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Baseball was played: Braves 5, Phillies 1

A game happened tonight in which there was baseball.

By Liz Roscher
Brian Garfinkel

Well hey the Phillies certainly played baseball tonight, yes indeedy they did. They threw the ball, they caught the ball, they hit the ball. They ran around the bases. They wore hats and uniforms with their name and number on the back. Yes siree, they sure played baseball. They played it, uh, thoroughly.

That's the best compliment I have for the Phillies. They played baseball. The baseball they played lost them the second game of the doubleheader, with a score of 5-1.

Sean O'Sullivan, tonight's spot starter, pitched well. I am legitimately shocked to be writing that. He pitched better than his line shows -- five and 2/3 innings, eight hits, four runs, three strikeouts, and no walks. He hit 96mph on the gun tonight at the stadium, and for a few innings had everything working for him. Considering that he has a AAA ERA of 4.55 in the month of June with a WHIP of 1.24, tonight could have been much, much worse. (I think this afternoon's game is proof of that.)

The sixth inning is when the wheels came off the wagon. After getting two outs on two pitches, O'Sullivan had a 9-pitch battle with Justin Upton that resulted in a single, and ended up being the turning point of the game. A long at-bat with Ryan Doumit came after (also a single), and then Chris Johnson scored Upton on a single. In all, three runs were charged to O'Sullivan in the sixth inning -- one while he was pitching, and two that crossed the plate after he left, while Mario Hollands was on the mound. All three runs scored with two outs. It was an unpleasant, messy inning, so let us speak about it no more.

After they scored in the third inning, the Phillies tried and tried and tried to plate more runs. In the sixth and the seventh innings, the Phillies got runners on early but couldn't get them home. They were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The only guy with a decent offensive night was Cameron Rupp, the Phillies' new temporary starting catcher. He went 2-for-4 with a double. His night qualifies as "decent" because he was the only starter in the Phils lineup tonight with more than one hit, and his double was the only extra base hit of the night. In short: sweet holy moses is the offense ever putrid right now.

Here are some fun facts about B.J. Rosenberg.

I don't care if you think they're fun or not. LOOK AT THEM. LOOK AT THEM I SAY. KNOW THE INFINITE SADNESS OF B.J. ROSENBERG.

The Phillies dropped to nine under.500 tonight, and 8 under .500 at Citizens Bank Park. They're seven games out of first place in the NL East, so the Phillies are benefitting from the entire division being shitty. Though it's tough for the Phillies to *actually* benefit, since they're also shitty.

Not long ago, the Phillies were 3.5 back. How things have changed since then.


Source: FanGraphs

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