Philadelphia Phillies

It's odd to hear a man who has never hit a big-league home run talking about regaining his power stroke, but that's the subject centerfielder Ben Revere raised Saturday afternoon after finding out his name was not in the starting lineup for the fourth straight game.

When Phillies fifth starter John Lannan was placed on the disabled list last month with a knee injury, one of the players who was in consideration to be called up was Lehigh Valley lefthander Adam Morgan.

READING - A year ago at this time, Sebastian Valle was considered the best catching prospect in the Phillies' farm system.

SAN FRANCISCO - Chase Utley found serenity here, at a baseball diamond named for a coach who accepted a $1 salary for 16 years to save his college's team from abolishment. Dante Benedetti Diamond is squeezed into the corner of a sleepy neighborhood at the edge of the University of San Francisco's campus. Large black netting prevents home run balls from littering Golden Gate Avenue.

1Lakewood shortstop Roman Quinn, The Inquirer's No. 4 Phillies prospect, has played well recently after a difficult start. In the last seven games entering the weekend, Quinn went 11 for 27, raising his average from .196 to .237 and scoring six runs. Amon

The Phillies were rocked by the Reds, 10-0, at Citizens Bank Park.

Charlie Manuel had just watched the Phillies turn a four-run deficit into a 10-0 blowout loss this evening at Citizens Bank Park. He had something to say about it. “You can get down if you’re not careful,” he said. “That’s what you don’t want. You’ve got to stay together. You’ve got to keep plugging at it. You’ve got to grind it out. Actually, that’s how you build heart and strength about your team. That’s how you become a team. A lot of times in the second half you notice we play a lot better baseball. And that’s because we stay together and we don’t give up and quit and things like that. Almost every team goes through periods where they’re down. If you’re not careful you will get depressed and you will forget about the main object and that’s winning and you give in and you quit. But if you’re good and you’ve got heart and you want to win and you want to try, just stay together. It’s not how many times you get knocked down – I think Vince Lombardi said it – it’s how many times you get back up. When you’re struggling that’s when you really stay together.” It sounded like he was saying the Phillies are showing those tendencies, getting down, getting depressed, giving up. “I’m not saying that we’re quitting,” he said. “Not at all. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is we’re in that period right now where we start doubting ourselves instead of just keep firing. You stay aggressive and keep working on trying to find a good ball to hit and not try to overdo it. Just stay within yourself and do something. Just try to score one run. Do something. Just keep going. Never get down. Play 27 outs. A lot of times when you’re young and there’s not a lot of expectation for them they’ll keep playing and you’ll say, ‘Hey, they hustle. They battle. They keep playing.’ A lot of times when you’ve got a lot of experience and things get tough you kind of get in position because of how long you’ve played and how many years you’ve been in the game that you kind of look up and see the score and you say, ‘It’s going to be hard for us to win.’ That’s kind of a negative. Say we’re talking about hitting. You don’t give no at-bats away. I’m not going 0-for-4. If I’m 0-for-2 or 0-for-3 the last time I’m up I want 1-for-4 or 1-for-3. I don’t care what the score is. You stay together and you keep fighting. And that’s what you’ve got to do. But if you don’t well that’s kind of sending a message of what kind of player that you are. That’s how I look at it. Like I said, I played for 20 years. I’ve been on a lot of teams. Your character is revealed. They say the game builds character. I don’t know about building, but it’ll definitely reveal your character. Does that makes sense? And that’s kind of what you see. You’ve got to fight to really not go there. Once that you get there you’ve got to do some real hard searching to get back to where you should be and things. That’s what I believe.” A couple facts: The Phillies have been shut out six times in 43 games. They were shut out six times last season. They have scored two or fewer runs in 17 games. Only the Marlins (26) and Nationals (20) have had more punchless nights. They have allowed 10 or more runs six times to lead the Majors. The bullpen has allowed a mind-blowing 25 of 52 (48 percent) base runners to score, easily the worst mark in baseball.

So today was kinda crappy. This recap will be accordingly crappy, also because I couldn't watch (because, really, Fox, people in Alaska love Baltimore...), and I couldn't get At-Bat to work properly. So. Kyle Kendrick pitched somewhat less than awesomely, being tagged for four runs on eight hits and four walks over six innings. He struck out two, and those guys must feel especially sucky. As mediocre as Toolbags was, though, the bullpen came on and took a giant dump in everyones' Cheerios. B.J. Rosenberg, called up to solve all the problems, recorded four outs, but allowed four hits, a walk, and three runs. Phillippe Aumont gave up two hits and a run; and Chad Durbin, pitching where he belongs in garbagetime, allowed two more runs on two hits. Bronson Arroyo, on the other hand, pitched exactly like we expected. He was like Nolan Cy Johnson Koufax Halladay Martinez Clemens Johnson Carlton Maddux Grove Alexander. He was lights out. Four hundred strikeouts, zero hits, negative seven runs, Arroyo did it all. The Phillies offense can be excused for failing to produce against the Greatest Pitcher of All Time; but still, today's performance was unpleasant. Jimmy Rollins went 1 for 3 with a walk; Domonic Brown went 2 for 4, including a double that he failed to stretch into a triple (you know, guys, maybe just stop that?); and Michael Young, Ryan Howard and Erik Kratz each recorded a hit. That's about it. Everyone else kind of sucked. Chase Utley drew a walk, but made out on the first pitch a few times and looked bad. I dunno. Scott Franzke mentioned something interesting on the radio. When Sarge Matthews is in the radio booth, the Phillies have been outscored 30-2 this year. Thirty to two. Maybe Continued Success should go sit in with the other team? Charlie described the game thusly on the post-game press conference: When you lose, like, and uh, uh, you, like, forget about the goal, like, which is winnin' and things like that. And you kinda lose heart and stop trying and things like that. I'm not saying that we quit, that's not at all, not at all, but I'm saying like that were in that area where we like stop trying, and things like that. Gotta try to just keep going, and, uh, just stop trying to do too much and things like that, try to get a pitch to drive and like just score some runs; but you gotta play the whole game and things like that, all 27 outs. I don't care what the score is, and things like that, you just keep fighting and things like that, whether its 0 for 2 or 0 for 4, you I've been playing for 20 years, and things like that, and you gotta fight to really not go there, and do some really hard searching to get back there, and that's what I believe. You tell 'em, Chuck. Anyway, that's about it. Fangraph of Ineptitude: The Phils drop to 20-23, which is the moral equivalent of being a billion games out of first. They'll try to lose in less embarrassing fashion tomorrow by sending Baby Bone to the mound against the Reds' Homer Bailey.

You could say that Kyle Kendrick kept the Phillies in the game on a cloudy, drizzly afternoon in which he did not have his best stuff or command. Then the beleagured bullpen put a match to it.

Kyle Kendrick was due for lackluster outing, and that’s just what he had today. (Photo: AP) On April 15, Bronson Arroyo dominated the Phillies for eight innings in Cincinnati, allowing just two runs and five hits in a deflating 4-2 defeat. Today’s ballgame felt eerily similar to the one that took place at Great American Ballpark last month, only this time the Reds more than doubled their output, while the Phillies didn’t bother scoring any runs–though they did equal their five hits–in an 10-0 defeat. The damp weather was a perfect accompaniment to the sleepy feeling this game had, a long and painful loss. The game got away from the Phils quickly. The Reds went up early, and the bats never had an answer for Arroyo. It was the perfect formula for a dull drubbing, the Reds asserting their will over an overmatched Phillies team. KENDRICK’S STREAK COMES TO AN END Kyle Kendrick hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any start since he allowed five to the Royals in his 2013 debut. That streak swiftly came to an end today when he served up a second inning meatball to Ryan Hanigan, who sent it into the seats in left to give the Reds a 3-0 lead. The homer looked to be a portentous sign of how things would go for Kendrick today. He would calm down, though. And while Kendrick didn’t pitch a great game–the Reds hit a lot of balls hard off him–he did manage to limit the runs after Hanigan’s long ball. In fact, I’d even argue that the fourth run Kendrick allowed was more on bad managing than Kendrick himself. It looked like he’d be lifted for a pinch hitter after five when he had over 90 pitches, but Charlie Manuel inexplicably let him hit with a runner on first and two outs in the fifth. Kendrick struck out to end the inning, and went on to allow another run in the sixth. There was absolutely no reason to let Kendrick pitch in that spot and it cost the Phils a run–not that it would matter in the end. Kendrick’s final line looked like this: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K. It was no doubt a battle for KK, as he failed to record a single 1-2-3 inning. A definite throwaway game. BLAME STALE OFFENSE ON THE RAIN… …or bad at-bats and a complete lack of power. Whichever you decide is the culprit (it’s the latter), one thing is for sure: This Phillies offense has not been getting the job done, and it’s become quite a nuisance. So far this season, the Phils have been shutout a whopping six times–as many as they had all of last season. That’s simply not acceptable, especially because in three of those shutouts, the other team scored four runs or less. Arroyo is the latest pitcher to find success later in his career by becoming a softballer, and it’s a technique the Phils really struggle with. For the second time this season, he dominated them deep into the game, unleashing a plethora of curveballs and sliders to keep the fastball-inclined Phillies off balance. It wasn’t as though Arroyo was unhittable– he threw strikes, but the Phils just couldn’t square any balls up. The hardest hit ball of the day came from Domonic Brown–who went 2-for-4, making him the only Phillie with multiple hits–on a double down the right field line. Brown was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple. That was about as exciting as it got for the offense. The Phillies one through five hitters went a cool 3-for-15 with two singles and a double. That statistic pretty much speaks for itself. BULLPEN LETS REDS PILE ON A combination of B.J. Rosenberg, Phillippe Aumont and Chad Durbin would be the bullpen goats on this day, combining to allow six runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively. The extra runs were painful to watch, the bullpen clearly not capable of consistently getting outs. Today’s loss was a complete team effort, every facet pitching in to ensure a negative outcome. UP NEXT - The