9,968 = Snooze City

Today's Phillies' Milestone Loss No. 9,968 was one of those mid-week, businessman's specials which was bland n' boring -- and one of those defeats during this 82-80 season of '07 in which we'll all look back and remark, "That probably shouldn't have happened."
The Phils are 3-2 vs. the D.C. Nats -- but if they had any designs on winning this season, they'd have to be 5-0 vs. that opponent.
Ya can't go 9-10 vs. a 71-91 opponent (as the Philles did vs. the Nats last year) ... and you can't go 3-2 en route to a 10-9 record against a 66-96 opponent (as the Phillies will do vs. the Nats this year).

The only solution: Fire Larry Bowa.
'Cuz he's "too intense."
It doesn't matter if Larry Bowa's current job as third-base coach for the Yankees has no bearing on the outcome of Phillies' games.
He has to be fired.
That's how the Phils'll turn it around.
Just you wait.

The 5-game win streak is history. And, in case anyone is interested, the Phils have scored 40 runs in 12 defeats (3.33333 runs per loss) and have scored 64 runs in their 9 wins (7 runs per victory).
So, for those who are following The MLB for the first time (The Sporting News ... and anyone else who had punched Philly's ticket to the World Series), the following equation does not (and never has worked):
"The Phils will be in a lot of 10-8 ballgames this year."

Ergo, Rollins, Utley, Howard, Burrell and Rowland are not going to "slug" their way to 90-95 wins.

Which means that Cole Hamels can pitch a fairly-decent ballgame (as he did today) and he might come up empty -- especially against a mediocre hurler from Mississauga, Ontario (Shawn Hill).
Unless ColeHamelsSmokesCamels sparks up a few more 15 K performances (as he did in his previous outing), he can expect to go 13-10, maybe 14-11.

Well, let's see what happens when the Martians invade The Cit ...