Could current losing steak be a blessing in disguise for Phils?

The Phillies have stunk lately.

Losers of six out of their last seven games, the Phillies continued to struggle at home tonight, losing to the Baltimore Orioles, 7-2.

Amazingly, the Phillies are in first place despite a 13-20 home record. They are a major-league best 23-9 on the road.

Prior to this losing streak, the Phillies had been a hot team, winning 10 of 13.

Of coarse, I never want the Phillies to lose. However, with a little over a month until the trade deadline, they can't let anything get in the way of disguising their shortcomings.

Winning tends to disguise problems a team has, while losing makes those weaknesses well known.

The Phillies pitching has struggled all year and with the loss of Brett Myers, the Phils are in major need of adding a top of the rotation starter.

JA Happ and Antonio Bastardo have done a serviceable job of filling in, but they are not going to be enough to allow the Phillies to make a strong push in the playoffs.

The Phillies must add a big arm.

Prior to this losing streak, there was a thought that maybe, just maybe they could get by with what they have and hope the starters pitched well.

But now the weakness is even more of a glaring need.

I haven't even touched on the bullpen yet. Clearly overworked, the bullpen has been terrible as well.

So while the losing streak is not a good thing, it does remind the Phillies brass that they must improve the rotation as well as the bullpen.

It's been made clear over the past week that what they have is not going to cut it.