Ryan Howard has struggled since returning from the DL a short time ago, but with a walk off single in the ninth to give the Phillies the win on Sunday afternoon, has to help his confidence moving forward.

“It’s just been a timing issue,” said Howard, who is batting .208 in 23 games since being activated from the DL. “I’ve been kind of in between, start too late, start too early. I’ve got to find the happy place.”

“That’s a big hit,” Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. “When he went up there, I said that the pitcher was the one in trouble.”

The Phillies received an unusual below average start from Cliff Lee who fails to pick up his first home win of the season giving up four runs in eight innings of work. With the trade deadline long and gone, talks still loom about Lee involving any waiver wire transactions between the Phillies and potential suitors. For Lee though, he still believes his performance is far from satisfactory even with poor run support this season.

“I have to do a better job of keeping the ball down and in the ballpark, especially when it’s hot here because the ball travels really good,” Lee said.

The Phillies got off to a rocky start trailing 3-0 to the Diamondbacks in the second inning due to home runs from Chris Johnson and Stephen Drew. The Phillies were able to get back into the game, due to a wild pitch from Trevor Cahill, and a Chase Utley blast to right field. After a Paul Goldschimdt home run and  a David Hernandez throwing error, the game was knotted up going into the ninth inning. Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning, then it was Howard’s time to shine.

After being booed in the eighth inning for his third strikeout of the game, Howard smacked a clean single into right for the walk off win.

“It feels good,” Howard said. “I’ll just try and build on it.”

The Phillies will try to build on this win with a series against NL East foe Miami Marlins for the next few days. On a tragic note, the Phillies held a moment of silence before the game for Garrett Reid, the son of Eagles coach Andy Reid who was found dead in his Lehigh dorm room on Sunday morning while assisting the team in training camp. Thoughts and prayers go out to Coach Reid and his family.

The Atlanta Braves have had the Phillies number this month with two straight sweeps and six straight wins over their NL East rivals. The Braves topped the Phillies 6-2 Sunday afternoon with another strong pitching performance, this time from veteran Tim Hudson, only allowing two runs in a little over five innings of work. A collective effort of relievers for the Braves kept the lead for the remainder of the game to seal the deal.

“It’s a big, big sweep for us,” Jones said. “I think mentally as a team you’ve got to get over certain humps, and Philly as a team has been a big hump for us. They’ve been winning the division for a long time and they’ve handled us pretty well. Now we’ve got to get over that hump of beating the Nationals. The Nationals have had our number a little bit the last couple of years, and they’re the team ahead of us, so we have to get going.”

Roy Halladay allowed three runs on six hits in six innings for the loss. Halladay who missed seven weeks due to a strained right lat muscle, has been ineffective since returning to the team with a loss and an ERA over five. Home runs from Chipper Jones and Jason Heyward as well as a two RBI game from first baseman Freddie Freeman was too much to handle for the two time Cy Young Award winner.

The Phillies, whose lone bright spot was Shane Victorino with three hits, have been declared as probable sellers at this year’s trading deadline. Among those involved possibly with be Victorino, Joe Blanton, and Hunter Pence. All players have been subject to trade rumors, as the Phillies should look to get younger as this year does not seem to be the year for Philadelphia.

After just two days with his 144 million dollar contract, Cole Hamels had arguably the worst start of his career. After just four weeks after signing his minor league contract, Braves pitcher Ben Sheets continues to dazzle with his third straight victory. Sheets, who missed all of last season due to Tommy John surgery, is just trying to do his part on a Braves team that is within striking distance of a playoff spot. “I mean, I’m on a very good team and the guys are doing the heavy pulling. I’m just trying to put in a little two cents myself, trying to help us out,” said Sheets. Hamels on the other hand gave up a career high six walks and five runs in just five innings, his shortest outing of the season. “It was a long week,” Hamels said. “I don’t think I’ll have to experience that again.”

With the final score being 6-1 in favor of the Atlanta, the Braves not only had contributions from Sheets on the mound, but he put the ball into play in the second inning, leading to the Braves first run of the game. But the true moment that the flood gates open was a Brian McCann three run homerun off to give the Braves a commanding 5-1 lead. By tacking on another run to make it 6-1, the Braves ended the Phillies four game winning streak on an extremely humid day in Atlanta. For Hamels, it was an extremely unusual start for him as he has been one of the most consistent parts of the Phillies season thus far.

For McCann, he is the first player ever to hit a homerun against the Phillies in six straight games. “I like hitting right now,” McCann said. “It’s been a good couple of weeks, a good month I guess. I’m just glad I’m back to where I have been my whole career. My first half was brutal. I just put it behind me. To be honest I think that was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. It made me get back to the basics and doing what I’ve always done. It was a wakeup call, it really was.”

For the Phillies, time is not on their side, as the trade deadline approaches, and their management needs to remain realistic about their chances of a playoff run, as that needs to be their focus before the July 31st deadline.

The Phillies were able to avoid a seven game home losing streak Sunday afternoon with the help of timely hitting from their longtime shortstop Jimmy Rollins. Rollins helped his team walk off with a victory with a single in twelfth inning to break the deadlock against Giants’ pitcher Brad Penny.

“I always look forward to it,” Rollins said about clutch situations. “I’ve faced Brad Penny a lot. I had an idea what he wanted to do. That’s not a role he’s used to.”

After falling behind 2-1 after the fourth inning thanks to a home run from Nate Schierholtz and an RBI double from Pablo Sandoval, Phillies pitcher Joe Blanton finished strong with an eight inning performance giving up only three runs. Blanton, a topic of trade talk, is showing interested teams his true value with performances like his on Sunday. Blanton, an unrestricted free agent after this season, will most likely be traded before the July 31st trade deadline unless the Phillies truly believe they can heat up and make a run to the playoffs.

Barry Zito also gave a good start for the Giants with a strong seven innings and three runs, continuing his best season so far for the Giants after he has not lived up to expectations after signing an extremely large contract with the Giants years ago.

John Mayberry Jr. led the Phillies with two solo home runs to tie, and then take the lead for the Phillies. After another home run by Schierholtz to tie the game up at three, the teams headed to extra innings. It was not until the twelfth inning that Rollins won the game through a walk off single bringing home Carlos Ruiz.

Kyle Kendrick moves to 4-8 on the season, going two and one-thirds innings to get the win and extended his scoreless streak to over eighteen innings. Brad Penny picks up the loss for the Giants. The Phillies remain fourteen games back in the NL East.

Obviously all the trade rumors swirling around Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels are not affecting his performance of late for the Phillies. Hamels has gone at least seven innings in each of his last five starts, all in which have been quality starts for his struggling team. For this Sunday game against the Rockies, Hamels continued his dominance with an eight inning spectacle, allowing only one earned run and seven strike outs. The only run scored by the Rockies off of Hamels was a Carlos Gonzalez triple that brought in Marco Scutaro, but it too much Hamels for the Rockies to handle.

“Cole seems like he’s focused and he’s able to block it out,” said Phillies outfielder Hunter Pence.

Hunter Pence led the offensive charge Sunday afternoon, opening the flood gates and expanding the Phillies lead from 2-0 to 5-0 with a monster 438 foot three run blast. Fourteen games back of first place Washington, the Phillies are in dire need of performances such as these from Hamels and Pence. Unfortunately, it may be a little too late for this team in the competitive NL East, but they are certainly not giving up hope.

“Hopefully, he doesn’t have to do this too much and we can turn this thing around,” said Pence.

Drew Pomeranz took the loss for the Rockies, allowing five earned runs in five innings. It is vital that in order for the Phillies to even make an attempt at a comeback, they need to take advantage of weaker teams such as the Rockies. The road won’t get any easier for the Phillies, as they face the Dodgers, a streaky team as of late, losing 17 of their last 23 games.

This series against the Rockies, however, was one of the few series wins by the Phillies this season. Hopefully, Roy Halladay’s projected comeback start this Tuesday will spark a winning streak to cut down their deficit in the NL East.

Any time you feel like the Phillies are getting something together, they always seem to find a way to ruin it. Despite a second inning home run from Braves catcher Brian McCann, the Phillies hit up Braves’ ace Tommy Hanson for a quick three runs, for what seemed to be a good start to today’s game. Unfortunately, the Phillies fell back into their losing ways dropping their last nine of ten, despite getting the pair of all-stars in Ryan Howard and Chase Utley back into the lineup.

Tommy Hanson, excluding his poor start, pitched extremely well into the eighth inning to pick up the win for the Braves, as the Phillies could only accumulate scoring through a Juan Pierre double, a Joe Blanton single, and a Jimmy Rollins fielder’s choice. You know your team is struggling when the pitcher outhits most guys in the lineup.

Unfortunately, Blanton only seemed to be able to do it with the bat Saturday night, struggling on the mound going six and one-third innings giving up nine hits and six runs.

Martin Prado and Brian McCann led the Braves with two RBIs each with Michael Bourn adding three hits of his own in the win.

The Phillies fall deeper and deeper into last place in the NL East, and the excuses are becoming less and less reasonable for the struggling team. It is understandable that injuries had hurt the Phillies in the first half of this season, but if those healthy players do not produce during the season half of the season, you can expect major realignment within that Phillies’ clubhouse.

Winning has never felt so good for Cliff Lee and the Philadelphia Phillies. Lee has gone the first thirteen starts of his season without a victory, a rare occurrence for the former All-star pitcher. 

“I would’ve love to have had a win a long time ago,” “Sometimes weird things happen.” said Lee. 

Typically, Gatorade showers are saved for championships and momentous occasions, but teammates Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels didn’t hesitate to reward their good friend for what hopes to be an end to a horrible and unfortunate start of the season for Lee. 

It didn’t look so positive for Lee throughout the game however as the Phillies trailed 2-0 to the Mets going into the seventh inning, in an all too familiar setting for the Phillies this season. Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz homered back to back to get the Phillies back into it, and Ty Wigginton’s two-run home run in the ninth finished the surge of offense that resulted in a 9-2 victory for the Phillies. 

Lee showcased his talent in the old Cliff Lee fashion, going eight innings, striking out nine. For the last place Phillies, who are thirteen games behind Washington in last place, it is necessary that all Lee, Halladay, and Hamels begin to dominate their NL East opponents, especially with trade rumors swirling around about the potential of breaking up the three pitchers, to strengthen other positions in an attempt to alter the Phillies horrid start. Some have even begun to believe that the Phillies might just be giant sellers at the trade deadline July 31, but knowing Charlie Manuel and the leaders of that clubhouse, they will do everything in their power to get back to their usual winning ways. But that still leaves to question, should they blow up the core to strengthen for the future, or hope to finish the season strong and make a playoff run. 

It’s not always sunny in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies have lost their fourth straight and are on the verge of being swept by the Miami Marlins. They now sit in dead last place ten games behind the Nationals and three and a half games behind fourth place Miami. This series really gave them an opportunity to gain some substantial ground on the Marlins, but they have failed to capitalize and score enough runs for their depleted pitching staff. In the wake of their poor offensive attack, news broke that the Phillies had traded longtime slugger Jim Thome to the Baltimore Orioles for two minor leaguers. As if the Phillies could afford to lose any sort of offensive talent, Thome will go to the Orioles to assist them in their attempted playoff run.

As for Cole Hamels, his pitching has been been very good for the Phillies this year, coming into Saturday’s performance with a 10-3 record. Unfortunately, a lack of run production against the Marlins causes him to lose his fourth game of the year. What has been very consistent for the Phillies has been their struggles at the beginning of games, and their inability to make a comeback, no matter the size of the deficit. After giving up a first inning home run to Giancarlo Stanton, Hamels kept the game relatively close by giving up only three earned runs in seven innings almost matching his counterpart Mark Buehrle whose numbers were nearly identical, with the exception that Buehrle only gave up two runs, instead of Hamels’ three. This loss is not anything common for Hamels against the Marlins, for he continues to struggle against them this season, with three of his four losses coming at the hand of the Marlins.

“When we can’t win with [Cliff] Lee and Hamels, that kind of tells you how things have gone,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’re trying to turn it around, of course, and get something going. We can get so close, yet we drift right back and get so far away.”

Hunter Pence had the lone bright spot for the Phillies, going three-for-four with a home run.

After a dismal June where the Phillies went 9-19, the Phillies have about a month left before the trading deadline, and with play like this, speculation can point to some shuffling among the Phillies lineup and possibly their pitching rotation. The Phillies hope to avoid a Marlins sweep as well as start off July a lot stronger than they did June. In order for that to happen, the Phillies must become better at situational hitting, must refuse to leave runners on base, and must not waste strong starts from their pitchers.

If you haven’t voted for Carlos Ruiz for this year’s All-Star game, you might want to help him out after performances like these. Ruiz is a distant third in All-Star voting for catchers even with some of the majors best numbers. He is  first in the league in batting average (.361), second in OPS (1.006), third in on-base percentage (.427) and fifth in slugging percentage (.579), all in which indicate the makings of an All-Star. Well, if those numbers are not enough to impress you, performances like he had Tuesday night against the Pirates should put you over the top. Ruiz went three-for-four with a home run and two RBIs as the Phillies squeaked by the Pirates 5-4 at Citizens Bank Park. In addition to Ruiz, Ty Wigginton also added a two-run home run to extend the Phillies lead to 4-1 in the third inning.

It was not only offense that helped the Phillies in this game, it was timely defense as well as another strong pitching performance from Vance Worley that puts the Phillies now a full game ahead of the Miami Marlins as well as eight full games back from NL East leading Washington. The defense came specifically in the seventh inning with the Pirates threatening, with two on, no one out, with Michael Schwimer entering the game for the Phillies. With the Phillies only up by a single run, Schwimer was able to quickly retire the first batter with no advance, as well as force Neil Walker to fly out to John Mayberry Jr. With Michael McKenry tagging from third base, Mayberry threw a bullet to Ruiz for the double play to preserve the one run lead.

Vance Worley continues to dazzle with the Phillies as he gave six hits and three runs in six innings of work, enough to finally get the win he deserves. Though this two game winning streak the Phillies are on may not be the most impressive, but the future is looking brighter for the team. All-star Chase Utley smacked a home run in his AAA rehab start, so signs indicate that Utley’s return will be soon. First baseman Ryan Howard also has a rehab start in class-A on Thursday, in which the Phillies are hoping for similar success.

The Phillies combined to use timely offense and defense, as well as strong pitching to win Tuesday night, which hasn’t been a theme all year. The Phillies rank in the top ten in hits allowed as well as have a team ERA of 4.00. In order for the Phillies to continue to succeed, it is necessary that their starters go deeper into games, and their offense provides the spark necessary for their pitchers to feel comfortable on the mound. The Phillies sure have it cut out for them, but with the returns of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, as well as the production from role players, the Phillies have the tools to win. Whether the Phillies will do anything at the trade deadline or not, only time will tell.

Jim Thome has gotten extremely good at jumping on home plate and getting  bombarded by his teammates as Thome now stands alone as the All-time leader in walk-off home runs in baseball history. Thome passes an assortment of Hall of Famers on the list, such as Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, and Frank Robinson to name a few. His home run also ties himself with Sammy Sosa in seventh on the All-time home runs list with 609 HRs. The home run off of Rays pitcher Jake McGee was a 96 MPH fastball on the outside corner of the plate, which Thome so very typically took opposite field for the win.

The Phillies did not start off well against the Rays, quickly losing 3-0 by the third inning thanks to a Jeff Keppinger double deep to center-field. After Rays starting pitcher James Shields  brought in Keppinger with a ground ball out, the Phillies got on the board with Jimmy Rollins 344 foot blast that brought the score to 3-2 Rays. Juan Pierre followed the inning after with an unusual three-run home run that gave the Phillies the 5-3 lead. With a 6-4 lead going into the ninth inning, the Phillies looked to be in good shape with closer Jonathan Papelbon taking the mound, but Papelbon blew his first save of the season by giving up hits to Keppinger and Brooks Conrad allowing the game to be tied up at six, going into the bottom of the ninth. Then, it was Thome time.

“You never forget them,” Thome said. “These are moments you never know how long you’ll have them.” Thome certainly gave the Citizens Bank Park sold out crowd a memory they were certain not to forget. Some reports have even said that Jonathan Papelbon, frustrated that he had just blown his first save of the year, wrote Thome a check for $5,000 after the game for at least salvaging the Phillies victory after his mistake. Now, Thome has been in the league for many years, so it is doubtful that this check was really necessary to his well-being. Instead Papelbon should worry about not giving up any more blown saves, and if he were really in the mood for donating large amounts of money, he should at least do it to a worthy cause, instead of Thome, who clearly has done this routine before, and does not need to be told of a job well done. Congratulations finally to manager Charlie Manuel, who with this win, earns his 900th career win.

The Phillies move on to play a day-night doubleheader against the Rays on Sunday, as they wish to finish the weekend off with two more wins. Finally a tip of the hat to Mr. Thome, and a tip of the hat to Mr. Manuel, and a wag of the finger to Mr. Papelbon for acting somewhat foolish in his actions.