How poor the Phillies offense has been this season is no secret. They’ve scored three runs or less in 38 of their 67 games this season. Tuesday’s game against the Marlins was one of the rare games this season that the bats took over, and did significant damage early and often.
One of the problems with the offense has been that it has only one consistent power threat (Ryan Howard) in the lineup. The Phillies hit a total of five homeruns on Tuesday night. The homers came from the bats of Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Domonic Brown. The offense put up 11 hits across the game, and scored at least one run in all but two innings. It was a rare display of consistent power throughout the lineup.
When the Phillies offense was one of the best in the league, they had strong homerun threats throughout the lineup. Over the last two years, their homerun power has shrunk considerably. The wear and tear on Chase Utley’s body has taken away from his effectiveness. Guys like Rollins and Raul Ibanez are getting older and are seeing their skills decline. The team’s right-handed power threat (Jayson Werth) left the team through free agency.
The identity of this offense was based around big hits and homeruns, now that their power has declined, the result has been a lineup 
of frustrated players that can’t perform at their high levels of the past.
While it will be hard to expect the offense to consistently perform like they did on Tuesday, there is reason for optimism moving forward. Chase Utley is continuing to improve with every at-bat, and there is reason to believe that he can still be a difference maker. Domonic Brown is still adjusting to life in the major leagues, but he’s come up with some big hits and has been a clear upgrade over Ben Francisco.
The Phillies lineup has also just recently gotten all of their important pieces healthy and on the field, something they were not even able to have for 20 games last season. As this lineup gets more time together, they will improve. The end result won’t be the elite offense of 2008-2009, but it may be an offense that is good enough to properly support the great pitching of this team.
Go Phills….Paul…Braves….not a chance.
not rare, just new, first time phils have their projected starting 8 playing every day, for awhile they were playing with role players, minor leaguers, watch out, this is gonna be huge, sorry paulman, put your tomahawk and Tom Tom away
God! I hope this isn’t just a mirage. Because I can’t ever remember a team piss me off or frustrate me more than this one. Keep them runs coming. Still get a right handed power bat & get rid or Raul somehow, please Amaro.