The Philadelphia Phillies got a perfect game from Roy Halladay on Saturday. Other than that, they haven’t had much to celebrate. The Phillies are in the midst of an epic run shortage and have now relinquished the NL East lead to the Braves.

Diasuke Matsuzaka’s near no-hit bid started this trend, but the writing was on the wall a little before that. Since that Saturday, the Phillies have scored 7 runs in 8 games. That includes two games where they’ve scored 3 runs! The Mets were able to shut out the Phillies in a sweep in all three games, the first time it has happened in Philadelphia since 1983. The Mets haven’t blanked a team back-to-back-to-back since ’88.

So what gives? Is it because Rollins and Polanco are shelved? Rollins is a huge part of what the Phillies do, but they have too much offense to not score AT ALL. Howard got his contract and put it in cruise control. Werth has hit a massive slump, and Utley is also not hitting.  It’s strange that you see all of a team’s  superstars go completely cold. It’s impossible to think that this will continue. They’ve got to  go back to how they started the season at some point. One thing is for certain, the NL East is going to give the Phillies a run for their money this year.