Where Are We Now?

While the baseball world is still abuzz with the amazing accomplishment of the Phillies' ace pitcher, a disconcerting trend in the team's batters box is certainly keeping hitting coach Milt Thompson and his manager Charlie Manuel up at night.

"I used to think I got to the park early," Phillies hitting coach Milt Thompson said of Halladay this spring. "But I get here at 6:15 [a.m.], and he's already on his second shirt."

Milt might be out-sweating Halladay pretty soon if the Phils don't start hitting. In 6 out of their last 8 games the Phils have NO earned runs-- even the lone run they mustered in Hallday's perfect game, 1-0 win was unearned.

They are now 4 wins and 8 losses in their last 12 games and have scored a sum of 5 runs in those 8 losses, a staggering 1.6 runs per game for one of the most menacing lineups in baseball!

Granted, injuries to Carlos Ruiz, Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco and even Chase Utley's flu haven't helped, but things have gotten totally out-of-hand. Even Charlie Manuel's closed door meeting last week didn't seem to make a dent in the armor of offensive futility.

The Phillies knew they'd be reliant on hitting this year, even before injuries to key pitchers Joe Blanton, J.C. Romero, J.A. Happ, Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson.

The exciting success of Roy Halladay thusfar and the reassuring commitment to Ryan Howard for the next several years shouldn't cloud the goal: to win baseball games and pennants.

Are we in the next era of team greatness or the post-achievement chapter of individual accomplishments?

Is this season about winning or about the Phils twin towers of 'H' power: Halladay chasing the Cy Young and Howard going for (literal) gold?

What made the Phillies so endearing and so near to our hearts was the nucleus of home-grown organization guys making good, culminating into a surprisingly talented and capable core: Rollins, Hamels, Utley, Howard, Burrell, Ruiz, Madson, Myers and Shane Victorino (save 36 games) had only ever played major league ball with the Phils. These guys jelled and emerged at the same time to form a fierce new Phillies attitude of winning and enthusiastic competitive edge.

Now, a little older and with nothing left to prove, they have to dig deep and find motivation once again.

This time 2 years ago, from May 25th-30th, the 2008 Phils were on a 5-game winning streak. That streak concluded with a 12-3 pounding of Florida and included a 20-5 stomping of Colorado, who had knocked them out of the playoffs the year before. That Phillies team scored 60 runs in those 5 games (12 per game) and won 12 of 14 during this stretch exactly 2 years ago. They went on to win the World Series, ending the worst drought among professional sports cities. I was there when they clinched the title. It felt like fate, like the culmination of enthusiastic competition blended beautifully with talent. It was the transformation of heartache and losing into something wonderful, totally fresh and new.

The 2010 Phillies, some richer and some new, have 113 games to define themselves and their season. Is this team hungry for more glory or an echo in the tailspin of the glory days?