Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart.
—"Hammerin'" Oscar Hammerstein II, "You'll Never Walk Alone".

The Phils won a ballgame yesterday in as odd a fashion as they have been losing them as late. In the third inning of a scoreless ballgame with the Mets, Chase Utley hit a two-out single and then was followed by four straight walks and a hit batsmen as the Phils score three runs and never looked back eventually winning, 5-2.

Oliver Perez, the Mets starter, was pulled after the hit batsman, while pitching a one-hitter. However, he also allowed seven walks and the HBP along with three runs, all earned, in two and two-thirds innings. Of his 73 pitches, only 32 were strikes. He threw just nine strikes in the 31 pitches he threw during the two-out rally in the third.

Perez's wildness was contrasted by the Phillies pitchers who were nearly perfect from Adam Eaton's seven-inning, four-hit start to Antonio Alfonseca's perfect eighth to Tom Gordon's one-hit ninth that earned his first save of the season. It seems that Alfonseca, who seemed to start the season in Manuel's doghouse, has earned a shot at the setup job. He seems the logical pick at this point.

The pitching potentially turning a corner will have more impact on the season, but the story of the game was the walks. The Phils garnered eleven on the night for the second time this season. Actually, the Phils are on a pace to set the team mark for walks per game. So far this season, they have amassed 51 walks in their first eight games for an average of 6.4. That outpaces the highest average ever, 5.39 per game, collected by Joe McCarthy's 1949 Red Sox who were led by Teddy B-ball's 162 BBs (tying his career high and tied for the fifth highest ever).

Here are the ten highest walks per game team totals ever:

(Note that the Indians' 5.20 average this year would also make the list.)

Oddly, the Phils also are on a pace to match the all-time list for strikeouts per game, 8.63, with 69 in eight games so far this year. Here is the all-time top ten:

The Phils are also just a hair above the league average in homers per game (0.88 vs. 0.83), which no one would have expected from what promised to be a very productive lineup that plays in a hitters' park.

Actually, homers are down all around the league. Home runs per game are at their lowest since 1992:

However, I should point out that the D-Rays—Yes, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays—are on a pace to break the "record" for team dingers per game. They have had 14 in their first eight games, though no one player has more than two. That averages to 1.75 home runs per game. The Braves are also fractions ahead of the all-time pace at 1.63. Here are the all-time team highs:

But I digress. The bottom line is the Phils are on a record pace for strikeouts and walks per game, meaning that they are not making contact. That was something that we knew was an issue, but we didn't know it was this bad.

They have eight players—their whole starting lineup—that project to one hundred or more strikeouts for the season led by Ryan Howard who is on a pace for an all-time record 202 Ks:

Six Phils project to one hundred or more walks again led by Ryan Howard who projects to about 203, which would be the second highest all-time :

Of course, it's very early in the season but there are some signs of serious trouble in this lineup. Consider that the Phils have a glorified batting coach as a manager, and it makes you wonder what they are trying to do at the plate. As the weather gets warmer, these 11-walk games are likely to disappear but the strikeouts will continue to pile up.

How this team will generate some real offense will be a very interesting subplot as the season progresses. Of course, it would be more interesting if the defense and pitching woes weren't more serious. Maybe they solved some of those yesterday. It some point they are going to have to realize they need an honest to goodness major-league caliber starting third baseman (offensively and defensively) and probably right fielder, but this dysfunctional front office is probably a couple of months away from that revelation.