Phillies hang on to first place,
despite pitiful pitching from Eaton

In the Batter’s Box
By Matt Godfrey

Adam.
Freaking.
Eaton.
Is a "Welcome back" party in order?
Here are the numbers — 6.1 innings pitched, 17 hits, 14 runs. That’s the best Eaton could do over his last two starts combined.
Let me step back for a second.
With Sunday’s win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Phils held on to first place in the NL East going into this week’s all-star break. The series finale was a great pitchers duel between the Phils’ Cole Hamels and the D-Backs’ Brandon Webb; it took a Pat Burrell home run late in the game to break a tie, finally, after both starters had left the contest.
OK, OK. I know the Phils had a much bigger lead than a half game before the Mets came storming back into the race, but hey, a lead is a lead.
I said early on that I think if they can keep the division lead at the break, the Phils will be able to keep the ship on course.
If they come back playing the kind of baseball they played early on, they can quickly deal a blow to Florida and New York, whom they play in the first two series coming out of the break.
The last few weeks saw the Phillies’ mechanics go out of sync. A team that was getting solid pitching and consistent hitting found itself kicking and flailing, as if snarled in a blanket and unable to get free.
One night the Phils’ offense sputtered while the pitching excelled; the next night the pitching sputtered while the hitting excelled.
From game to game for the past four to five weeks, they just could not get back that early-season consistency. They have had a few days now to work on regaining that rhythm.
Just a few things to keep an eye on as the season resumes on Friday:
Only three pitchers seem to be "locks" for the starting rotation so far, and two of them don’t have the name Myers or Eaton.
Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and Kyle Kendrick have been consistent pretty much all season, and the team seems confident it can win any time those guys take the mound.
Opening Day mystery Brett Myers and the always-baffling Adam Eaton are on the outside looking in.
Myers, as has been reported, misses the "rock star status" of being a closer. When Brad Lidge signed his three-year extension with the Phillies, Myers’ desire for the spot became even more insignificant.
To his credit, however, Myers recognized there is a problem and is doing what he and his team believe needs to be done to fix it.
Hopefully, during his current stint in the minors, he’ll find that fire he used to have.
That leaves Eaton, who must’ve decided that the unexpected thing to do at the start of the season would be to actually pitch well.
For some reason, Eaton has settled back into his unpredictable ways on the mound, punctuated in particular by the lousy numbers of his last two dismal outings.
The emergence of rookie lefthander J.A. Happ as an option, along with speculation that the Phillies are scouting all trade possibilities for a pitcher, offers some hope for the fan base.
Then there is the offense. This is the first time in team history — all 125 years — that the Phillies have had three players — Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell — hit more than 20 homers before the all-star break.
Utley and Burrell had two of the best opening few months in recent memory of any Phillie, and Howard has been red-hot of late. If they can continue producing like that, things will turn around quickly.
The other issue — and an extremely important one — is that the Phillies need their spark plug to ignite. Where has Jimmy Rollins gone?
Although his numbers are down from last year, he needs to open his mouth and lead by example again.
Rollins is the ignition for this high-octane offense. He needs to snap out of his post-MVP slumber and show the New York Mets and the rest of baseball that the Phillies are not going to sputter this season as they did during their quiet exit from the first round of last year’s playoffs. ••