The Phillies' offense continued to struggle Friday night as they were only able to muster one run off a Raul Ibanez double in the third inning. But, fortunately for them, it was Roy Halladay's turn to take the mound, so it didn't matter.
Halladay scattered eight hits, walked three, and struck out five in seven scoreless innings to earn his sixth consecutive win. And during that six-game stretch, Halladay has allowed one earned run or less in five of them.
If anyone is still not completely on board with the move to bring this guy in, it's out of nothing but denial and a world-record stubbornness.
But for as well as Halladay pitched, it still has to be troubling that the offense was only able to score one run the entire game to go along with only four hits.
It's not even like they were facing a great defensive team and an All-Star pitcher. It was the Nationals and Jason Marquis.
Marquis is a good young pitcher, but there's no reason for this lineup not to have, at the very least, four runs against this guy.
It almost seems like the guys at the plate aren't playing with the same sense of urgency because they know Halladay is going to keep the score very low, meaning they don't have to do as much.
That might be true, but if they could at least get off the bus, I'm sure Halladay would appreciate the effort.
The bats have been hot as of late, but this team has shown they can sink into a funk faster than any professional sports team, so they're going to have to get their hitting going soon if they'd like to avoid that...and if Greg Gross would like to keep his job.
Every game is a playoff game for this team right now, and if this is all they can do in that type of situation, then there isn't much hope for a third straight appearance in the Fall Classic.
Unless, of course, Halladay can just pitch every day.
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