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I’m a bit flummoxed by the trade for Jack Taschner. I thought the clear play for the Phils was to hold onto Paulino and let him play a lot against left-handed pitching, which he has hammered over his career. That didn’t happen, though, and the Phils shipped Paulino away for Taschner, a guy who turns 31 this month and has a 5.68 ERA with a miserable 1.64 ratio over the past three seasons and has been bombed this spring (6.23 ERA and a 2.54 ratio and three unearned runs before last night’s appearance).

This article points out that Taschner is going to make $835,000 this season whether he plays in the minors or the majors. That seems to suggest there’s a good chance he’s going to be playing in the majors. Since he’s on the Phillies it probably means he’ll be playing for them. So I thought I’d go looking for the silver lining.

You have to look pretty hard for the silver lining. To the degree it’s there I think it has two main parts: 1) he strikes people out and 2) he was very solid till the end of the season in 2008 when his numbers fell apart.

First the strikeouts. For his career, he’s struck out 124 in 140 innings. That’s 7.97 per nine innings. He also has struck out lefties and righties at about the same rate over his career. He’s fanned 67 of the 350 righties he’s faced (19.1%) and 57 of the 295 lefties (19.3%).

He also threw to a 3.03 ERA with a 1.35 ratio in 32 2/3 innings for the Giants in the first half of last year. He blew up in the second half, though, throwing just 15 1/3 miserable innings with an 8.80 ERA and a 2.41 ratio. Opponents hit 380/440/634 against him in the second half.

His overall numbers last year were actually solid through his appearance on August 24 against the Padres. Through his first 58 games he had thrown to a 3.89 ERA with a 1.44 ratio. In his last nine appearances of the season he allowed eight earned runs in 6 1/3 innings, an 11.37 ERA with a hideous 3.32 ratio (13 hits and eight walks).

Here’s how his career rates for runs, hits, walks and strikeouts compares to some other Phillies’ lefties (remembering that Happ has thrown just 35 2/3 innings while Romero and Eyre have each thrown more than 500):

Taschner isn’t especially good against lefties. He does have some nice numbers against righties compared to the rest of that group:

Yesterday the Phils released Geoff Jenkins. That one came as a surprise to me, but I also think it’s a mistake. Werth has had 400 plate appearances once in his career and has a history of having problems hitting right-handed pitching. I think Jenkins would have been a good guy to have around. Not sure why you would want to pay to not have him around and I especially think it’s a bad idea if the reason is so you can put Miguel Cairo on your team.

The article linked above also suggests the Phils may be interested in Gary Sheffield. Sheffield and Stairs would be one DH too many if the Phils played in a league with the DH.

Chan Ho Park will be the Phillies fifth starter. That article also suggests that Happ, Majewski, Mosebach and Taschner are competing for two jobs. I’d guess Taschner is likely on the team and Mosebach is likely not.

Brett Myers will start opening day.

The Phillies beat the Blue Jays last night, winning 9-1 to improve to 12-16 in spring training.

Myers got the start for the Phils and allowed a run on three hits. Travis Snider hit a solo home run off of him in the second and the other two hits were singles. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three. His spring ERA is 3.52. Taschner and Majewski both pitched scoreless innings.

Ibanez was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his first of the spring. Rollins was 2-for-3 with a double to raise his average to .321. Werth 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI. He’s hitting .317.

The Phillies play the Yankees today.

Update: This says the Phillies are interested in Andruw Jones. That would make a lot more sense than Gary Sheffield.

The massively improved bullpen helped the Phillies win the World Series in 2008, but the team also produced far fewer runs offensively. After scoring 892 runs in 2007, the Phils scored 799 in 2008.

Runs were down across the league last year. In 2007, NL teams combined to score 11,741 runs, about 734 runs per team. In 2008, they combined to score 12,208 runs, about 763 runs per team. The Phillies drop off was larger than the rate overall — across the league about 96.2% of the runs that were scored in 2007 were scored in 2008. The Phillies scored about 89.6% of the runs they had scored in 2007 in 2008.

Things would be easy to explain if the Phils had installed a forty foot wall in left field, but it doesn’t look like the problem was Citizens Bank Park. The difference in the average number of runs the team scored in their home and away games between ’07 and ’08 is actually larger for the team’s games away from home:

So where did all those runs go? To try and help understand I took a look at the offensive production by 11 different groups of players: the offense produced by players playing all nine of the positions (P, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF) plus designated hitters and pinch-hitters. Those groups are not all equally important, of course. Pitchers got fewer at-bats than the players manning the other eight positions, pinch-hitters fewer than that and designated hitters fewer still.

For each of those 11 groups, I looked at the OPS they hit to and, using the technical version of the runs created formula, their runs created.

Of the 11 groups, both by OPS and runs created, nine were clearly worse in 2008 than they were in 2007. The only two that weren’t were pinch-hitters and third base.

Led by Dobbs, Phillies pinch-hitters were simply better in 2008 than they were in ’07. In 281 plate appearances, Phils’ pinch-hitters put up a 253/309/415 line a year after hitting 230/307/391 in 2007. The bad news is that of the 11 groups, designated hitter is the only group that got fewer plate appearances than the pinch-hitter group.

The other place where the Phillies were not clearly worse was at third base. This one was a split decision. The 245/295/400 line gave Feliz and cohorts a .695 OPS for 2008, which is better than .688 OPS (255/321/368) Nunez and pals put up in ’07. On-base percentage trumps slugging, though, so runs created thinks the ’07 group was a little bit better than last year’s.

The other nine groups were all worse than what they did in the previous year. But not by the same amount. Here’s the difference in the runs created for all 11 groups between 2007 and 2008:

The chart suggests that Phillies shortstops created 30 fewer runs in 2008 than they had in 2007 while, at the bottom of the list, pinch-hitters created about three and a half more.

If you add up the runs created numbers, they don’t equal the difference in runs that the Phillies scored in 2008 and 2007. They equal 125.8. If you adjust the chart so the total difference in runs created is the actual 93 runs (892 runs scored in 2007 minus 799 scored in 2008), the chart looks like this:

If you think back to 2008, four of the Phils’ best hitters had a worse year than they had in 2007. Burrell, Utley and Howard all had fantastic years, but all three weren’t as fantastic as they had been the year before. Rollins was much worse with the bat in 2008 than in 2007. At the top of the list you see all four of their positions in a row.

While first, second and left are all down in about the same level, though, shortstop is down a lot more. The position got hit with a double-whammy in ’08. First, Rollins’ production was way down. After hitting 296/344/531 with 30 homers in ’07, he hit 277/349/437 with 11 home runs in 2008. Second, after starting every game for the Phils in 2007, Rollins started just 132 in 2008. Bruntlett started the other 30 games, and although he hit well while playing the position (274/331/393) it still brought the numbers down for the position compared to the previous season.

In right field, the group led Victorino and Werth in ’07 put up more offense than the ’08 group led by Werth and Jenkins. Jenkins struggled badly for most of the year, hitting 252/308/383 in 266 at-bats while playing right.

Surprisingly to me, the Phils did well to keep pace in center field coming off a fantastic year with the bat from Aaron Rowand. By OPS, the Phils’ 292/354/470 line in ’08 was still the best in the National League. It was just a bit off the 311/377/507 mark of ’07, which was the best in the league that year by a wide margin. Coming into 2008, I would have guessed that center field would be the position where the Phils offense would be down the most compared the previous season. Not even close.

Catchers, pitchers and third basemen fared about as well in ’08 as they had in ’07.

Here are the Phillies hitting splits by position for 2008 and for 2007.

Jimmy Rollins is okay with playing behind Derek Jeter in the World Baseball Classic and doesn’t want to talk about the Mets yet.

This from the Phillies web site seems to suggest that Kendrick could pitch out of the pen if he does not win the fifth starter job. I’d be surprised if they keep Kendrick on the team to pitch out of the pen.

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Baseball-Reference tracks high leverage hitting splits. The high leverage concept is based on work by Tom Tango, which is described here. Baseball-Reference suggests that high leverage plays account for about 20% of all plays.

Overall in 2008, Phillies hitters got 6,273 plate appearances in which they hit 255/332/438. Of those, 1,230 plate appearances were tagged as high leverage. In those plate appearances, the Phils as a team hit 247/332/423. A tiny bit worse, but about the same.

Here’s what key Phillies hitters did in high leverage situations in 2008, ranked by OPS:

If you compare the player’s OPS in high leverage situations with their OPS overall for the year, there are six players whose OPS in high leverage situations were better than their OPS for the year:

And seven players from the group whose OPS overall for the year was better than their OPS in high leverage situations:

The players at the top of that list have small differences between their OPS in high leverage situations and their OPS overall for the year. Rollins and Werth, for example, have very similar numbers compared to their overall OPS for the year. At the bottom of the list, Utley had a huge difference, posting a .717 OPS in high leverage situations compared to a .915 OPS overall.

Similarly, if you look at the late and close splits for the guys at the bottom of that list, Utley, Coste and Jenkins, the numbers are pretty ugly. For the guys at the top of the list, Feliz, Dobbs and Burrell, the numbers are much better. Late and close plate appearances are ones that come in the seventh inning or later with the batting team tied, ahead by one, or the tying run at least on deck.

Article about the outlook for the pen.

This article suggests that Dobbs could fill in at second if Utley doesn’t start the year. That actually seems like a fine idea. A Bruntlett/Dobbs platoon at second would put up pretty nice numbers offensively, the problem being that Dobbs can’t play both second and third at the same time against a righty.

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In mid-November, I took a guess at who would be on the Phillies roster when the 2009 season started. I did it again in mid-December. Since the post in mid-December:

• It was announced that JC Romero will be suspended for the first fifty games of the 2009 season.
• The Phillies signed 2B Marcus Giles to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training.

I still think there are nine guys on the team for opening day, including Pedro Feliz, recovering from back surgery, but not including Chase Ultey who is recovering from hip surgery:

Utley is obviously on the team as well, but will probably start the season on the DL. That leaves four spots for position players, assuming the Phils carry 13 hitters and 12 pitchers to start the year.

Of the four remaining spots, one has to go to a second catcher behind Ruiz and one has to go to a fourth outfielder. Assuming Utley does not fill Utley’s spot, the third probably has to go someone who can play second base.

On the catcher spot, I still think Paulino is on the team. What I’m feeling a little less sure of as the days pass and the Phillies continue not to sign a right-handed hitter is that Paulino on the team makes it highly unlikely that Coste is not.

One of Geoff Jenkins or Matt Stairs takes the fourth outfielder spot. I still think it’s Jenkins and still think Stairs won’t be with the team when the season starts. Jenkins is far more useful as a defensive player and would be tougher to trade for the Phillies given his contract. I think there’s a chance the Phillies go into the season with four real outfielders on their team, with Bruntlett and maybe Dobbs getting some chances to fill in a little. If you’re going to have four real outfielders on the team I don’t think you have one of them be a 41-year-old Stairs just because I don’t think you can put him out in the field too often.

At second base if Utley’s not ready to go I see the candidates as Giles, Bruntlett, who’s on the team either way, and Jason Donald. The window where the Phillies would bring someone else in with a legitimate chance to compete for the position at this point seems like it’s at least closing. Bruntlett is the least exciting of those prospects. I’m going to guess that Giles proves to be the guy.

Chris Coste and Stairs appear to be the primary candidates to fill out the roster of the players currently on the team. Given how weak the Phillies are from the right side of the plate I see Coste as the winner if it comes down to those two. If Coste is still on the team I don’t think John Mayberry has much of a chance to win the spot. I think there’s a good chance that whoever takes the slot will prove to be the second-best right-handed hitter on the team behind Werth. The need for another right-handed hitter is huge, so my guess is still that the Phillies will bring in a right-handed hitter before the start of the season to be the thirteenth hitter.

Ten of the Phillies pitching spots are likely to be filled by these guys:

Assuming the Phils carry 12 pitchers, that leaves two.

The battle for the fifth starter appears to include Chan Ho Park, JA Happ and Kyle Kendrick. Park is on the team either way, I think, it’s just a question of whether he’s pitching as part of the rotation or out of the pen.

The loss of Romero leaves the Phils with one lefty in the pen, Scott Eyre, and seems to give Happ’s chances of making the team a huge boost. I think one of the two remaining spots goes to Happ, either in the rotation or out of the pen.

Kendrick isn’t going to make the team to pitch out of the pen. So if Happ or Park does win the fifth starter job, it leaves a spot in the pen that would ideally go to a lefty. I don’t think the Phillies have one that fits the bill, though, so my guess is that it would probably be righties Mike Koplove and Gary Majewski as the front-runners batting for the final spot. Given the current options, though, it looks like the Phillies will go into spring training with an opportunity for a dark horse lefty to make the team as the second left-handed pitcher out of the pen.

There’s still a lot to be decided about how the Phillies pitching will round out, but at this point I’m going to guess it’s Happ (and Park) out of the pen and Kendrick as the fifth starter.

So here’s my overall guess at this point:

Hitters (13): Howard, Rollins, Feliz, Ibanez, Victorino, Werth, Ruiz, Bruntlett, Dobbs, Paulino, Jenkins, Giles and a right-handed hitter not currently with the team.

Pitchers (12): Hamels, Myers, Blanton, Moyer, Kendrick, Madson, Happ, Condrey, Eyre, Durbin, Park, Lidge.

JC Romero will be allowed to participate in the World Baseball Classic.

Interview with Doug Glanville at We Should Be GMs.

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Back to the managers soon.

I put up the 2009 Phillies page, where I will track my best guess at who will be on the ’09 squad.

It looks to me like there are seven spots open for next year, three for pitchers and four for hitters.

Of the pitcher’s spots, two are in the starting rotation behind Hamels, Myers and Blanton. Jamie Moyer looks like a good bet to take one of them. I would still call Kendrick the front-runner for the #5 spot, with Happ behind him and Eaton way, way behind both of them.

The other spot appears to be for a right-handed relief pitcher. Romero and Eyre look likely to handle the left-handed duties, joining righties Lidge, Madson, Condrey and Durbin in the pen. That leaves one spot, and I’m guessing it goes to a righty veteran reliever not currently with the organization. It could be Gordon or Seanez, but I would still go with field as a better guess at this point.

The bigger questions are with the offense. I think there’s a good chance the Phils will bring back Burrell. They should try and I think they will. His absence would leave a huge gap in the lineup, leaving Werth as the best right-handed hitter on the team. Werth is great, but the second-best right-handed hitter on the team would be Feliz, which is not great. Again, we’ll have to cut Feliz at least a little break what with winning the World Series and whatnot.

The emergence of Werth as an everyday player has created a problem for the Phillies with a lack of right-handed options off the bench. They went out of their way to demonstrate this by starting Chris Coste as their DH in the World Series. I think you can argue that the Phillies need two right-handed hitters, a big one, like Burrell, to play left, and another to backup the outfield and hit off the bench. The Phillies had a problem with not having enough right-handed hitters last year and that was with Burrell.

The Phillies either need Burrell back or they need a big right-handed bat in his place. Might as well just make it Burrell. I would be surprised if they traded for or signed an expensive right-handed free agent to play left field that wasn’t Burrell. My guess is that one of the four remaining offensive slots will be taken either by Burrell or a cheap right-handed hitter who can play left field and will play often.

That leaves three spots — one catcher spot behind Ruiz, one more outfielder and another bench spot that will probably be taken by a fifth outfielder.

With Victorino, Werth and Burrell (or his replacement) in the outfield, the Phillies don’t look like they have room for all of Stairs, Jenkins and Golson. I think a disaster scenario for the Phils is one where they trade Victorino to let Golson play regularly in center field. Golson needs to be a fifth outfield if he’s on the team in ’09 — if he is on the roster I think he will be. A less disastrous scenario in my mind is trading Victorino and letting Werth play center regularly with Golson backing him up. That plan is still a bit worrisome as it’s not a lot of backup for Werth, who still has limited experience playing every day. It would mean that Golson would probably get a job backing him up, but he wouldn’t have much of an organizational net behind him.

Werth can play center, though, well enough to be there regularly if the Phils had the hitters to man the corner outfield spots.

I would guess that the Phils will not start ’09 with both Stairs and Jenkins on the team. Dobbs, Stairs and Jenkins is too many left-handed hitters coming off of the bench, especially given that Stairs and Dobbs are hard to use defensively. I’d guess they trade Stairs given that he’s cheaper and more tradable. I have Jenkins penciled in as the fourth outfielder, giving them Victorino, Werth, Jenkins and Burrell or cheap right-handed free agent.

I hope in 2009 we will see Dobbs’ role expand to include signficant time in the outfield against right-handed pitching.

Jenkins and Burrell are two of the four spots. Leaves one bench spot and a catcher.

Ruiz is surely coming back, but I feel much less sure about Coste. The in-house options for second catcher along with Ruiz include Coste, Jason Jaramillo and Lou Marson. Jaramillo was not especially impressive at Triple-A last year and Marson was at Double-A. Marson is 22, Jaramillo is 26. Some people think 19-year-old Travis D’Arnaud is going to be better than both of them, although there’s about zero chance you’ll see him next year. My guesses are 1) that the Phillies would only put Jaramillo or Marson on the 25-man roster to start the season if it was as a third catcher and 2) if they did it would be Jaramillo and not Marson. You have to believe that Jaramillo could be had in a trade if people really think he’s a potential regular player. Here’s what I think is likely for the Phils at catcher at this point, in order of likelihood 1) they sign a veteran catcher to share duties with Ruiz 2) Coste and Ruiz 3) Ruiz, Coste (or veteran catcher) plus Jaramillo 4) Ruiz plus Jaramillo.

The addition of the second catcher leaves one spot on the roster, which could be taken by a fifth outfielder, a third catcher or a pitcher. I think you can assume that Bruntlett will handle the utility role. 23-year-old Brad Harman is coming, but I don’t think it’s yet. This spot may go to Golson, but I don’t think it should. I’d go with a right-handed hitter here that can also play a corner outfield position — a part-time player that’s probably not currently in the organization.

Here’s my guess then at this point as to who will be on the 25-man roster when the ’09 season starts:

Pitchers (12): Hamels, Myers, Blanton, Moyer, Kendrick, Lidge, Madson, Durbin, Condrey, Romero, Eyre and a veteran right-handed relief pitcher that is currently not with the organization.

Hitters (13): Howard, Utley, Rollins, Feliz, Ruiz, Burrell, Victorino, Werth, Jenkins, Bruntlett, Dobbs, veteran catcher not currently with the team, veteran right-handed corner outfielder not currently with the team.

I heard Sal Paolantonio on the radio earlier this week saying he got a ticket for game five and sat through the cold and rain because he wanted to see how it feels in Philadelphia when the Phillies win the World Series. It feels good. It feels like a lot of things. In this case, especially, it feels like relief.

The difference between this Phillies team and so many of the teams of the past is that for this team, even if you wouldn’t quite let yourself believe it until you saw it, instead of waiting to see them lose we’ve been waiting to see them win.

It was a magnificent run for the best Phillies team in a long time — 13-3 to end the regular season followed by an 11-3 drive through the playoffs. After a loss to the Marlins on September 10, the Phils were 79-67 and 3 1/2 games back in the NL East with 16 games left to play in the regular season. They started a four-game set with Milwaukee just about needing to take three of four or be done for the season. They are 24-6 since.

It’s a fantastic and fitting ending for a group of players who are just about as selfless as a team can be. Time after time this year, we saw players do what was right for the organization with hardly a word of protest. From Brett Myers going to the minors, from Pat Burrell taking a quiet seat in the seventh inning time after time to Geoff Jenkins losing his job in right field without a peep except to say that he was going to keep working and playing hard. For a long time now there has been a team-first approach that defined this group of players.

The most impressive thing is not that Jenkins and the rest of his teammates said those things, it’s that they did them. Last night’s finish was a telling testament to that. Jenkins has had as miserable a season as you can imagine, but his double to the gap in right center to start the bottom of the sixth is about as big a hit as you can have. It was his third hit since August 22. Pat Burrell put up yet another solid year for the Phils, but was an ugly 0-for-13 in the World Series before he doubled high off the wall in center to start the seventh. Unlikely hero Pedro Feliz poked the game-winning single through in the seventh. Likely hero Brad Lidge was lights out yet again in the ninth, culminating a team effort that saw the Phils win their final game of 2008 in the way they played the rest of them.

The Phillies won the World Series last night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3. The Phillies win the series four games to one.

Cole Hamels got the start for the Phillies and allowed two runs on five hits and a walk over six innings. One of the hits went for extra-bases, a double. He struck out three.

He faced a Tampa Bay lineup that went (1) Akinori Iwamura (2B/L) (2) Carl Crawford (LF/L) (3) BJ Upton (CF/R) (4) Carlos Pena (1B/L) (5) Evan Longoria (3B/R) (5) (6) Dioner Navarro (C/S) (7) Rocco Baldelli (RF/R) (8) Jason Bartlett (SS/R). Crawford moves up to second in the order from fifth. Upton drops to third and Pena to fourth. Baldelli starts in right after Zobrist started game one against Hamels.

The Rays started the game with six players on their bench: Michael Hernandez (R), Ben Zobrist (S), Willy Aybar (S), Fernando Perez (S), Eric Hinske (L), Gabe Gross (L).

Iwamura led off the first and flew to left on a 1-2 pitch for the first out. Crawford lined the first pitch of his at-bat to short. It popped out of Rollins’ glove, but Rollins picked it up and threw to first to nip Crawford. Upton grounded an 0-1 pitch to short to set the Rays down.

Seven pitches in the inning for Hamels.

He started the second up 2-0. Pena led off and bunted the first pitch, but too hard. Howard took it at first and beat Pena too the bag for the first out. Longoria swung at the first pitch, too, and flew to center. Navarro was next and drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch, but Baldelli popped to second to leave him stranded. Ten pitches in the inning had Hamels at 17 for the game.

Bartlett started the third with a long at-bat that ended with him grounding to short. Hamels struck the pitcher Scott Kazmir out on three pitches for the second out, but Iwamura lined a single back through the middle for the first hit for the Rays. Crawford again swung at the first pitch and grounded to second. Sixteen pitches in the inning, 33 for the game.

Upton chopped a 1-1 pitch to deep short to start the fourth. Rollins made a strong throw to get Upton for the first out. Pena was next and he hit a ball high off the wall in right field that Werth nearly caught at the wall. Pena had a double and came in to score when Longoria followed with a single past a diving Rollins and into left-center. Pena’s run cut the Phillies’ lead to 2-1. Navarro got ahead 3-0, but grounded a 3-1 pitch to short and the Phils turned the double-play to end the frame. Hamels threw 13 pitches in the inning and had thrown 46 for the game.

Werth had a good chance to catch Pena’s ball at the wall. He jumped high enough to catch it, just missed it with his glove.

Pena and Longoria finally break through with a pair of hits, and it gets Tampa Bay a run.

Hamels started the fifth after being hit on the hand while trying to bunt in the bottom of the fourth. Baldelli led off and popped a 2-0 pitch high to short. Rollins parked under it, but the wind blew it and Rollins had to come in. The ball went off the heel of his glove for an error. Bartlett was next and hit a broken-bat ground ball to second. Utley made a great play. He charged and made a spinning tag on Baldelli as he went past for the first out, then threw to first to double-up Bartlett. Kazmir again struck out on three pitches to set the Rays down. Nine more pitches for Hamels, 55 for the game.

Iwamura struck out looking 2-2 for the first out in the sixth. Crawford chopped a 1-0 pitch to first for the second out. Upton hit a 2-2 pitch to the left of Rollins. Rollins moved to his left and got a glove on the ball, but Upton had an infield single. It brought up Pena with the field in miserable condition and cold rain continuing to fall. Upton stole second as Hamels delivered strike one to Pena. Pena hit a 2-2 pitch the opposite way, into left field for a single. Upton came around third and slid in safe just ahead of Burrell’s throw, which was on line but a little late. The game was tied at 2-2. Longoria was next and swung at a low 1-0 pitch that Ruiz failed to catch, allowing Pena to move to second. Longoria flew to center on the next pitch, leaving Pena stranded.

Even with the field in good condition, I think Upton’s ground ball to short may have been a hit. The weather was certainly a factor in the inning, but you have to wonder if Hamels’ hand may have been as well after he was hit on the hand trying to bunt in the fourth.

Hamels threw 21 pitches in the inning and had thrown 76 for the game.

And then the game was suspended. It started again two days later. Really.

Madson came out to pitch the seventh with a 3-2 lead. He got ahead of Navarro 0-2 and struck him out looking at a 1-2 fastball on the inside corner for the first out. Baldelli was swinging at the first pitch and lined it out to left field, tying the game at 3-3. Bartlett was next and he singled into left on an 0-1 pitch. With one out and a man on first, the Rays let Howell hit for himself. Howell bunted back to the mound and Madson threw to first for the second out as Bartlett went to second. Iwamura was next and Romero came in to pitch to him. Romero got Iwamura to hit a ground ball to the right of Utley. Utley fielded the ball with his momentum taking him behind second and had no chance to get Iwamura at first. Bartlett stormed around third and tried to score. Utley made an awkward throw, a little up the third base line, but Ruiz took it and tagged out the sliding Bartlett to end the inning. Very aggressive by Bartlett, who would have been out by a lot if Utley had time to set and make a better throw.

Bunting with Howell, who faced one batter in the bottom of the seventh, who doubled, before leaving the game was a gift. That’s a bad decision.

Romero came back for the eighth with the Phils again ahead, this time 4-3. Crawford led off with a single into center. Romero stayed in to face the righty Upton with the lefty Pena on deck. Upton swung at the first pitch and hit a double-play ball to short. The Phillies turned it easily, even with Upton running this time. Pena got ahead 3-0 before he lined a 3-1 pitch to Bruntlett, who ran for Burrell in the bottom of the seventh and stayed in to play left, in left for the third out.

Romero stays in to face the righty Upton and gets a huge double-play. Other choices included bringing in Lidge to get six outs and bringing in Condrey or Durbin to face Upton and then Eyre to face Pena. Worked out pretty well.

Lidge started the ninth with the Phils still up a run. He got ahead of Longoria 0-2 before Longoria popped a 2-2 pitch to Utley for the first out. Navarro got behind 0-2 as well, but he shattered his bat singling into right on the next pitch. Fernando Perez ran for Navarro at first and switch-hitter Ben Zobrist hit for Baldelli. Perez stole second, putting the tying run in scoring position, but Zobrist lined a 1-2 pitch to right for the second out. Perez held second and Hinske hit for Bartlett. Hinske fouled Lidge’s first pitch off and tried to check his swing at the second pitch, but couldn’t. The 0-2 pitch was a slider away. Hinske swung and missed and the game was over.

The Phillies pen went three innings in the game allowing a run on five hits. The run scored on the Baldelli homer off of Madson in the seventh. In the series they allowed two runs in 11 2/3 innings. Both runs were earned, so their ERA as a group was 1.54.

Phillies starters allowed 13 runs in 32 1/3 innings. Twelve of the runs were earned (3.34 ERA).

Tampa Bay relievers threw four innings and allowed two runs. They allowed ten runs in 16 1/3 innings in the series. Nine of the runs were earned, which puts their ERA as a group at 4.96. The three lefties out of their pen combined to allowed six runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Tampa Bay starters allowed 14 runs in 25 2/3 innings, 12 of which were earned (4.21 ERA).

Upton was 5-for-20 (.250) in the series with five singles.

Longoria 1-for-20 (.050) and struck out nine times.

Crawford 5-for-19 (.263) with two home runs.

Iwamura 5-for-19 (.263) with a double.

Navarro 6-for-17 (.353) with a double.

Pena 2-for-17 (.118) with a double.

Bartlett 3-for-14 (.214).

The Phillies lineup against lefty Scott Kazmir went (1) Rollins (2) Werth (3) Utley (4) Howard (5) Burrell (6) Victorino (7) Feliz (8) Ruiz.

The Phillies started the game with six players on their bench: Bruntlett (R), Taguchi (R), Coste (R), Dobbs (L), Stairs (L) and Jenkins (L).

Rollins flew to left for the first out in the first. Werth was next and he walked on a 3-2 pitch that was outside. Kazmir’s first pitch to Utley hit Utley in the back. It put two men on for Howard, but Howard struck out swinging 1-2 for the second out. Burrell walked on a close 3-1 pitch, loading the bases for Victorino. Victorino lined a 2-1 pitch into left for a single, scoring Werth and Utley to put the Phils up 2-0 with men on first and second. Feliz was next and he went down and hit a low 0-1 pitch into left for another single. Everyone moved up a base and the Phils had the bases loaded again. Ruiz swung at the first pitch and flew to left.

Burrell had no chance to score on Feliz’s hit, which was right at Crawford. He may, however, have had a chance to go to third on Victorino’s single, which forced Crawford to move towards the left field corner. If he had gone to third on Victorino’s single he would have scored on Feliz’s.

Kazmir struck Hamels out on three pitches to start the second. Rollins flew to right on a 3-2 pitch for the second out. Werth followed with a single into left, but Utley popped to third to end the inning.

Howard struck out again, this time on three pitches, for the first out in the third. Burrell flew softly to right on a 1-1 pitch for the second out. Victorino struck out on three pitches for the third out.

Quick nine pitch inning for Kazmir, who had thrown 57 through three innings.

Feliz struck out swinging 0-2 to start the fourth. Ruiz was next and singled into left. Hamels came to the plate and showed bunt. Kazmir’s first pitch to him was inside and hit him on a finger of his left (pitching) hand as he held the top part of the bat. Hamels did bunt the next pitch, but too hard back to the mound. Kazmir took it and threw to second to force Ruiz. Kazmir walked Rollins on a 3-2 pitch to put men on second. Werth followed with another long at-bat, walking on the tenth pitch on a 3-2 offering that was low and outside. It loaded the bases for Utley. Utley got ahead 3-1 and took strike two on the inside corner before he grounded to second to leave the runners stranded.

Ninety pitches for Kazmir through four innings.

Howard led off the fifth and walked on four pitches. Burrell was next and he walked as well, getting two calls on pitches that were very close, including the 3-2 pitch. Grant Balfour came in to pitch to Victorino. Victorino bunted the first pitch foul, then swung away and popped to left for the first out. Feliz popped an 0-2 pitch to Pena for the second out. Ruiz popped up to Pena as well and both runners were left stranded.

No infield fly rule called on the pop-up by Feliz after Rollins was unable to field a pop-up on the infield in the top of the inning.

Nothing for the Phils after putting their first two runners on base.

After the top of the sixth inning, the game was suspended.

Play resumed on Wednesday night, two days later. Really it did.

Jenkins left off the bottom of the sixth and Balfour stayed in to pitch to him. He got behind 1-2, but battled back and blasted a 3-2 pitch to right-center for a double. Rollins bunted him to third for the first out. Werth was next and he popped a 2-2 pitch behind second. Iwamura went back and tried to make an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow center, but dropped the ball. Werth had a single, Jenkins scored and the Phillies led 3-2. Jenkins probably would have scored even if Iwamura had caught the ball. Howell came in to pitch to Utley and struck him out for the second out. Werth took off for second with Howard at the plate, but left too early. Howell threw to first, but Werth beat Pena’s throw to second. Howard popped to third to leave him stranded.

Everyone knew that Rollins was going to bunt. There is little chance he would bunt in that situation in a regular game. Presumably the Phils are trying to win both.

The lefty Howell was still in the game when Burrell came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with the score tied at 3-3. Burrell blasted a 1-1 pitch deep to center and off the top of the wall, just missing a home run by about a foot. The ball bounced off the wall and rolled a while towards right field, but Burrell could only get two. The ball looked like it was gone, and Burrell might have thought it was as well. He may have been at third if he had been running hard all the way. Bruntlett ran for Burrell at second. Chad Bradford came in to pitch to Victorino. Victorino tried to bunt twice and failed, missing one pitch and fouling off another. He swung away 1-2 and grounded to first for the first out, moving Bruntlett to third. The Rays brought the infield in, and Feliz hit an 0-1 pitch back through the middle. Bruntlett scored and the Phils were up 4-3. Ruiz was next and he hit a ball hard back up the middle, but Iwamura made a nice diving play to take a hit away from him and force Feliz at second for the second out. Romero hit for himself and grounded to second to end the inning.

Bunting for Howell in the top of the seventh so he can come back to pitch to the righty Burrell is just baffling to me.

Romero appeared in 81 games for the Phillies this season and did not have an at-bat. No objection to letting him hit with two outs and a man on first, but that isn’t the way the Phillies would have done it in a regular game.

David Price started the eighth with the Phils still up 4-3. Rollins flew to left for the first out. Werth went down looking at a 2-2 fastball on the outside part of the plate. Utley drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch and stole second. Again Howard came up with a man on second and two down. This time he struck out swinging 3-2.

Rollins was 0-for-3 with a walk in the game. 5-for-22 (.227) with two doubles and a walk in the series.

Werth 2-for-3 with two walks and an RBI in the game. He drove in Jenkins in the sixth with his bloop to center that Iwamura didn’t handle. 8-for-18 (.444) with three doubles, a home run and six walks in the series.

Utley was 0-for-3 with a walk and five men left on base in the game. Kazmir got him to ground to second with the bases loaded and two down in the fourth. 3-for-18 (.167) with two home runs and five walks in the series.

Howard was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a walk in the game. 6-for-21 (.286) with a double, three home runs and six RBI in the series. He struck out nine times and led the Phils in both strikeouts and RBI.

Burrell 1-for-2 with a double and two walks in the game. 1-for-14 (.071) with five walks in the series.

Victorino was 1-for-4 with a two-run single in the first. 5-for-20 (.250) with five singles and two RBI in the series.

Feliz was 2-for-4 with a huge RBI in the seventh. 6-for-18 (.333) with six singles in the series.

Ruiz 1-for-4 and left six men on base, most notably flying out to left with the bases loaded and two down in the first. 6-for-16 (.375) with two doubles and a home run in the series.

Phillies hitters drew 27 walks in the series. The Rays drew ten.

No game today. Nobody left to play. Cole Hamels faces TBD in April, 2009.