Jamie Moyer was to be an afterthought this season. A year removed from a season he’d like to forget, Moyer wasn’t many people’s favorite for the fifth spot in the rotation.

The potential Hall-of-Famer quickly quieted the doubters this season and put himself in the All-Star conversation.

Now we have to question if we’ve gotten the best from Moyer and if we’re about to see a 47-year-old version in the second half of the season.

Jamie Moyer has gotten lit up like the Fourth of July skyline the last two games.

Moyer’s last two outings have been horrific. His ERA has jumped from 4.13 to 4.88 in two outings. He’s pitched a total of 8.1 innings and watched 13 guys cross the plate.

Thursday night’s debacle in Chicago, the first game after the All-Star break, doesn’t help. Moyer lasted just three innings and gave up six runs. The guy who was the stopper many times during the Phils hitting slump in May and June failed to carry the momentum of a Phils four-game win streak against the Reds before the break.

Look, Moyer had let up more than four runs just once since May 7. Now, he’s done it twice in a row against bad teams. The Pirates and Cubs drilled the man.

If he’s your fifth starter, you shrug and move on. The problem is, right now, he’s the Phils third man in the rotation. If this is the Moyer we’re getting for the second half of the year, then Amaro better be getting reinforcements as we near the trade deadline.

And, if you think that’s an overstatement, consider this: Moyer didn’t pitch on four days rest last night. He pitched on eight days rest. Again, you can take that from your fifth starter and we’d keep him in the rotation; he’s earned that. But, a weak Moyer clearly weakens the rest of the rotation.