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Freeze frame, November, 2012. The Phillies shock the baseball world by naming you their new GM. Your job — add a starting center fielder, a starting third baseman, a starting corner outfielder, a top setup man and a fifth starter. Trade Vance Worley, Trevor May, Josh Lindblom and Lisalverto Bonilla if you want, but make sure you take on less than $20 million in 2013 payroll.

Good luck.

If that’s your charge and you come back with Ben Revere, Michael Young, Delmon Young, John Lannan and Mike Adams, you’ve done your job.

Obviously Amaro had more flexibility than that, especially around who he traded. Keeping Worley would have made adding a fifth starter unnecessary. And some of the positions he filled from outside of the organization could have been filled from within. If the Phillies fail to play Domonic Brown just about every day to start 2013, they’re making a mistake. But they haven’t done that yet and, no matter what they say in January, I don’t think they will. And I don’t think that the off-season has been a disaster for the Phillies.

If there’s a disaster here, and despite how ugly 2012 was, I don’t think this is a disaster yet, it didn’t start this off-season. It started a couple of years ago and moves slow.

Success or failure for the 2013 Phillies is going to have a whole lot more to do with what Ryan Howard, Jonathan Papelbon, Chase Utley, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee combine to produce for the $137ish million the Phils have committed to pay them than it will with what Delmon Young produces for the $750,000 they’ve committed to pay him. And a lot of what we saw in 2012 should make you worry about that group’s ability to produce $137 million worth of value in 2013.

You can pay all five of the new guys mentioned above this season with the $20 million the Phils have committed to Howard. With a couple of million left over. You can get most of the way there with the $13 million they’re going to pay Papelbon.

It’s a lotta eggs in a small number of baskets. There is no solution if those eggs can’t play anymore or simply have bad contracts — but it’s not Delmon Young’s fault, either. The choices are declare it’s over and rebuild or declare it’s not and do what you can with the limited flexibility that you have left. I’m glad they chose the later. This is what do what you can with the limited flexibility you have looks like.

Bottom line for me is that the Phillies may have made mistakes. Some of them are big mistakes. Maybe too big for the team to overcome in next few seasons. I’m a lot less sure they came this off-season, though.

Yesterday I updated my guess on who the hitters on the team are at this point. Earlier this month I made a guess on the pitching side. Here’s what I came up with then:

Assuming 12 pitching spots to start the season, I gave the four open slots to Horst, Aumont, Valdes and De Fratus.

Not a whole lot has changed since January 9. The Phillies signed free agent righties Rodrigo Lopez, Aaron Cook and Juan Cruz and announced that righties Justin Friend and Kyle Simon would be invited to camp as NRIs, along with lefty Adam Morgan.

The list looks pretty much the same in my mind these days, with the exception of the addition of a few candidates:

I still feel pretty good about the Horst and Aumont picks. That gets the Phillies to ten pitchers — five starters and five relievers, including two lefties in Bastardo and Horst.

I feel like there’s a chance that Cook can challenge Lannan for the fifth starter job. But I still think Lannan is the guy. Kendrick ended the season pitching really well out of the rotation, but I shake the feeling that the Phillies would be better off using him as a long reliever. I don’t think that’s going to happen, though, at least not to start the season.

Assuming Kendrick is in the rotation, there’s still an issue about long relief. The Phillies don’t have a long man in the ten guys I mentioned. Juan Cruz seems like he might get some consideration for that role. I’d guess the Phils think Rosenberg could give them more than one inning.

I still think the last two spots are pretty wide open. Valdes and De Fratus were the two relievers I picked last time. Valdes was fantastic for the Phillies in 2012 and De Fratus has put up outstanding numbers in the minors over the last few years.

Valdes would be the third lefty in the pen, though. And they still wouldn’t have a long man. Stutes is the other guy who seems like a legit candidate if he shows he’s healthy early in camp. He was solid for the Phillies in 2011 and got four or more outs in 14 of his 57 appearances.

Anyway, I’ll stick with Horst, Aumont, Valdes and De Fratus for the last four spots. That leaves the Phils with 12 pitchers — Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Kendrick, Lannan, Papelbon, Adams, Bastardo, Horst, Aumont, De Fratus and Valdes. Still three lefties and still no long reliever. My top candidates among the guys not on that list would be Cruz, Rosenberg and Stutes.

This article suggests the Phillies have had the third-best off-season in the NL East.

In the most recent post, I took a guess at the hitters who might start the year with the Phillies as well as the guys contending for the other spots. Here’s today’s guess about the pitchers:

Lannan and Bastardo are the guys I feel least sure of among the eight pitchers I have on the team. But I think they both start the year on the staff with Lannan serving as the fifth starter. Halladay, Hamels, Lee, Kendrick, Papelbon and Adams seem like locks if they are healthy, although I think it’s possible, but unlikely, that Kendrick could be pitching out of the pen at the start of the year.

If those eight guys did make the opening day roster for the Phils, it would leave the pitching staff with four open slots (assuming the team starts the year with 12 pitchers).

Of those four spots, one should go to a long man, or at least someone who could pitch more than one inning, and at least one other would go to a lefty.

The Phillies have a lot of options when it comes to the second lefty in the pen. Horst and Valdes were both very good in 2012 and I think it’s possible they both make the team to start the year. If it’s just one of them, I’d give Horst an advantage over Valdes. I think Horst is pretty close to a lock to start the year with the team.

I think the issue of who will be the long man out of the pen is more complicated. Kendrick is the guy best-suited for that role, but the Phillies would likely prefer to have him pitch out of the rotation, coming off of a 2012 in which he threw to a 2.43 ERA over his last ten starts. Cloyd, Ethan Martin or Jonathan Pettibone seem like the candidates to make the team that are mostly likely to be able to give the Phillies more than one inning, but I have a little trouble seeing the Phillies carrying one of them to pitch out of the pen to start the year. My guess at this point would be that the Phillies don’t have a true long man out of the pen to start the year.

So if Horst takes one of the four open spots, that leaves the Phils with three.

The guy I feel next strongest about is Aumont, given the combination of his upside and some promising results in 2012. I’ll slot him into the tenth spot.

I think it’s really wide open after that. At this point I’ll take Valdes, based on his impressive 2012, for the eleventh slot. Beyond that I see it as close to a toss-up between Stutes and De Fratus as front-runners for the final spot. Stutes is coming off of a significant injury that sidelined him for much of 2012 and both should contribute to the team this year. Stutes helped the Phils a lot in 2011 and De Fratus has had several very impressive years in the minors in a row.

I’ll pick De Fratus for the twelfth spot.

So that gives the Phils 12 pitchers — Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Kendrick, Lannan, Papelbon, Adams, Bastardo, Horst, Aumont, Valdes and De Fratus. Five starters, seven relievers. Three lefties out of the pen and no long man in relief.

If that’s the staff heading into 2013, I expect we’ll all feel a whole lot more comfortable with the pitching than we do with the hitting to start the year.

This article from the Phillies web site adds Michael Cuddyer to the list of players the Phils might be pursuing that includes Hairston, Wells and Soriano.

This article suggests that if the outfield situation stays the same, we may see Brown getting a chance to be the everyday guy in right field to start the year with a platoon in left that includes some combination of the lefty Nix and righties Ruf and Mayberry. Mayberry seems like he should be a candidate to get some at-bats at first base against left-handed pitching as well.

There are a bunch of problems in left if that proves to be the case. One is that it’s hugely unlikely that Laynce Nix is going to be able to take all or maybe even most of the at-bats against righties in left field in 2013. Nix is 32 and has never gotten more than 400 plate appearances in a season. Phillie left fielders are going to get around 480 plate appearances against right-handed pitching in 2013. Nix has never had more than 321 plate appearances against righties in a season. So it seems likely that some parts of that platoon would be hitting a lot against righties. I don’t think you want to see a whole lot more of Mayberry hitting against righties given his 229/291/335 line against them in 2012. We’ll see on Ruf. He was 5-for-17 against righties last year with a home run.

The other important problem with Nix as the left-handed part of a platoon in left is that Nix, despite his left-handedness, isn’t exactly a fabulous hitter against right-handed pitching anyway. His career line against righties is 253/297/447. Last year he got just 117 plate appearances against righties, but put up a 248/316/390 line. So Nix probably couldn’t completely man a left-handed platoon in left anyway and if he could, you might not want him to.

Here’s the Baseball-Reference calculated combined WAR for pitchers who have made at least ten starts for the team over the past five seasons:

Important to remember is that the WAR calculation includes games pitched in relief. So, for example, the WAR for Kendrick over the last five seasons includes his 41 appearances out of the bullpen. His .017 for WAR/GS is his total WAR in all appearances divided by the number of games he started (not the total number of games in which he pitched).

The 11 pitchers above combined to make 774 of the 810 starts for the Phillies over the last five seasons. Not appearing on the list are guys who made fewer than ten starts, including Pedro Martinez (9), Chan Ho Park (7), Tyler Cloyd (6), Rodrigo Lopez (5), Antonio Bastardo (5), Raul Valdes (1), Andrew Carpenter (1), Nelson Figueroa (1) and BJ Rosenberg (1). Those 36 total starts plus the 774 for the 11 guys above gets you to 810.

Hamels is the guy who has made the most starts for the Phillies over the past five years with 160. And he’s been very good. After that, though, there are two guys in Blanton and Kendrick who have gotten a ton of starts over the past five seasons without being very good.

Kendrick is second in starts over the last five seasons with 103. His best year for WAR was 2007 (which doesn’t count for the table above as it was more than five years ago). In 2007, Kendrick made 20 appearances for the Phillies, all starts, going 10-4 with a 3.87 and putting up a WAR of 2.1. Kendrick was terrible in 2008 and finished the year with a -1.7 WAR. In the four years since his combined WAR has been just 3.4 — 3.4 + (-1.7) = 1.7, his mark for the past five years combined.

Blanton has made 105 appearances over the last five years for the Phillies, including 100 starts (more than anyone but Kendrick or Hamels). In the five seasons that Blanton pitched all or part of the year with the Phillies, he had a Baseball-Reference calculated WAR better than 0.1 only once. His best year with the Phillies was 2009 — he made 31 starts that year with a 4.05 ERA and a 1.32 ratio, posting a 2.4 WAR for the season. He had a -0.2 WAR in 29 appearances with the Phillies in 2010 and a -0.1 WAR in 21 appearances with them in 2012. He threw just 41 1/3 innings in 2011, all with the Phils, and put up a 0.0 WAR for that season.

The point here is that Blanton and Kendrick have pitched a lot for the Phillies over the past five years, making about as many starts (203) as Halladay, Lee and Worley (210). Overall, they’ve made about 25.1% of the starts for the Phillies over the past five seasons. And they haven’t been very good.

And while Blanton doesn’t have much of a chance to be not very good for the Phillies again in 2013, Kendrick does.

Gone also from the mix of the last five years are Happ and Oswalt. Both of those pitchers didn’t pitch a ton for the Phillies over the past five years, but put up good numbers overall in their time with the team.

Happ’s 4.83 ERA since he left the Phillies makes it easy to forget that he was great for the Phillies in 2009, going 12-4 with a 2.93 ERA and a 1.23 ratio in his 35 appearances (23 starts). He led the team in WAR for pitchers that year at 4.0. Hamels made 32 starts for the Phillies in ’09, finishing the year with a WAR of 1.7.

Oswalt threw to a 2.96 ERA in 36 appearances (35 starts) with the Phils between 2010 and 2011. He appeared in just 13 games for the Phillies in 2010 (12 starts), but managed to post a WAR of 3.2, third best on the staff behind Halladay and Hamels.

This suggests Josh Hamilton wants seven years, $175 million.

Amaro mentions Adam Morgan favorably in this article. Morgan is a 22-year-old lefty the Phillies took in the third round of the 2011 draft. He made 27 appearances between Clearwater and Reading in 2012, 26 of which were starts, throwing to a 3.35 ERA with a 1.11 ratio and striking out 169 in 158 2/3 innings.

Bruce Springsteen. Sort of.

The table below shows, for each of the past five years, the four pitchers who have gotten the most starts for the Phillies that season and their WAR for the year as calculated by Baseball-Reference:

Important to note is that the WAR for the pitcher includes all of his appearances for the season, not just his starts. So, for example, Kendrick made 37 appearances in 2012 and only 25 of them were starts. His WAR for the year was 1.3 and that includes all 37 appearances, not just the 25 starts.

Again, the Phillies went to the World Series in 2008 and again in 2009 and they did it without outstanding starting pitching. This message will repeat. Happ (in 2009) and Hamels (in 2008) were the only two pitchers, starter or relievers, to post a WAR for the season better than 2.5 in either year.

Led by Hamels and Halladay, the top four was a lot better in 2010. Halladay, Hamels and Lee all had superb years in 2011.

Halladay was, as you may have noticed, way off in 2012. Hamels wasn’t as good as he had been in 2011 or 2010. Lee wasn’t as good as he had been in 2011, but the top for of the rotation were still better than they been in 2009 and a lot better than they had been in 2008.

It’s easy for some of us (by which I mean me) to forget that Lee didn’t throw a pitch for the Phillies in 2010. They Phillies have only had two years where Halladay, Hamels and Lee comprised the core of the rotation. One of those years was great for the Phillies until they were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round. The other was 2012, which is best forgotten if at all possible.

Halladay came into 2012 having not put up a WAR worse than 5.9 since 2008 — in ’08 he was an All-Star, finished second in Cy Young voting in the AL (losing to Indian and 22-game winner Cliff Lee) and seventh in WAR for pitchers across both leagues. Last year his WAR was 0.7, which is the worst mark of his career since he threw to a 10.64 ERA as a 23-year-old with the Blue Jays in 2000.

Rollins won his fourth Gold Glove.

The Phillies picked up the $5 million option on Ruiz and declined the $5.5 million option on Polanco. They will pay Polanco a $1 million buyout. The same article suggests that free agent Juan Pierre is not likely to be back with the Phillies.

This article suggests that Worley will stay in Philadelphia to rehab his elbow coming off of surgery.

This article suggests the Phillies have $135.35 million committed to ten players for next season, including Lee ($25 million), Halladay ($20 million), Howard ($20 million), Hamels ($19.5 million), Utley ($15 million), Papelbon ($13 million), Rollins ($11 million), Ruiz ($5 million), Kyle Kendrick ($4.5 million) and Laynce Nix ($1.35 million).

That’s $40 million committed to Halladay and Howard. In 2012, Howard’s Baseball-Reference calculated WAR was -1.2 and Halladay’s was 0.7.

This article quotes Amaro suggesting that that center field will have to be addressed externally. The writer goes on to list possible candidates, including Bourn, Pagan, Upton, Victorino, Hamilton, Cabrera, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dexter Fowler.

This article looks at potential corner outfielders, including free agent Juan Pierre, Nick Swisher, Cody Ross, Torii Hunter, Ryan Ludwick, Jonny Gomes, Rual Ibanez, Ichiro Suzuki, Delmon Young, Josh Willingham and Alfonso Soriano.

Kyle Kendrick delivered another outstanding start last night, throwing seven scoreless innings as the Phils topped the Nats 2-0. Ruf provided all of the offense the Phils would need in the game with two-run triple in the top of the second.

The Phillies had one base-runner after the fourth inning, which came on a two-out walk by Mayberry in the fifth.

After the game, Manuel suggested the Kendrick was in the rotation for 2013, barring some major acquisition.

The Nationals clinched the NL East during the game. Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win over Atlanta went final shortly after Brown grounded to second to end the top of the ninth.

The Phillies are 81-79 on the year after beating the Washington Nationals 2-0 last night. They are in the third place in the NL East, 15 games behind the first place Nats and have two games left to play. They have won three in a row.

Kendrick got the start for the Phillies and went seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and a walk. One of the hits went for extra-bases, a double. He struck out four and dropped his ERA on the year to 3.90.

Kendrick ended June with a 5.35 ERA for the season. From the start of July to the end of the year, he made 20 appearances (13 starts) in which he threw to a 2.64 ERA over 85 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .215 against him in those outings.

He set the Nats down in order in the bottom of the first.

He started the second up 2-0. Michael Morse and Ian Desmond singled back-to-back with one out, putting men on first and second for Danny Espinosa. Espinosa went down on a soft ground ball to first for the second out, moving the runners up to second and third. Kendrick walked righty Kurt Suzuki to pitch to the pitcher John Lannan with the bases loaded. Lannan grounded to short to end the inning.

Washington went in order in the third and again in the fourth.

Suzuki singled to center with one out in the fifth. Lefty Roger Bernadina hit for Lannan and flew to center for the second out. With Jayson Werth at the plate, a wild pickoff attempt by Kendrick went for an error that allowed Bernadina to move up to third. Kendrick got Werth looking 2-2 to end the inning.

Kendrick’s throw to first wasn’t that bad. It looked like Wigginton got a little tangled up with the runner and had trouble trying to get to it.

Bryce Harper doubled to center to start the sixth. Ryan Zimmerman was next and hit a popup into shallow right field. Utley ran it down with his back to third, which allowed Harper to move up to third with one out. Adam LaRoche was next and Kendrick got the lefty on a popup to Martinez at short for the second out. Harper held third and was left there when Kendrick struck Morse out looking 3-2.

Kendrick gets out of one out, a man on third and the lefty LaRoche at the plate. He made a beautiful pitch to Morse that tailed in to catch the outside of the plate to end the inning.

Second time in two innings that Kendrick strikes out a good hitter with runners on for the third inning.

Kendrick threw a 1-2-3 seventh.

De Fratus started the eighth. Switch-hitter Steve Lombardozzi hit for the pitcher Ryan Mattheus and flew to left for the first out. Werth followed with a single to left and moved up to second when Harper walked behind him. Zimmerman flew to center for the second out on a nice diving play by Mayberry. Horst came in to face the lefty LaRoche and struck LaRoche out swinging to leave the runners stranded.

Mayberry saves the day and keeps the Nats off the board with the diving catch.

De Fratus faces four batters. He got two outs, one on a line drive to left and the other on a diving play by Mayberry that easily could have gone for a hit. The other two batters reached on a single and a walk. He hasn’t throw a full inning in any of his last four outings.

Horst strikes out the only batter he faces in the game, dropping his ERA on the year to 1.19. Lefties are hitting 178/260/200 against him for the season.

Aumont set righties Morse and Desmond down to start the ninth and got the switch-hitter Espinosa on a ground ball to second to end the game.

Aumont earned career save number two with the 1-2-3 frame.

Overall the pen goes two scoreless innings, allowing a hit and a walk while striking out two. De Fratus threw 15 pitches and Horst and Aumont were both under ten. Nobody has thrown more than one day in a row.

The Phillies lineup against lefty John Lannan went (1) Frandsen (2) Mayberry (3) Utley (4) Ruiz (5) Wigginton (6) Brown (7) Ruf (8) Martinez. Wow. That’s lacking some of the elements you would hope to see in a starting lineup (example: major league players). Rollins on the bench with Martinez at short. Wigginton at first for the sidelined Howard. Ruf in left. Frandsen leads off against the lefty with Mayberry hitting second.

Frandsen singled to left to start the top of the first, but Mayberry hit into a double-play behind him. Utley flew to left for the third out.

Ruiz started the second with a walk. Utley popped out for the first out before Brown moved Ruiz up to second with a single to center. It brought Ruf to the plate with two men on and he blasted a ball to left-center, just out of the reach of Harper as Harper crashed into the wall. It went for a triple and both runners scored to put the Phils up 2-0. Martinez grounded to second with Ruf holding for the second out. Kendrick struck out swinging for the third.

Another big hit for Ruf. Martinez can’t bring the runner home from third with one out.

Frandsen singled again to start the third and again Mayberry grounded into a double-play behind him. Utley fouled out to Zimmerman at third for the third out.

Mayberry hits into his second double-play in two at-bats, erasing Frandsen’s single for the second time.

Wigginton singled with one out in the fourth. Brown followed with a triple that put runners on second and third with one out for Ruf. The lefty Lannan walked the already-tripled righty Ruf, loading the bases for Martinez. Martinez grounded to first. LaRoche fielded, tagged first for the second out and threw home to get Wigginton to complete the double-play.

Martinez again can’t get it done with a runner on third and less than two outs. If he doesn’t watch out he’s going to get a reputation as someone who’s not a great offensive player.

Brown 2-for-2 with a double in two at-bats against the lefty through four innings. He ends the day at 191/291/340 against lefties for the year in 55 plate appearances.

Mayberry walked with two outs in the fifth. Utley struck out to leave him at first.

Righty Craig Stammen started the sixth and struck out Ruiz, Wigginton and Brown in order.

He was back for the seventh and struck out Ruf, Martinez and Kendrick in order.

Stammen faces six batters in the game and strikes out all six.

Righty Ryan Mattheus set the Phils down in order in the eighth.

Righty Drew Storen set the Phillies down in order in the ninth.

Frandsen was 2-for-4 with two singles that were followed by Mayberry bouncing into a double-play. He is still hammering away at left-handed pitching. 403/431/548 for the year (in 65 plate appearances).

Mayberry 0-for-3 with a walk and hit into two double-plays. 3-for-his-last-31 with 11 strikeouts.

Utley 0-for-4. Made a very nice play on the popup for the first out in the bottom of the sixth, which changed the inning. 3-for-his-last-15 with three singles. 317/440/413 over his last 83 plate appearances. Prior to his 3-for-his-last-15 he had hit 354/493/479 over his last 67 plate appearances.

Ruiz 0-for-3 with a walk. Came into the game 5-for-his-last-9. 10-for-his-last-32 with two doubles and two home runs.

Wigginton 1-for-4. 211/281/349 over his last 196 plate appearances.

Brown 2-for-4 with a double. He’s 5-for-his-last-29 (.172).

Ruf 1-for-4 with a two-run triple and a walk. Career walk number one is intentional. 9-for-27 on the year with two doubles, a triple and a home run. 5-for-12 against lefties with a walk, three extra-base hits and seven RBI.

Martinez 0-for-3. He’s 7-for-his-last-24 (.292) and hitting .168 for the season.

BJ Rosenberg (1-2, 6.86) gets career start number one in a bullpen game tonight against lefty Gio Gonzalez (21-8, 2.89). Got ‘em right where we want ‘em. Rosenberg threw three innings his last time out, which was his longest outing of the year. Six of his 20 appearances at Triple-A this season came as a starter. Righty Tyson Brummett is on the active roster for the Phillies as of Sunday — Brummett made 44 appearances this year between Reading and Lehigh Valley, eight of which were starts. Righties are hitting .199 against Gonzalez for the year. It will be his fifth start against the Phils this season — 3-1 with a 2.52 ERA and a 1.08 ratio so far.

Update: Lefty Tom Gorzelanny and not Gonzalez tonight.

Kyle Kendrick didn’t have much last night, allowing three home runs and five runs to the first eight batters he faced and leaving after just two innings and two batters. The Phillies made it almost all the way back from the 5-0 hole, though. De Fratus started the ninth with the Washington lead cut to 5-4, but was hit hard in the frame and the Nats went on to win 8-4.

Kendrick pointed out after the game that if he was awesome every start he’d be Cy Young. Not sure that’s true, actually, but if his point was that last night’s effort lacked awesomeness, I think we’re all on board.

The bullpen pitched very well until De Fratus ran into trouble in the three-run top of the ninth for the Nats. After Kendrick left after just two innings, Rosenberg, Lindblom and Horst combined to throw six scoreless frames in which they allowed a single and a walk and struck out six.

Former Phil Jayson Werth battled the fans all night, but wound up with the last laugh, singling home a pair of runs with two outs in the ninth to extend the Nationals lead.

The Phillies are 78-77 on the year after losing to the Washington Nationals 8-4 last night. They have lost three of their last four and are in third place in the NL East, 16 games out of first. They are 5 1/2 games out for the Wild Card and have seven left to play.

Kendrick got the start for the Phillies and went two innings, allowing five runs on five hits and two walks. Only four of the runs were earned. Three of the hits went for extra-bases, all home runs. He struck out one.

Kendrick has allowed 11 runs in 13 2/3 innings over his last three starts.

Jayson Werth was the first batter of the game and walked on five pitches. Bryce Harper was next and he hit the first pitch he saw from Kendrick out to center, putting the Nats up 2-0. Kendrick got the next three Washington hitters, getting Ryan Zimmerman on a ground ball to short for the first out, striking out Adam LaRoche for the second and getting Michael Morse on a fly ball to left for the third.

Ian Desmond led off the second and hit a 2-1 pitch out to left center. 3-0. Steve Lombardozzi was next and hit a ball to Utley that Utley didn’t handle for an error, putting Lombardozzi on first when Kurt Suzuki hit a 1-2 pitch out to left. 5-0. The pitcher John Lannan grounded to Rollins for the first out before Werth singled to center. Harper grounded to Howard with Werth forced at second for the second out. Harper stole second before Zimmerman grounded to second to end the frame.

Three home runs allowed by Kendrick to the first eight batters he faces.

LaRoche walked to start the third and moved to second on a single by Morse. That was it for Kendrick. Rosenberg took over and got Desmond to hit into a double-play. Lombardozzi lined to short to leave LaRoche at third.

Rosenberg started the fourth down 5-1. He walked Lannan with one out, but struck out Werth and Harper to leave the pitcher at first.

You want to avoid walking the pitcher when possible.

Rosenberg threw a 1-2-3 fifth with the lead cut to 5-2.

Rosenberg was fantastic in the game, getting a double-play in the third and allowing just one walk over three scoreless innings. Three innings is the longest outing of his career. He has thrown ten scoreless innings over his last seven appearances.

Lindblom set the Nats down in order in the sixth and again in the seventh.

Lindblom faces six batters and gets all six, dropping his ERA with the Phillies to 3.68 after 24 appearances. Opponents are hitting .175 against him since joining the Phils, but he has walked 15 in 22 innings. He has a 1.29 ERA over his last 14 appearances and has struck out 19 in 14 innings.

He was pitching for the second straight day and threw 29 pitches in the game.

Horst started the eighth with the Nats up 5-3. Zimmerman led off and singled to left. Horst struck LaRoche out swinging for the first out and got Morse to ground into a double-play behind him.

Horst faces three batters, allows a single then strikes out the lefty LaRoche and gets the righty Morse to ground into a double-play. He’s been charged with seven runs on the year over 27 innings, but only three of them have been earned. He’s had success against both righties and lefties in limited time with the Phils this year, so it seems like there are lots of reasons to expect significant contributions from him out of the pen in 2013.

De Fratus started the ninth with the Phillies down 5-4. Desmond led off and walked. Lefty Chad Tracy hit for the pitcher Tyler Clippard. Desmond stole second before Tracy grounded to short for the first out with Desmond holding. Suzuki was next and singled softly to left on a ball deflected by Pierre, moving Desmond up to third. De Fratus struck Espinosa out swinging for the second out before Suzuki stole second. It put runners on second and third for Werth and Werth singled into center, scoring both runners to extend the lead to 7-4. Bastardo came in to pitch to the lefty Harper and Harper tripled into the right field corner, scoring Werth to make it 8-4. Zimmerman struck out looking to leave Harper at third.

Werth was loudly booed during the game and especially in his ninth inning at-bat. While waiting in the on-deck circle, he faked throwing a foul ball to fans behind the Nationals dugout and then rolled the ball into the dugout. Flipped his bat dramatically after his two-run single, proving once and for all the wisdom of the seven-year, $126 million deal the Nationals gave him to hit .256.

De Fratus faced five batters in the game and they went walk, out, single, out single. Walking the leadoff man is never a good idea and it hurt De Fratus last night. All three of the guys who reached base against De Fratus in the game (Desmond walk, Werth and Suzuki singled) were right-handed. His line looked a little worse than it was cause of the two-out triple by Harper off of Bastardo that scored Werth, adding a third run to De Fratus’s line.

Like Lindblom, De Fratus was pitching for the second straight day. He threw to a 0.00 ERA over his first seven appearances with the Phillies, allowing two hits and three walks over six innings. In his last three appearances he has allowed four runs on four hits and a walk over 2 1/3 innings.

Bastardo faces two hitters in the game, allowing an RBI-triple to the lefty Harper before striking the righty Zimmerman out. Over his last 17 appearances, Bastardo has struck out 28 in 12 2/3 innings while throwing to a 1.42 ERA and an 0.95 ratio.

Overall the pen goes seven innings in the game, allowing three runs on four hits and two walks. Lindblom and De Fratus have each thrown two days in a row and both of them threw a lot of pitches last night. Lindblom threw 29 and De Fratus threw 27. Rosenberg was pitching for the first day in a row and threw 42 pitches in the game.

It seems like Rosenberg would surely be unavailable tonight and Lindblom and De Fratus at least questionable. Could be an issue if Cloyd doesn’t go nine. That’s a joke, but he went eight his last time out. So we’ll see.

The Phillies lineup against lefty John Lannan went (1) Rollins (2) Mayberry (3) Utley (4) Howard (5) Ruiz (6) Brown (7) Ruf (8) Frandsen. Ruf starts in left for the second game in a row, both of which came with lefties on the mound for the Nats.

Down 2-0, the Phillies went in order in the bottom of the first.

They started the second down 5-0. Howard led off and was hit by a pitch. The next three Phils went in order.

Frandsen doubled to left to start the third. Rosenberg was next and bunted. The catcher Suzuki fielded the ball and threw it into left field in an effort to get Frandsen at third. That proved to be ineffective. Frandsen scored, cutting the lead to 5-1, and Rosenberg was safe at first on the error. Rollins flew to center for the first out before Mayberry moved Rosenberg up to second with a single. Utley was next and he singled, loading the bases for Howard. Howard struck out and Ruiz grounded to the pitcher to keep the Phillies from getting more.

Howard really isn’t so good against lefties these days. One out and the bases loaded would have been a nifty time not to strike out.

With one out in the fourth, Ruf hit a ball down the third base line. Zimmerman made a nice play to record the out, though, fielding and making a long throw to first in time to get Ruf for the second out. It cost the Phillies a run, cause Frandsen was next and he hit a 2-1 pitch into center for a triple, his second extra-base hit in two at-bats. Rosenberg was next and he dribbled a ball back up the middle that went for a single. Frandsen scored to cut the lead to 5-2. Rollins grounded to third to end the inning.

Zimmerman’s play on the ball hit by Ruf costs the Phillies a run. The ball Frandsen hit to center should have been caught. It was fairly deep, but Harper turned the wrong way going back on it and couldn’t recover.

Frandsen has monster numbers against lefties for the year and they got better thanks to 2-for-2 with a double and a gift triple off of Lannan in his first two at-bats last night. He’s now at 429/462/592 against lefties for the year.

Lannan set the Phils down in order in the fifth.

Ruiz walked to start the sixth. Brown struck out behind him for the first out. Righty Ryan Mattheus came in to pitch to Ruf and got him to ground into a double-play to end the inning.

Mattheus got Frandsen and Schierholtz, hitting for Lindblom, to start the seventh before Rollins lined a 3-1 pitch out to right. That cut the lead to 5-3. Mayberry struck out swinging for the third out.

Utley doubled to right off of righty Tyler Clippard to start the eighth. Howard struck out swinging for the first out before Utley took third on a wild pitch. Ruiz walked, putting two men on for Brown. Brown got to hit against the righty Clippard and hit a 2-2 pitch well to right. Werth took it on the warning track for the second out, though. Utley scored, cutting the lead to 5-4. Ruf followed and singled softly to right, moving Ruiz up to third. Pierre ran for Ruf at first. Clippard struck Frandsen out swinging 1-2 to leave the runners at the corners.

Brown didn’t miss by much. Howard strikes out against the righty for a big first out.

The Phillies were down 8-4 when righty Drew Storen set them down in order in the ninth. Nix hit for Bastardo and struck out swinging for the first out.

Rollins 1-for-4 with his 23rd homer of the year. He’s 1-for-his-last-18. 249/322/486 with 21 homers over his last 438 plate appearances.

Mayberry 1-for-5. 2-for-his-last-18 with seven strikeouts.

Utley 2-for-4 with a double. He made an error in the second that led to an unearned run when Suzuki followed with a homer. 305/423/463 in September.

Howard 0-for-3 and struck out twice. 7-for-his-last-41 (.171) with 16 strikeouts.

Ruiz 0-for-2 and walked twice. 5-for-his-last-32 (.156).

Brown 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and an RBI. His line against lefties for the year is down to 140/245/256.

Ruf 1-for-4 and grounded into a double-play. Zimmerman made a nice play on his ball in the fourth to take away what might have been another hit. 3-for-9 with a home run so far for the year. Phils face another lefty today in Gio Gonzalez, so Ruf seems like a good bet to get another start.

Frandsen 2-for-4 with a double and a triple, both off the lefty Lannan. Had a big chance against the righty Clippard in the ninth and struck out for the third out.

Cloyd (2-1, 3.86) faces lefty Gio Gonzalez (20-8, 2.84) tonight. Cloyd was fantastic in his last outing, needing just 88 pitches to hold the Mets to a run over eight innings. Lefties are still hitting an ugly 295/380/523 against him for the year. Gonzalez has allowed more than two earned runs once in his last eight starts (he allowed three in the other). Opponents are hitting just .204 against him for the year.