It was discussed a lot leading up the beginning of the 2009 baseball season, would Philly fans give their team a break from booing since they won the World Series last year? If the team started slow, would they just be appreciative that they were the reigning world champs? While it turns out the fans did not cut them much slack, that is of little concern to the Phillies’ players now, because someone much more important is seemingly very ticked off at how they are playing: Charlie Manuel.

The Phillies’ normally congenial and tight lipped manager is starting to come unraveled. Manuel has made it a policy throughout his career as a major league manager to deal with things internally. If he has a problem with a player, he takes care of it face to face, and then moves on.

But the Phillies’ lackluster start to just their second ever season as defending World Champs has started to really irk Manuel.

Earlier this week Manuel let slip that he thinks some of his players are not playing the same attitude they were last year, still basking in the afterglow of their World Series victory.

“We’ve got some very professional players, we’ve got some players that love the game just like they always did but now we’ve also some guys who, I think that they need to kind of look back and think how we got there, and what we did to be a winning team, and I think that sometimes you can do things that get away from the fact that the game is the first priority and winning the game is the first priority,” Manuel said on Monday.

Thursday’s game in which the Phillies were no-hit into the eighth inning seemed to be the boiling point for Manuel.

“Bush had a no-hitter into the eighth,” Manuel said. “You have to give him some credit. He was hitting his spots, making some pitches.

“But I didn’t like the way we played. I should give Bush more credit. I don’t want to take anything away from him. But I didn’t like the way we hit. I didn’t like the way we swung the bat.

“We swung the bats defensively. We weren’t aggressive at the plate. We didn’t put good swings on the ball. The first ball we hit hard was the one by [Matt] Stairs.”

That hit by Stairs, a homerun with one out in the eighth inning, was the Phillies first hit of the game.

For Manuel, a hitting coach for much of his coaching career, his team getting no-hit is the ultimate sin. This is the guy who, despite winning the World Series, was still upset that none of his every-day starters hit above .300 last season.

“You don’t want to be on SportsCenter all day hearing, ‘The Philadelphia Phillies got no-hit,’ ” Stairs said. “That stays with you. As hitters, you take pride. If you go 27-up, 27-down, it [stinks].”

The Phillies have had little to be proud of in the first few weeks of the season. They are a lackluster 6-9 on the season, with a dreary 3-6 record at home. Manuel saw this slow start coming, venting in Spring Training about some players who think they can just turn it on at will.

The Phillies have suffered from rampant inconsistency. After Manuel called the hitters out on Monday, they pounded the Milwaukee Brewers 11-4 on Tuesday. But they followed that up with a 3-1 loss on Wednesday and were almost no-hit on Thursday.

Jimmy Rollins, the catalyst of this offense, is hitting just .196 on the season with an on-base percentage of .206. That is what you might expect from you’re number eight guy, not your former MVP leadoff man.

Shane Victorino, another pesky speedster who often times ignites the Phils’ hitting, is batting just .250 on the season with only two steals.

While the Phils have had their offensive struggles at times, there are a number of playes on the team having a good season. Raul Ibanez, the new kid in left field, has made most Phillies fans forget the streaky Pat Burrell, hitting .345 with five homeruns and 11 RBIs.

Chase Utley, who wasn’t expected to start the season until May or June, is hitting .333 with four homeruns and 12 RBIs of his own. Likewise, Pedro Feliz was expected to start the season on the disabled list, but instead is hitting .304 with an OPS of .817.

The hitting is inconsistent, but isn’t the source of most worry for the Phillies right now. The pitching, on the other hand, is making everyone scratch their heads.

The Phillies’ starters have yet to pitch a game without giving up at least one homerun. Despite pitching only 3.1 innings and striking out six on Thursday, Cole Hamels gave up a two-run homerun to the Brewers’ Ryan Braun. Braun came into the three game series against the Phillies hitting .222 with one homerun and five RBIs. He is now hitting .327 with four homeruns and 11 RBIs.

Hamels did go three innings without giving up a run on Thursday, which was the second longest a Phillies’ starter had gone all season. Joe Blanton set the longest mark the day before going four innings before allowing a run. The Phillies allowed eight runs in three straight games at the end of the last week, and have only two pitchers with an ERA under 3.00, both relievers.

All five of the Phillies’ starters have an ERA above 5.00. Brett Myers has the lowest starting ERA at 5.03, but is tied for the most homeruns allowed in the majors with seven. The Phillies bullpen, the best in the National League last year, has an average ERA of 5.87.

Closer Brad Lidge, perfect in save opportunities last season, has been anything but this season. In addition to blowing his first save since 2007, Lidge has allowed seven earned runs in 7 2/3 innings on a bullpen high 10 hits.

Jack Taschner, who was brought in during spring training to replace J.C. Romero, who is serving a 50 game suspension, as the other lefty in the bullpen, has an ERA of 5.14. Ryan Madson, the Phillies lights out set up man during the second half of last year, has given up four runs in seven innings. Chad Durbin has allowed six runs in just over seven innings. I could go on, but I don’t want to belabor the point.

While Manuel may be steemed over the Phils inconsistent hitting, that’s because he’s a hitting coach at heart. What is of a more immediate concern is the pitching. The Phillies already lead the league in come from behind wins with six. They only have six wins total. That’s not a good stat, nor one that leads to winning another World Series.