>And of course the Phillies. I feel badly for Tamar, although the Phillies are not a team I cheer for for any other reason. It's not a surprise that they are in decline this year (after several sensational seasons in a row) but I doubt many people thought it would be this fast. Of course, the starting pitchers have been a factor. Oswalt left, Halladay has been on the DL, and Cliff Lee hasn't done a thing. You don't just shrug that off.

Actually, Lee has mostly pitched well (plus spent some time on the DL). He was awful in June, but other than that, there were a bunch of games where he pitched well and they didn't score for him. The most notable was the 10 innings he pitched in San Francisco--9 scoreless, gave up 1 in the 10th to lose.

Note that after his June 5th start, his ERA was 2.92; the no wins was just a weird fluke.

Of course, last June, he was 5-0 with an ERA under 1.

Tamar