All you people out there telling me that the Phillies have one of the best offenses in the league and have no need for Matt Holliday (.343 AVG, 17 HR, 60 RBI, 60 R, 13 SB), I want you to look me in the eye (figuratively of course) and tell me you still think that. I agree with you that this is one of the best offenses in the league, on paper. A team composed of reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins (career* .277 AVG, 16HR, 62 RBI, 96 R, 35 SB), former MVP and Rookie of the Year Ryan Howard (.279 AVG, 42 HR, 97 RBI, 83 R)*, this year’s MVP front runner Chase Utley (.299 AVG, 21 HR, 83 RBI, 85 R, 11 SB)*, and Pat Burrell (.260 AVG, 29 HR, 96 RBI, 75 R)* should be leading the league in offense, and somehow, this team still does. Despite having an awful almost two months of baseball, the Phillies are still second in the National League in runs scored, behind Chicago.

To show you just how Jekyll and Hyde this offense has been this year, let’s look at the numbers. Since June 1st, the Phillies have scored 181 runs. They have given up 182. Now let’s take out the game against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 13th in which the Phillies won 20-2. With that game out, the Phillies have scored 161 runs and given up 180. That figure says a couple things. First off, they were really good in the beginning of this year. In April and May they scored 302 runs and only gave up 236. That is the run differential of a playoff team. Second, the fact that they are still the second highest run scoring team in the NL also shows just how weak the NL is this year.

You can’t say it’s the pitching, because the Phillies have given up less runs in June and July then they did the first two months. Granted July isn’t over yet, but even the Phils will be hard pressed to give up more than 50 runs in one week. This team just is not hitting. They aren’t hitting with runners on base, with runners in scoring position, with no runners on. They aren’t hitting.

During the month of July, Utley has two home runs and five RBIs; Rollins hasn’t had a home run since June 16th, and has seven RBIs this month; Geoff Jenkins has 16 hits since June 1st, with six of them coming in the first six days of that month; Jason Werth has six RBIs in July and Pedro Feliz has seven.

The team’s Jekyll and Hyde nature was never more evident then this past series with the Mets. The Phillies were the Kings of the Come From Behind Win last year and they showed that Never Say Die attitude on Tuesday when they scored six runs in the 9th inning to beat the Mets 8-6. After getting manhandled by Johan Santana through the first eight innings, this team showed an incredible amount of character (which they have lacked for the better part of the past two months) and grit and did not give up. Then they dropped the ball and let the momentum gained from that inning fade off and played like garbage the next two days.

Despite a rocky outing by Brett Myers on Wednesday, the game was still tied at three coming into the sixth inning. The Phillies were very much in a position to win when the bullpen gave up three runs and you could just see the air go out of this team. They just laid down and conceded.

Thursday the Phillies absolutely blew a beautiful gem thrown by Jamie Moyer and once again made the erratic Oliver Perez look like a Cy Young Award winner. Moyer went seven strong innings giving up only one run. J.C. Romero came into the 8th inning and gave up two runs. Romero has unequivocally been the Phillies best reliever this season aside from closer Brad Lidge. He has also pitched more innings than any other reliever and it is starting to show. Romero gave up a total of six runs in all of April, May and June. He has given up five so far in July, which is still remarkable and I am not dumping on him at all. But he needs some help; he needs another lefty in the bullpen that cane take on some of the situational responsibilities.

This was the biggest series of the season and the Phillies blew it, despite having the biggest inning of the year. They had the momentum; they had first place; and I still believe they have a better team. The Phillies have just been way too inconsistent this season and the Mets have gelled together since the firing of manager Willie Randolph. This is going to be a very tough road over the remaining 60 or so games, but I still think the Phillies can pull it out. They have to start this weekend against the Atlanta Braves.

* When calculating the career stats, I took out the player’s first season and this season, as neither were full seasons.