive offensive slump from which they are only recently emerging, Ibanez has been among the biggest disappointments. He has struggled all season, failing to hit either for average or for power. Often after games, he takes extra hitting, trying to unlock the door that has always swung wide for him during a long career.
"I'm working on it," Ibanez said. "I hope it's not too far away, but I'm doing everything in my power to work on it. You name it."
He studies tape of himself at the plate, both his current at-bats and the ones from last season when he hit 34 home runs and drove home 93 runs for the Phillies. He tinkers with his grip, with his stance, with where he positions himself at the plate. He tries new bats, tries new warm-up techniques.
"You name it," he said.
Ibanez knows what people are thinking. He turned 38 at the beginning of this month and knows there is talk that he has reached the end of the road without having to actually hear it. He also is coming off surgery to repair an abdominal tear and he can hear what people are saying about that, particularly in combination with his age.
