Ryan Howard

On the heels of arguably their most dramatic win of the season, the Phillies are left dealing with an unsettled injury situation. Carlos Ruiz suffered a right hamstring strain while running the bases in Sunday's 3-2 comeback victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park. Ryan Howard did not play because of a sore left knee, an injury he traced back to spring training. Howard was replaced by Michael Young, who played his first game at first base since Sept. 28 of last season while with the Texas Rangers.

SAN FRANCISCO - Chase Utley found serenity here, at a baseball diamond named for a coach who accepted a $1 salary for 16 years to save his college's team from abolishment. Dante Benedetti Diamond is squeezed into the corner of a sleepy neighborhood at the edge of the University of San Francisco's campus. Large black netting prevents home run balls from littering Golden Gate Avenue. Two freshman dorms overlook the field from behind home plate. An undergraduate student stuck a cardboard cutout of Mitt Romney in the window, so the smiling politician is always watching baseball.

The scoreboard has been kind to the Phillies. While they slip, slide and fall in their modest pursuit of reaching .500, the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals have failed to pull away. It's hard to believe that any team could have a worse on-base percentage than the .304 the Phillies have posted through 41 games. But five teams do, and the Nationals, at .292, are one of them. The Braves, meanwhile, started 13-2 and have gone 9-16 since. The misfortune of others will not matter if the Phillies cannot fix their myriad problems.

Cliff Lee pitched and hit well enough to earn a win. He had to settle for being picked up by his teammates. Eighth-inning RBIs by Domonic Brown and Carlos Ruiz broke the tie and led the Phillies to a 5-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday at Citizens Bank Park. "A comeback win like this means a lot and shows the character of this team," Brown said. With the score tied at 3-3, Michael Young drew a one-out walk in the Phillies eighth. Ryan Howard, of all players, then reached base on a check-swinging bunt that reliever Sean Marshall couldn't handle.

There have been times this season and in the past when Cole Hamels has been a victim. He would be consistently great and the Phillies' offense would be constantly absent. This was not one of those times. The Phillies arrived at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday morning with a chance to extend their winning streak to four games, a modest accomplishment they have failed to achieve this season. With Hamels facing Cleveland's Corey Kluber, a righthander with a career 5.42 ERA in 20 games, the Phillies had to be energized upon arrival, which is the way you are supposed to feel whenever your ace takes the mound.

MAY IS A month in which any amount of optimism can be excused, and if you spend enough time scanning the airwaves and sports pages in this town you will find a number of sources attempting to talk themselves into believing in this Phillies team. Some of that might be the result of a coping mechanism - the thought of 4 months of meaningless baseball is a weighty thought to process - but even the most ardent of cynics cannot deny the multitude of variables that could blossom into positives between now and October.

ROY HALLADAY yesterday had surgery to repair his $20 million shoulder, which, with the rest of him, was 36 years and 1 day old. The surgery likely will end his season and surely will alter his career. Mike Adams, the Phillies' featured addition to their pitching staff, has pitched through aches all season and is shelved for the time being with a back injury. Veteran middle man Chad Durbin, usually lousy early in seasons, has been lousy early this season. Huge reliever Phillippe Aumont, a 24-year-old who had pitched in 31 major league games since he was called up in late August, has pitched like a giant 24-year-old with about a half-season of experience.

JUSTIN DE FRATUS is a guy who knows he might be one pitch away from the minors, and Mark Reynolds is a guy who is tied for the American League lead with 11 home runs, and when the two men faced each other last night, one represented the go-ahead run and one represented his team's chance at preventing it. But De Fratus knew what needed to be done, and he did it by throwing the exact pitch he knew Reynolds would be looking for: a 92-mph fastball in...

The Phillies insisted before the game that revenge wasn't the motive, only the chance to get closer to .500. Afterward, Kevin Frandsen admitted that consecutive routs in Cleveland two weeks ago served as a motivating force. After being outscored by 20-2 by the Indians in two games, the Phillies earned revenge on Tuesday night with a 6-2 win at Citizens Bank Park. "They kicked our butt [in Cleveland] and I hope the guys would realize that and I feel like we did," said Frandsen, who got the Phillies going with a solo home run in the first inning.

PHOENIX - The Phillies won but Charlie Manuel was distracted. He uncapped a blue marker and doodled on his worn lineup card late Saturday night in the desert. He never lifted his head when asked about his hitters' finally executing in key situations to snap a three-game losing skid. The 69-year-old manager mumbled. He repeated a message heard so frequently in the last 13 months, and his plodding tone suggested that even Manuel had doubts about it. "We don't need to get down and everything," Manuel said.