All the Phillies needed was an effective start from Kyle Kendrick and a few decent swings against the marshmallow offerings of Randy Wolf. They got neither, however, and, instead of a first-place tie, the Phils left Citizens Bank Park with a 6-2 loss and at least one more day of staring up at the Braves.
"Today wasn't a good game for us," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We're sputtering offensively. We've got some guys who are struggling. I liked our chances on Wolf today, but the bottom line was we didn't hit him. We didn't generate anything."
Manuel has said that before this season. Change the name of the opposing pitcher, change the identity of the struggling batters, and it all comes out the same. Going into Sunday's game, the Phils had won eight out of nine, so maybe a funk fest was overdue, but the hitting wasn't consistent during that streak, either.
"We've got 25 games left, and we've got to hit better," Manuel said. "We can do that. Our players know that, and everybody in baseball knows that."
Everybody in baseball also knows that the game rewards those who play it properly and give themselves the best chance to win. The Phillies do that most of the time, but Sunday wasn't one of those occasions.
Kendrick lasted only four innings, and he had some bad luck. He gave up a couple of one-out bloop hits in the first inning and then made a bad pitch to Prince Fielder, who launched it just inside the right-field pole into the second deck. Kendrick allowed a couple of more stray runs before exiting the game, and the Phils never got back into it.
"I made two bad pitches," he said. "I made some great pitches. This was the best I felt in a long time."
