The Phillies were lucky to escape with a 2-1 victory Tuesday night against the Indians.¬† The “Ancient One’ Jamie Moyer pitched another strong game, allowing only one run and two hits through 8 innings. He pitched into the 8th inning for the third time in his last four starts. That was the good news.
The bad news was that the Phillies offense gave another poor performance, with just 4 hits and 3 walks to show for the night. The Phillies had a strong first inning. They were patient at the plate, got a few runners on, and manufactured a pair of runs.
After the 1st inning though, the patience completely vanished. The Phillies were first pitch swinging with the confidence that their 2-1 lead would be more than enough for a win.
This is a strange way to play baseball considering recent history, namely the middle game of the Twins series where the Phillies coughed up a 5 run lead in the ninth.  This time though, the bullpen was able to hold on thanks to Brad Lidge’s superb 2 batter-2 strikeout performance after J.C. Romero did his best to give it away.
It was also a strange way to play considering (1) they were going up against the second worst team in the league, with a terrible pitching staff, and (2) the Phillies are 5.5 games back in the division, a number has only been growing in recent weeks.
With the exception of Ryan Howard (who went 2 for 3 with an RBI), the balance of the lineup made no effort to work the count. Too many players were swinging at the first pitch and giving the Indians easy outs.
The bullpen is a big question on this team and asking them to hold on to a one run lead is really rolling the dice. Even against a bad team like the Indians, the Phillies can’t afford to let up if they want to stay in the division race. If the offense can’t wake up to put up some runs against one of the league’s worst teams, who will they do it against?
