Paul Hagen: Phillies' bats don't give their aces much support

WASHINGTON - You buy a sleek, new sports car. But you don't do the scheduled maintenance. You leave the windows down when it rains. You run over potholes. Even though the engineering is great, you're not going to get the most out of your money.

Or you purchase a racehorse with great bloodlines. But you hire a trainer without much experience. You don't insist that it gets the best feed and grooming. No matter how talented, that horse isn't going to win the Kentucky Derby.

Top starting pitchers are sort of the same way. They might have the kind of stuff that has batters muttering unprintables to themselves as they trudge, head down, back to the dugout. They might shatter bats and big-league dreams with equal ease. Most of the time, however, they can't do it all by themselves.

Roy Oswalt made his Phillies debut last night, capping a whirlwind 48 hours during which the Astros agreed to trade one of their cornerstones, financial concessions were hammered out, Oswalt agreed to waive his no-trade protection, flew from Houston to Washington to join his new team and then - whew! - started last night against the last-place Nationals.

His outing was less than spectacular. He gave up five runs (four earned) in six innings of an 8-1 loss. That's not a big deal. He should get 11 or 12 more starts before the season ends. The sum of those will weigh more heavily in the final evaluation of the deal than last night.

(That Oswalt has now given up 12 earned runs on 23 hits in 15 innings over his last three starts is a little bothersome, but shouldn't be an issue as long as he's healthy and the Phillies are convinced he is. That J.A. Happ, who went to Houston, gave up just two hits in six shutout innings in his Astros debut last night should not be overblown, either. Think of it as the baseball gods having some wicked fun.)

What was notable is that, as they have so often this year, the Phillies came up small for one of their building-block starting pitchers.

They have scored three or fewer runs 14 times when Roy Halladay has started this season, including two or fewer eight times.

They've scored three or fewer 10 times when Cole Hamels starts, including two or fewer eight times.