Phillies look to move past tough road stretch

BALTIMORE -- Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg called Tuesday's 19-3 loss to the Orioles an ugly one.

That was one way to describe it.

"Almost don't know what to say," Sandberg said. "Yeah, it was ugly. It was an ugly game."

Could it lead to an organizational shakeup?

"Well, it's not going over well with us here," said Sandberg, asked how he thought the road trip played with Phillies president Pat Gillick and others in the Phillies' front office. "We've got to do something about it. We've got to come out and put together a game to get it going the other way. That's up to us down here. That's the way I look at that."

CSNPhilly.com reported earlier this week that the Phillies have targeted Andy MacPhail as Gillick's eventual replacement, so changes could be coming anyway.

"I'm unaware of that," Sandberg said when asked if he wonders about potential changes in the organization. "I'm here to deal with the job at hand here. We have to come out and play a solid game and turn it around and get it going in the other direction. Get a good outing from our starter tomorrow and do something offensively to put together a game."

The Phillies went 0-8 on their road trip through Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. It is their first winless road trip of eight or more games since 1883, when the Phillies had an 0-9 road trip in their inaugural season. The Phillies have lost 18 of their last 21 games to fall to 22-44, which is their worst start through 66 games since they were 22-44 in 1997.

"What are you going to shake up?" said Phillies outfielder Jeff Francoeur, who pitched two innings in relief. "We're out there playing hard.

"It's a bad road trip, the worst road trip I've ever been on as far as the way we lost games. I think it will be good to get home. We've played pretty good at home. Hopefully, we can get home and play well tomorrow night. We owe these guys a whuppin' to be honest with you. We'll get home tonight, get some sleep and play well tomorrow."