Year In Review: June

The Phillies started off the month of June hot, but once interleague play came, they were stone cold. They finished 12-13, the only month the Phillies finished below .500.

Jayson Werth returned from the disabled list in early June. Chase Utley hit his 20th homerun in June's first game. He led the league in homeruns for quite some time. Twice during the season, he hit homeruns in 5 straight games.

As a team the Phillies batted .232 in the month. The Phillies also had a team ERA of 3.73.

The big games:

June 6: The Phillies were losing 2-1 in the 9th inning with 2 outs to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Feild. Chris Coste hit a shallow fly ball down the right field line. Kelly Johnson dropped the ball as the tying run scored. Pedro Feliz was thrown out at the plate, but the Phillies still managed to tie the game. In the 10th inning, Chase Utley doubled to give the Phillies a 4-2 lead. However, in the bottom of the 10th with 2 runners on base, Yunel Escobar singled to drive in a run with the tying run rounding third. But Shane Victorino threw him out at the plate to secure the win for the Phillies and the save for Brad Lidge.

Two days later, Victorino drove in the go ahead run in the 9th inning as the Phillies went onto win and sweep the Braves.

June 13: For the second time in less than 2 weeks, the Phillies scored 20 runs. Howard continued his hometown cooking against the team he grew up rooting for hitting 2 homeruns. The Phillies ended up losing the series to Cardinals, which was just the beginning of a hitting drought.

June 16: The Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox 8-2 behind Cole Hamels. After the game, Hamels made a bold statement saying the series could be a World Series preview. Well, he was half right, almost 100% right as the Red Sox lost to the Rays in the ALCS in 7 games. The Phillies ended up losing the series to the Red Sox, and got swept by the Los Angeles Angels.

June 24: The Phillies lost to the Oakland A's. The A's starter: Joe Blanton. Blanton pitched 7 innings allowing just 1 run against the Phillies. Who knew about a month later he'd be on the team he just pitched against.

Other highlights:

June 4: Brett Myers flirted with a no hitter pitching 7.1 innings. He allowed just 1 run, however the Phillies lost the game 2-0.

June 5: Jimmy Rollins gets benched after he failed to run out a fly ball in which the Red's shortstop dropped. In the process, Cole Hamels shutout the Reds as the Phillies won 5-0.

June 12: Moyer dazzled the Marlins as he pitched 8 shut out innings allowing 2 hits.

June 15: Tied at 6 in the 9th inning with the bases loaded, Eric Bruntlett plowed into Yadier Molina to knock him out. Molina somehow held onto the ball to get Bruntlett out, as the Cardinals went onto win. In the game, Chase Utley made 2 wild throws to first base in which Tom Gordon did not catch. The first was a wild throw, but the second was a ball Tom Gordon flat out missed.

June 27: Pedro Feliz hits a grand slam against the Texas Rangers.

In June, Chase Utley struggled, having an 0-24 stretch before getting benched for a game.

The Phillies overall record became closer to .500 as to earlier where it was over 10 games above .500. After a rough end of June, the Phillies hoped to rebound in July.