Halfway through season, questions remain for Phillies

On April 4, Jon Lieber took the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies in their season opener, an 8-4 win over the Washington Nationals in front of an announced sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies were in first place in the National League East that day, and the Nationals were at the bottom of the standings.

Three months and four days later, Lieber faced Washington from the same mound. The result of this past Sunday's game turned out the same, a 5-4 Phillies' win thanks to Ramon Martinez's pinch hit single in the 12th inning. But everything else seemed different. By the time Martinez hit his walk-off single, the stands were not nearly full, and the atmosphere the past few weeks has clearly lacked the optimism of April. Most importantly, though, the Nationals ended the day in first place in the division, with the Phillies seven and a half games back and only half a game above the last-place New York Mets.

In between those games, there have been an almost equal number of highs and lows -- literally, as the Phillies' record now stands at 45-44. A 20-6 streak between May 15 and June 12, including series wins against St. Louis, Baltimore and Atlanta, was surrounded by a 9-16 slump from late April to early May and a 7-16 stretch from late June to now.

Within that 20-6 run was a 12-1 homestand in the first two weeks of June, the emergence of outfielder Bobby Abreu as a true star and Ryan Howard's arrival as a major league-caliber first baseman. These are among the reasons why record walk-up crowds have come to Citizens Bank Park this summer. But all those fans saw their team lose two out of three to the Mets from June 21-23, then get swept in a weekend series by the Boston Red Sox, whose fans came down to Philadelphia in droves. The next home series, against Atlanta over the weekend preceding Independence Day, produced two Phillies losses in three games.

Of greater importance is the Phillies' 17-25 record against NL East opponents, the worst such mark in the division. But in last weekend's game against Washington, the Phillies won on Saturday and Sunday, claiming their first series win since finishing off a three game sweep of Milwaukee on June 12.

Tonight, the Phillies start the second half of their season against Florida at Citizens Bank Park. Yet, though midway through the season, the direction in which the team is heading remains very unclear.

"We've got a lot of guys that want to win," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "Our pitching, that's going to dictate a lot, but I also think that the second half of the season we're going to hit better."

They will have to. Although the team's .751 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (also known as OPS) is fifth in the National League and its .266 batting average is sixth, its .405 slugging percentage is next to last. This from a team whose home stadium has some of the smallest dimensions in the country. The only team with a worse slugging percentage is Washington, whose home field, RFK Stadium, is as spacious as Citizens Bank Park is compact. The Phillies are in the middle of the pack in home runs with 86.

A major reason for the offensive woes has been the lack of production from veteran first baseman Jim Thome, who has missed 40 games this season, due largely to back injuries. Thome has hit only seven home runs this season, with his first not coming until April 21.

Thome's absence has opened the door for one of the Phillies' top prospects, Ryan Howard to finally get regular playing time. Howard responded by smashing a three-run double against Washington on Friday, then tying the game Sunday with a two-run homer in the eighth. Since being called up this month, Howard has a .278 average and an impressive 10 RBIs in only nine starts.

Yet when Thome gets healthy, Howard will likely lose his starting spot, and those who have clamored for Howard all season will wonder whether the 26-year-old St. Louis native will stay with the team or be used as bait for a trade when the deadline approaches.

At least Howard's philosophy has not changed, despite the attention heaped upon him by the fans and media.

"Come to the field, play, go home, go to sleep," he quipped. "My only focus is what goes on between those white lines."

In Thome's absence, the Phillies' biggest offensive weapon has been Abreu. Before the Venezuelan announced himself to the nation by winning the Home Run Derby Monday with a record 41 blasts over Comerica Park's fences, Abreu flew to Detroit with a .307 batting average and a team-high .955 OPS. He also leads the team with 99 hits, 63 runs scored and 17 home runs.

"I feel good and I feel excited about the way we played and ended the first half," Abreu said. "This is the way that we have always played the game- we never give up, we are always pushing, trying to win the game. That's the way we should play the game and that's the way we're going to play the game and that's the way we're going to move up [in the standings]."

On the pitching side, Lieber was supposed to be the team's ace this season. He registered wins in five of his first seven starts, but his record has since fallen to 8-8 and his earned run average has more than doubled from 2.49 in mid-April to 5.09 at the All-Star Break.

That kind of swing is a big reason why Lieber said that the team has not yet set "a definite tone" this season.

"We just need to be more consistent," he said.

Catcher Todd Pratt echoed those sentiments

"I think the team's been confident the whole year," he said, despite "some peaks and valleys and some non-consistency. But it's a good team on paper -- we just need to put it together for these last 70-something games and battle in a tough division."

So even among the players, the question still remains as to what kind of a team this year's Phillies are. It is a question that will need to be answered soon, because those fans who walked up to the ballpark in record numbers earlier this season won't keep doing so if things don't start looking up for the Phillies.

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