Phillies 5, Padres 3: An unmitigated disaster

The Phillies, a team that now has only 42 wins and sent away their best players at the trade deadline, just swept the Padres. A week ago, the very idea of it would be laughable, but here we are. Go ahead and vent your feelings. Anger, disappointment, frustration, it's all utterly reasonable right now.

Andrew Cashner gave the Phillies the lead in the first, and never got it back. Odrubel Herrera hit a one out single to right, and then Ryan Howard hit an RBI double. Cash buckled down after that, throwing four scoreless innings before Herrera hit a leadoff homer in the sixth. The Padres countered in the bottom half of the inning when Justin Upton hit his Tony Gwynnth homer of the year, a solo shot to left center.

Pat Murphy went back to Cashner to start the seventh, a move that didn't go as well as hoped. The Phillies led off with back to back singles, and then put runners on second and third with one out on a sacrifice bunt. That got Cash pulled, only for Brandon Maurer to give up a run. Marc Rzepczynski came in and cleaned up the mess... and then Kevin Quackenbush got things messy again in the eighth. Quack got Jeff Francoeur out to start the inning, but then he beaned Cody Asche and gave up a single to Freddy Galvis. Carlos Ruiz advanced the runners with a ground out, and then Chase Utley hit a bases clearing double.

The Friars tried to make a comeback. Alexi Amarista led off the bottom of the eighth with a double, and Yangervis Solarte brought him home with a single. A couple of singles from Jedd Gyorko and Will Venable plated another in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.

The Padres will turn to Ian Kennedy tomorrow as the Reds come to town. Maybe he can stop the slide. First pitch is at 7:10 PM.