Exposed

I was afraid of this.

Everything seemed ripe for an old-fashioned whipping and the Los Angeles Dodgers obliged last night, crushing the Phils 15-9. To those who say "it was only one game" I reply, "yeah, but it exposed nearly all of the Phillies' weaknesses">

Kyle Kendrick was dreadful. Antonio Bastardo was ineffective. David Herndon was terrible. Danys Baez probably pitched himself off the roster. J.C. Romero appears to be cooked. It's hard to find much consolation in any of those performances.

The Dodgers have come to town before and smoked the Phils. Fortunately, the hometown boys get their bad games against LA out of their system before the post-season, but if yesterday indicated anything, and it did, it was that the Phillies bullpen isn't effective and the back of the rotation is always an accident waiting to happen.

The return of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino might overcome some of those deficiencies, but probably not enough. If the Phils cannot overtake the Braves, and there is still time, their chances of making the post season are poor because the Wild Card seems to be even further out of reach with at least two good teams, St. Louis or Cincinnati and San Francisco, standing in the way.

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Domonic Brown made the looming decision for the Phillies alleged brain trust more difficult by going 2-4 and stroking his first major league home run. If it comes down to keeping him over the 13th pitcher, there seems to be little argument for the pitching. I can think of at least two candidates sitting on the bubble. See above for clues.