Charlie Manuel

SAN FRANCISCO - The targets for Hunter Pence at AT&T Park are plentiful. There is the giant Coca-Cola bottle in left field and a body of water beyond the right-field wall. His batting-practice shows have traveled from Houston to Philadelphia and now here, where Pence swung with all his might Tuesday afternoon. Pence provided a show in his first game against his former team on Monday. He homered, doubled, and singled against Cliff Lee. His .847 OPS ranked second among the Giants entering Tuesday's game.

SAN FRANCISCO - If the Phillies had information Tuesday regarding Roy Halladay's health, they were not sharing it with the world. A cloud of uncertainty remained over their rotation and the star righthander's future. Halladay saw a doctor Tuesday, this much is sure. But the Phillies did not release any further updates. It was unknown exactly when during the day Halladay saw Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers' team physician, in Los Angeles, and what tests were performed. An MRI examination was expected.

SAN FRANCISCO - A day of public humiliation was over, and Roy Halladay slept. The Phillies were on a plane hurtling across the country Sunday night when Charlie Manuel went searching for his pitcher, the man who had failed to disclose soreness in his prized right shoulder to his employer. "I didn't want to wake him," Manuel said. The Phillies manager never talked to Halladay - not on the plane and not before Halladay traveled Monday to Los Angeles for a doctor's appointment Tuesday that could decide the fate of his Phillies career.

SAN FRANCISCO - Ben Revere reached base three times Sunday, just the second time that happened in 27 games, and that earned him a spot on the bench Monday night. The Phillies were ranked 14th in the National League with a .669 OPS before Monday's game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Revere is far from the sole culprit, but when the lineup is struggling, the manager will typically seek the weakest link and remove him. That, right now, is Revere. "I didn't say Ben couldn't hit," Charlie Manuel said.

It's a pretty easy choice. You can be mad at Andrew Bynum or you can be mad at Roy Halladay. You can't be mad at both. Bynum spent the final year of his contract unable to play a single minute of basketball. There was bowling at one end of his wasted season and flamenco dancing at the other, but Bynum made sure the Sixers knew of every twinge of discomfort in his 25-year-old knees. Halladay is spending the final year of his contract trying desperately to play baseball. There is no off-the-field nonsense, only a man working as hard as he can to find a way to earn his money.

"[Family members] are under strict orders to speak up if they think I am not writing well any longer, because at this point I could write the telephone directory and get money for it. " - Author John le Carré, 81, to the New York Times   MUHAMMAD ALI'S last fight was a loss to Trevor Berbick in a 10-round decision. That isn't the one I remember, though. It was the fight before that, against Larry Holmes, that will forever endure. The fight was in 1980, with Ali coming out of retirement to try to beat the champion.

The Phillies scored only two runs on five hits combined during two consecutive losses to the Miami Marlins. Jump-starting the offense won't be easy Monday night when they open a three-game series in San Francisco against the Giants. The Phillies will face 23-year-old lefthander Madison Bumgarner, who is off to a sizzling start. Bumgarner, who is 2-0 with a 0.00 career record in two World Series games, is 3-0 with a 1.55 ERA this season. He has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his six starts.

The next time Domonic Brown hits a home run, he will achieve a career high in that department. In his limited playing time in 2011 and 2012, the Phillies outfielder hit five home runs each year. He got to that number a lot quicker this season, driving the ball out of the park in the first two games of the weekend series with the Miami Marlins to reach five in 97 at-bats. If he continues on his current pace, he will flirt with hitting 30 home runs this season. "I don't think that's out of the realm," manager Charlie Manuel said before Saturday night's game against the Marlins.

THE BOSTON RED SOX entered the first weekend of May with baseball's best record and the game's hottest pitcher, too. Former top prospect Clay Buchholz is 6-0 with a 1.01 ERA. He won American League Pitcher of the Month honors earlier this week. He also was accused of cheating. After throwing six shutout innings Wednesday in Toronto, Buchholz was accused of doctoring pitches by two former big-league pitchers-turned-Toronto broadcasters: Jack Morris and Dirk Hayhurst. Both said Buchholz was applying a foreign substance to the ball, which is illegal.

A night after Phillies lefthander Cliff Lee suggested the team needed to show more pride, manager Charlie Manuel said the team has been proud but not productive enough. The Phillies lost two games in Cleveland by a combined 20-2 score. Lee was the losing pitcher in Wednesday's 6-0 defeat. Afterward, Lee talked about how the Phillies were pummeled in both games. "We have to have a little more pride than that and figure out a way to at least get back into the game and make it somewhat competitive," Lee said.