In the Philadelphia Phillies second round of inter league play this season, they showed that it will take more than National League numbers to win a World Series.



Opening up their week against the AL East leading Boston Redsox proved only that the Phillies have one prominent pitcher in their five man rotation, as Cole Hamels shut down the Red Sox offense in game one. Hamels allowed 8 hits and 2 runs as the Phils offense hit early and often and put up 8 runs against Bartolo Colon who had to leave the game after four innings because of back spasms caused by a ridiculous looking at bat. Rollins connected for a first inning home run and Howard connected for two in the 6 run rout of the AL leading Bosox.

Tuesday night, the Phils faced one of the Red Sox top young pitchers in Jon Lester and it proved to be too much for the Phightins. The Phils managed 7 hits off Red Sox pitching but no runs. Boston on the other hand managed to score 2 runs off starting pitcher Jamie Moyer and tacked on one more run later in the game to cap off a 3-0 win to tie the series at one.

The Phils would send Kyle Kendrick to the mound on Wednesday to try and win the series. Kendrick though wouldn't bring his best stuff to the afternoon rubber match. Boston managed to tag Kendrick for four runs in the first and after allowing two more runs in the third, Kendrick was pulled and the rout was on. The Phils managed to fight back just a bit, but fell short and lost the series and the game by a score of 7-4.

Chase Utley's struggles continued, as he played all three games of the series with the Red Sox and went without a hit.

The Phils would have on off day on Thursday before hosting the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim. Unfortunately, the Phils seemed to be in space throughout the weekend as they dropped all three games to LA. The Phils only managed to score five runs in the series and allowed 15.

This week has proven that the Phils will need to look to the trade market to improve if they will look to win a World Series against one of these AL opponents.

Despite losing five straight, the Phillies have managed to continue to cling to a one game lead in the NL East. They head on the road for the rest of their inter league stint as they visit Oakland and Texas. The Phils will have to have a positive west coast road trip, as they head down to Atlanta before they come back to Philly to face the Mets for four games over fourth of July weekend.

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