Ashes, ashes, we all fall down

It's about time those 80-mph heaters caught up to the old man.

Sad as it may seem, Jamie Moyer is now the latest Phillie to take a ride on the DL carousel, which is becoming so crowded that it's turning into a maniacal game of spinning musical chairs. Kyle Kendrick was the man left standing as he was demoted to Triple-A. I don't see Andrew Carpenter or J.A. Happ changing the team's present fortune. It looks like the Phils are going to limp their way to the Trade Deadline.

It's incredible we got Moyer's services for this long. He's reached double figures in wins every full season he's spent with the Phightins', even leading the squad with 16 in 2008. He hasn't played less than a full season since 2000 when he was already in his late 30s.

After Moyer was forced to the bullpen to make room for Pedro Martinez last season, he proved his value this past spring and made it back to the rotation. He was as consistent as anyone could hope to be at his age, and hitters still admired his deceptive style on the mound. He was the third-best starter behind Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels, and I wouldn't be surprised if his elbow began bothering him well before tonight.

Make no bones about it, this team is lost right now. The impulsive decision to option Kendrick appears like a virtual swing and miss at a bad pitch. The NL East has reverted back to its mid-2000s form with the Braves comfortably sitting in first place and the Phillies wallowing in mediocrity with the rest of the division. They managed to pull themselves out to make late runs in '05 and '06, and I'm wondering if they have the same fight in them this time. I can't make any predictions at this point.

The Phillies aren't going anywhere with their present group, so the only card left to play is a major trade. They need a starting pitcher now more than ever, and the option of trading Jayson Werth before the deadline - judging from the growing noise of frustration from the fans and the media - is becoming more of a possibility each passing day. His - and Happ's - involvement in a possible swap for a right-handed hurler would protect more prospects, but Werth's value is falling sharply with each strikeout. As far as other teams are concerned, 2009 may as well have been a fluke for the right fielder.

Roy Oswalt, Dan Haren and Ben Sheets have all been thrown around as possible names for a trade. All of them are stretches due to Oswalt's full no-trade clause and Haren's and Sheets' inconsistency (not to mention they're both injury-prone). The Phillies are maxed out on payroll so if they're serious about a deal, they're going to give up more than what's comfortable for them, particularly when dealing with the Astros, Diamondbacks and A's, who are all out of contention.

There's no perfect solution to this problem, and Ruben Amaro, Jr., said a pitcher alone is not going to get the Phillies back to the World Series, and he's right. The offense has been stuck in a coma for the better part of the season. But Amaro is dealing with a spoiled fanbase that has grown too accustomed to winning and is still angry at him for letting Cliff Lee get away before the start of this season. Whatever lies ahead for the team after July 31, he will be the scapegoat for any major failures.

But it's not Amaro's fault. This group was talented enough at the start of the year to become the first National League team in nearly 70 years to appear in the Fall Classic three straight times. Injuries to several key pieces of the puzzle have negatively affected the team more than anyone is willing to admit.

The tone of this post makes it sound like I'm throwing in the towel, but I'm merely explaining the reality of the Phillies' predicament. It's still very possible to snap out of this funk and make a run, but I will not feign shocking disappointment if that doesn't happen. Philly's morale is broken and it can't be restored until the players rediscover the confidence that made them the team to beat.

Would you like to ride with Batman?

I don't know if anyone remembers this commercial, but it was from the mid-1990s, and it involved a football coach checking on one of his players who was on the receiving end of a shell-shocking tackle. The coach asks him, "Who am I," to which the player responds plainly, "You're coach." The coach then asks the player, "Who are you?" The player beams at him with confidence as he proclaims, "I'm Batman!"

The Phillies offense has been afflicted with a case of mistaken identity, though the new person is not a masked vigilante with a killer suit and a car that fills the military with envy (I just wanted to share the memory of that hilarious commercial). Philly is more akin to Two Face, dominated by an evil side that can't score runs. The only upside is that every once in a while, Harvey Dent re-emerges to dispose of enemy pitching.

I guess Daniel McCutchen and Ross Ohlendorf were like the Joker, a new threat the Phillies had no idea how to overcome, and Paul Maholm was the familiar crime boss who was easy to put away (despite the lefty coming in with a 3-1 record and 3.29 ERA against Philadelphia). The Phillies jumped all over him early in a 12-4 thrashing that finally gave them a win at PNC Park. No matter what team the Phils face, when they hit the cover off the ball like they used to do on a regular basis, it seems to occur at random, and these outbursts are surrounded by three- or four-game stretches of bewilderment. It's a dizzying pattern to follow and is not making much of a dent (no pun intended) in the division.

I'm glad Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth finally listened to my pleas, ending their respective RBI droughts of six and eight games. They combined to drive in four runs - the kind of production you want to see out of at least one of them every game with Utley and Polanco out of the lineup. Ironically, their help wasn't really needed tonight, but J-Roll and Victorino aren't going to combine for six hits and the cycle too often.

Ben Francisco finally got the home run monkey off his back, and his increased playing time over the last few weeks has helped his hitting. I'd expect to see him out there more and more. It may still be too early to tell, but it appears as if 38-year-old Raul Ibanez is on a career decline.

Kyle Kendrick is dealing with his own Two Face issues, but the better half that he showed throughout all of Spring Training - and easily won him the fifth spot in the rotation after J.A. Happ went down - returned in his first-ever complete game. This is the fifth straight game in which a Philly starter has gone at least seven innings, but the team is just 2-3 in that stretch.

This is a group that is fully capable of winning, even regaining first place in the East, without Chase Utley or Placido Polanco. There's no doubt in my mind of that. I'm just not sure they believe that right now. I feel like I've said this way too much, but tonight's win was a good start back to that confidence. They need to find their inner-Batman and continue to take care of the bad guys.