Domonic Brown has a broken hand and will likely miss four to six weeks. Brown hurt the hand fouling off a pitch in Saturday’s game. His spring sure looks over. Assuming it is, he’ll end it 1-for-16 with nine strikeouts.

Ben Francisco seems pretty close to a lock to start in right field on opening day for the Phils.

Yesterday the Phils played a pair of split squad games, falling to Detroit 2-1 and beating the Rays 5-4.

Lee struck out five in four shutout innings in the game against Tampa Bay. Eddie Bonine followed him and got hit hard again, he was charged with three runs over two innings. Justin De Fratus pitched the seventh and allowed a run on three singles — he’s now allowed five runs in four innings over three appearances. Romero and Mathieson each threw a scoreless inning.

Howard and Schneider both had early homers for the Phils. Gload was 2-for-4 with a double. Michael Martinez was 0-for-1 to drop his spring average to .111. Matt Rizzotti hit a solo homer in the eighth to tie the game at 4-4. Joel Naughton delivered a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Phils the win. Rizzotti is 2-for-4 on the spring, Naughton 1-for-2.

Kendrick got the start in the game the Phils lost to the Tigers and threw three scoreless frames. He has yet to allow a run or a walk in five innings over two appearances. David Herndon followed him with a pair of scoreless innings, Michael Schwimer threw a scoreless sixth and Juan Perez a scoreless seventh. Matt Holliday homered off of Michael Stutes in the eighth to tie the game at 1-1. Matt Anderson started the ninth and got one out, but allowed three singles and the run that gave the Tigers a 2-1 win.

Mayberry gave the Phils their only run in the game with a second-inning homer off of Phil Coke. He was 1-for-3 in the game and is 6-for-20 with two walks and two homers so far. Valdez was 3-for-3 to raise his average to .533 (8-for-15 with a double). Carlos Rivero started at third and went 0-for-3. He’s 2-for-9 with two singles in official spring action. Robb Quinlan 0-for-3 in the game and 1-for-9 so far. Josh Barfield went 1-for-2, which dropped his average to .714 (he’s 5-for-7 with a double).

Halladay pitched well on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough as the Phils fell to Pittsburgh 4-3. He tossed three scoreless frames and has now allowed three hits and three walks over five innings this spring without allowing a run. JC Ramirez didn’t fare as well. He followed Halladay and threw three innings, allowing at least one run in each of them. Lidge, Contreras and Madson all threw a scoreless inning in the game. For Lidge, it was his first outing in three tries in which he was not charged a run.

Francisco was 2-for-3 on the day and homered off of Paul Maholm in the second, his second spring homer. Martinez had an RBI-single in his only at-bat and Delwyn Young went 3-for-3 with an RBI to raise his spring average to .417.

Friday the Phils topped the Pirates, 7-4. Blanton and Dan Meyer were charged with the four runs the Pirates scored. Blanton allowed a pair of runs over 3 2/3 innings to raise his spring ERA to 2.70. Meyer just went one inning, allowing two runs on two doubles and a walk. Baez, Carpenter and Zagurski all threw scoreless innings. Bastardo made his spring debut, striking out two while throwing a scoreless ninth.

Howard hit his first spring homer for the Phils, a solo shot in the sixth, and drove in two runs for the Phils. Rollins went 2-for-3. Valdez was 3-for-4 with a double.

Roy Oswalt is expected to pitch today as the Phils face the Yankees.

The Phils hope to know soon whether the cortisone injection that Utley received for his right knee helped.

This says that after surgery, Brown will go to Triple-A so he can play every day.

This piece considers options if the Phils have to go without Utley to start the season and suggests we forget the possibility of Polanco playing second. If the season started today, I’m pretty sure we would see Valdez at second and Polanco at third.