Reeling Phillies Break Out A Little Baseball Voodoo to Get the Bats Going

The Phillies haven’t exactly been putting good wood on the baseball lately. Just about a month ago the Phils were the top hitting team in the National League. Now, they’re a paltry 12th in batting, hitting just .255 as a team. Philadelphia is 10th in the NL in OPS (.733) – behind the Washington Nationals – and, perhaps most importantly, have dropped to 12th in the league in runs scored (281).↵↵Since getting one-hit by Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Boston Red Sox on May 22nd, the Phillies have gone a disappointing 7-15, dropping the defending NL champs to third place in their division and 3.5 games behind the Braves.↵

↵

↵↵Clearly, something has to change, so why not a little sacrifice to the baseball gods? Or, more aptly put, a little baseball voodoo. From Todd Zolecki (Image via JWerthsBeard):↵

↵↵⇥[Chase] Utley offered no answers yesterday when asked why he has struggled for the past month.↵⇥↵⇥But he took the extra step today to end it. He arranged several bats, an apple, an orange, a banana, a can of Red Bull, a tin of chewing tobacco, batting gloves and a few vitamins in a pattern next to his locker.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥Think crop circles, but bats.↵⇥

↵↵

Check out video at The 700 Level. The notoriously quiet Utley didn’t own up to the display, but those in the clubhouse pointed to the second baseman as the creator. Utley, of all the scuffling Phillies, is struggling the most, so maybe a little levity could take the pressure off. Wait, I take that back. Struggling isn’t the right word for Utley. The perennial All-Star is batting .196 in June with just two extra base hits and two RBI in 12 games. That’s a whole new level below struggling.↵↵Maybe the apple, orange, Red Bull, glove and bat amalgamation did help the Phils bust out of their slump. While Utley, himself, didn’t manage much, the Phillies did explode for six runs off A.J. Burnett Wednesday night, including a three-run triple by Shane Vicotorino and back-to-back homers by Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth.↵

↵↵Voodoo or not, something woke up the Phillies offense last night (note: it could have just been the mediocre pitching of Burnett). As Zolecki joked, a few more shutouts and someone would be ordering the live chickens, which would have been great if for no other reason than Jamie Moyer is the real life incarnate of pitcher Eddie Harris. I’d pay good money to hear Moyer say, “up your bucket, Jobu.” If you’ve ever watched Major League on basic cable, you know what I’m talking about.↵

↵