Slumping Towards Mediocrity, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Slump

This will be brief, since the Phillies haven't given me much to write about since I last wrote. Since one week ago, the Phillies have scored a total of three runs, all in the 9th inning Sunday afternoon after Tim Wakefield left the game with an 8 inning shutout going. To put it another way, the Phillies have scored runs in one of their last 47 innings of play. To put it another way, they have now not scored runs off a starting pitcher in their last 35 innings facing opposing starters. I could go on, but let's hope tonight makes this all moot. As Paul Hagen wrote today, the Phillies cannot afford to become complacent in the NL East right now. Even a rare team meeting called by Charlie after Wednesday's second shutout in as many nights did not galvanize the team to do much of anything offensively yesterday.

Everyone knows that slumps happen in baseball, especially to this often potent Phillies team, but this one is particularly rough to watch. For some good perspective on it, read Bill Baer's take over at Crashburn Alley on why we shouldn't be rushing for the panic button right now. I agree that it isn't time to panic, but three consecutive shutouts by the Mets of all teams is really, really hard to watch. I know the slump will end, but I don't want have to write a blog post before that happens about how the Phillies have set a new record for consecutive innings being shutout. The players should be in worrying about this right now and be doing everything they can to fix whatever is not clicking. As a fan, however, it's time to stop worrying and love, or at least tolerate, the slump.