Phillies lack of hitting is starting to catching up to them

There’s only so much a baseball team can do when it’s the third-worst hitting squad in the majors.

The Phillies turned around an 0-4 start to reach a 16-11 markbefore dropping two straight games, and three of four to the Cardinals after back-to-back sweeps.

In Thursday’s 4-0 series finale setback, a couple of pitching jams cost the Phillies on the mound (just like they did Wednesday night’s walk-off 5-4 loss).

And even though Jerad Eickhoffpieced together a quality start (six innings withthree earned runs) there were just way too many zeroes in the offensive box score.

Fivehits were mustered by Philadelphia but three of them came late in the game and weren’t enough to spark a comeback. Aneighth-inning triple by David Loughwas not converted into a run and ninth inning singles from Odubel Herrera and Freddy Galvisyielded no runs.

Afirst-inning homer from Brandon Moss was enough to lift St. Louis thanks to seven shutout innings from Jaime Garcia and a dynamite bullpen behind him. It was, surprisingly,the first Phillies’ offensive shutout of the season.

In all, the Phillies have scored just 90 runs through 29 games as their offensive woes have kept them from posting –perhaps — the best record in the NL East (if they supported their pitching just a bit better).

Philly has a quickturnaroundThursday night, as the club will hop a flight to Miami to play the Marlins three times this weekend starting on Friday. The Phils’ top three starters, Vincent Velasquez, Jeremy Hellickson andAaron Nola will take the hill looking to be slump busters prior to a day off Monday May 9.

For the Marlins, left-handerWei-Yin Chen will start the opener against Velasquez (a 7:10 start on CSN) followed byTom Koehler Saturday andJustin Nicolino in a 1:10 Sunday afternoon matinee.