The name of tonight's Phillies starter, Jerome Williams, evokes memories of a bad time in the not so distant Orioles past. Williams was the starting pitcher in probably the worst Orioles game of 2011, where that year's edition of the lineup failed horribly against him despite the fact that he last pitched in the major leagues in 2007. Brian Matusz failed as a starting pitcher that day and on MASN, Jim Palmer was practically screaming at left fielder Felix Pie, "It's a day game! PLAY DEEPER!"
Somehow Williams is still in the major leagues, and in a big league starting rotation, no less. That's how bad the Phillies are this year. It's mid-June and Williams has a 5.71 ERA. My goodness, that's terrible. But it is only slightly more terrible than the ERA of tonight's Orioles starter, Chris Tillman, who is sitting not-so-pretty with a 5.68. For crying out loud.
The Phillies have yet to win a game on their current road trip. They've lost seven games in a row. They are the lone team in all of MLB that has scored fewer than 200 runs, and they're far behind most teams in that area. They are a bad, bad, baseball team. This is a game that the Orioles had darn sure better win.