July 21 -- THAT'S OFFENSIVE!

Morning, all. Just got home from Lauderdale, and I'm trying to figure out what's more incredible.

a) Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight (more on that in a bit)

b) The month-long, team-wide slump that has befallen the Phillies' offense

Here were are, 10 days from the trade deadline, and the Phils need a Batman (sorry, but the movie was really good). Who would've thought that the offense would be the problem? Cole Hamels pitched superbly yesterday, allowing only a pair of solo home runs, and yet he got a no-decision and the Phillies lost 3-2 in 11 innings because the offense came up small. Again. And when it was over, and the Phillies had gone 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 on base, Charlie Manuel sat behind the desk in the visiting manager's office at Dolphin Stadium and vented.

Manuel called the Phillies' situational hitting "absolutely terrible" and "absolutely off the chart, really." Trust me, Chuck could've used a Double Absolut. He also said the lineup is vastly different from last season, when the Phils led the NL with nearly 900 runs, and he indicated, without invoking Aaron Rowand's name, that the Phils desperately miss the gritty center fielder who departed via free agency in December. (One aside: When the Phillies ostensibly replaced Rowand with Geoff Jenkins, I wrote in this space and in The News Journal that Jenkins and Jayson Werth would at least match Rowand's 2007 production. That hasn't happened, especially in the clutch. Rowand batted .287 with 62 RBIs with runners in scoring position last season. Jenkins/Werth are batting .222 with 38 RBIs with RISP. But I digress...)

It has been 30 games since the Phillies put a 20-2 whooping on the Cardinals on June 13 at Busch Stadium. During that span, they have gone 12-18, scored four or fewer runs 20 times, averaged 3.97 runs per game and batted .212 with runners in scoring position. Compare that to the first 69 games, when the Phillies went 41-28, scored four or fewer runs 31 times, averaged 5.41 runs per game and batted .282 with runners in scoring position.

"You've got to really concentrate on moving a runner," said Manuel, exasperated by the Phillies' all-or-nothing reliance on home runs. "You've got to want to move him. Sometimes they feel like we're giving up an at-bat. No, you're not. There's hits all over the field. If you hit behind the runner, you can still get hits. That's just called execution and hitting the ball in the right direction. When we don't do that, I was telling some of our guys around the cage, it's going to be hard for us to win.

"I hear everyone [praise] our lineup, but people don't realize, we've got a different lineup than we had last year. We've got three or four top-notch major-league hitters. Have they had better years? Yes. At the same time, they're still good hitters. But if you follow our team, we've got different people. Sometimes, one guy makes a difference."

Sounds like a plea to management to acquire another hitter, doesn't it? Could a deal be revived for Matt Holliday? From everything I've heard, the Rockies are more likely to trade Holliday during the offseason. Could Xavier Nady help the Phillies?

How would you fix the Phillies' offense?

***
Pat Burrell didn't feel like chatting much yesterday about being replaced in the eighth inning for defensive reasons. But Burrell has said many times before that he doesn't much care for coming out of close games. He understands that he's not the fastest guy in the world. When he draws a walk late in a game, he knows Manuel is going to pinch-run for him. But the Phillies could've used Burrell's bat in the 11th inning yesterday, and instead, they had to settle for Eric Bruntlett.

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Don't look now, but if the Marlins beat the Braves tonight at Dolphin Stadium, there will be a three-way tie atop the NL East. "I definitely think everybody takes us seriously," Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla said. "We were in first place for month. We just got some guys off the DL. I think everybody knows we're not a fluke. We're right where we need to be."

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Pitching matchups for the Phillies-Mets series that opens tomorrow night at Shea:
RHP Joe Blanton (5-12, 4.96 w/Oakland) vs. LHP Johan Santana (8-7, 3.10)
RHP Brett Myers (3-9, 5.84) vs. RHP John Maine (8-7, 4.22)
LHP Jamie Moyer (9-6, 3.90) vs. LHP Oliver Perez (6-6, 4.36)

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Do yourself a favor and see The Dark Knight, if you haven't already. A few fellow Phillies scribes and I caught a late show last night in Lauderdale. Also, if you're ever in the Lauderdale/Miami area, make sure to eat here. GQ rated their burgers as the best in the nation, and after sampling one Saturday night, I think I concur.