Philadelphia Phillies: Ranking the 4 Most Blamable Phillies in This Series

The World Series favorites, the Philadelphia Phillies have shockingly been eliminated from the first round of the playoffs by the St. Louis Cardinals.

There will be a lot of time to think about what went wrong for the Phillies this series during the offseason.

A number of players deserve the blame for the Phillies' demise. They had a chance to win the series but instead, their season is over. Here are the four players most responsible for the Phillies' shocking end.

Ryan Howard

Ryan Howard started off the NLDS on a good note. He hit a home run and drove in four during the opening game of the series.

However, since then Howard has done nothing. He went 1-for-16 with with six strikeouts in the rest of the series.

It is going to be hard to justify his extension after this poor performance.

Cliff Lee

The Philadelphia Phillies brought Cliff Lee in to help them win in the postseason. He was not able to do that this year.

Lee made one start in the NLDS, and it was not a good one. While Lee did manage to strike out nine hitters, he also gave up 12 hits and five runs in six innings.

Placido Polanco

Placido Polanco did nothing but struggle at the plate against the St. Louis Cardinals pitchers. He looked overmatched every time he was at bat.

While Polanco is not one of the top bats in the Phillies' lineup, he is an important one. He went just 2-for-20 in the series.

Carlos Ruiz

Teams do not expect much from the No. 8 hitter in their lineup, but they do expect something. The Philadelphia Phillies did not get much of anything from Carlos Ruiz in the NLDS.

Ruiz collected just one hit during 17 at-bats in the series. If he could have picked up a hit here or there, the series could have had a different ending.