Gabe White goes 2 innings and gives up zero runs and 1 hit on no walks and no ks but thats not really the pitching performance that draws your eye in this box score.

Jeff Suppan got the first two batters he faced and then gave up two home runs. Then he gave up a single before David Bell flied out. Then in the second St. Louis native Ryan Howard (.214/.267/.393) hit his first home run of the year to lead off the inning.

Then Mike Lieberthal singled. Then Cory Lidle (the pitcher) singled. And on and on, 7 straight Phillies reached base until 5 runs later Suppan finally got them 1-2-3. Suppan finally got chased in the fourth by a leadoff Endy Chavez single. All in all thats 7 runs in 3 innings. The immediet instinct is to say "Just a rough game, no worries". But I'm already not worrying about Scott Rolens absence so I need some reassurance. The game log has something interesting.

Suppans worst start of the year (before today)? April 9th against the Phillies where he went 4 innings, gave up 2 home runs, and generally sucked (5 earned runs). In fact throw out the two Phillies starts and Suppans got a 3.12 ERA (As opposed to his current 4.76). He's only given up 1 home run to a team that wasn't the Phillies (and 5 to the Phils).

So maybe Soups got some tell the Phillies know about, maybe he's unlucky. But his last 3 starts have ranged from meh (5.2 innings 3 earned runs) to good (7 innings 2 earned runs) and theres nothing there that points to a pending collapse. It's not a scientific study but I'll buy that he just had an off night.