Reading Fightin Phils Fight Through 10th Consecutive Loss

It's already been said that the Phillies' farm system hasn't produced a lot of winning records this season, leaving fans at a shocking loss of baseball outlets in which to seek solace.

Reading put an exclamation point on this fun little addendum by losing their 10th straight game last night, dropping a 12-2 drubbing to the Portland Sea Dogs. The Fightin Phils' pitching staff gave out 12 free passes to Portland hitters, which likely had something to do with the subsequent double digit runs scored by their opponent.

Also, other things:

11 walks, 6 errors, 2 wild pitches & 2 passed balls -- tough to cram that into just 5 innings, but the Fightin Phils have done it. Trail 9-1

— Mike Drago (@mldrago) June 28, 2014

The Reading lineup has been unable to come through and squeeze out even a run or two - six of the ten losses were by less three runs or less. During this period, the team also lost former highly-touted pitching prospect Jesse Biddle, who is on mental leave after taking a severe plunge this season.

A team once on the verge of being 10 games over .500, the Fightin Phils have gone 4-19 in June and crashed into last place in the Eastern League's somewhat redundant Eastern Division, 17.5 games back. They hadn't even lost eight games in a row since 2008, let alone ten.

It's been utter chaos at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mostly, this has been tough on Philadelphia fans, who had to rush from booing in Reading to the sports complex to boo Gary Bettman before the NHL Draft started.

The recent stories of Reading's known entities are a combination of injuries, slumps, quad-A nonprospects, and standard minor league roster adjustment fallout.

• Tommy Joseph - Hitting .282 with a .896 OPS in 78 AB. Also, healthy.
• Jiwan James - Released
• Jesse Biddle - On mental leave
• Sebastian Valle - Returned to the team after Koyie Hill departed for Philly and engaged some immediate heroics.
• Jake Fox - 2011 MLB Preseason Home Run Champion is sporting a 1.133 OPS over 13 games with Reading.
• Cam Perkins - Hitting .342 with a .903 OPS in 52 games; then hurt himself during a dive for the ball this past week.
• Kelly Dugan - Outfield collision took his .246 BA out of the lineup for four games; returned last night, went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts.
• Aaron Altherr - Saw big league action for the first time ever, has not achieved major success since.
• Zach Collier - DFA'd so Hill could join the 40-man.