Ryan Howard

THE WORDS that Cliff Lee spoke on Wednesday night in Cleveland were borne of frustration, something that Charlie Manuel acknowledged as he sat in the dugout before last night's game against the Miami Marlins. The manager, who prides himself on his abilities as a human thermometer, insisted that he has yet to sense any friction between the team's pitchers and the hitters, despite the inability of the latter party to provide its counterpart with much in the way of breathing room over the first month of the season.

CLEVELAND - Delmon Young woke up in Louisville, boarded a plane bound for Baltimore before 8 a.m. and arrived in Cleveland before noon. Just before 2 p.m., he jumped into the batter's box at Progressive Field for an early round of batting practice with the likes of Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Michael Young, manager Charlie Manuel and hitting coach Steve Henderson. "It was a long process," Delmon Young said, "but it was well worth it. " Young, 27, was activated from the 15-day disabled list yesterday afternoon.

NEW YORK - Suddenly, the idea of the Phillies being a player in this summer's National League playoff race doesn't seem as far-fetched as it did, oh, Friday afternoon. With one game remaining in April, Chooch back behind the plate and the reclaimed Roy Halladay set to pitch tomorrow night, the Phillies could finish the month just a game under .500 and possibly tied with the Washington Nationals. Yeah, sure, it's too early for that kind of scoreboard watching, and yeah, sure, the team they swept over the weekend was the New York Mets, not the Nats and not the Braves.

NEW YORK - Before Ryan Howard smashed a dramatic double, before Chase Utley added another run, before Jimmy Rollins and Laynce Nix touched off the winning rally with two singles, John Buck could not catch a foul pop Sunday. It floated toward the Phillies dugout at Citi Field. Buck ripped off his catcher's mask and looked to the sky. The ball nicked his glove; Nix's at-bat continued. There were two outs in the seventh inning of a 5-1 Phillies win, and Buck could have prevented chaos.

NEW YORK - Time will tell whether the weekend was a respite against a rotten team or a springboard to a turnaround for the Phillies. Either way, they will take their three-game sweep of the New York Mets, a team that would be even worse off if not for the presence of young pitching star Matt Harvey in their rotation and the rancid Miami Marlins in their division. It can be said with certainty that the Mets are on the road to nowhere this season, even though their charter flight took them to Miami after Sunday's 5-1 loss to the Phillies at Citi Field.

Philadelphia's Top 50 Baseball Players By Rich Westcott University of Nebraska Press. 272 pp. $24.95 Reviewed by Larry Eichel   According to local baseball historian Rich Westcott, someone named Bob Johnson is one of the top 50 baseball players in Philadelphia history. Never heard of him? The man known as "Indian Bob" (he was one-quarter Cherokee) played for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1933 through 1942, spending most of his time in left field.

NEW YORK - Last July, the Phillies shed Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence in two deadline deals and sought austerity in the outfield. They are paying their five outfielders a total of $3.4 million in 2013, and until Saturday's 9-4 romp over the Mets, the production matched the price. It dragged an offense carried by contributions from its veteran infield. Phillies outfielders ranked 29th in baseball with a .562 OPS before Saturday. They hit three home runs in the season's first 24 games, which tied for the fewest in the majors.

READING - The gang, such as it is, will be back together Sunday in New York. Catcher Carlos Ruiz returns from his 25-game suspension for using the banned substance Adderall and the Phillies hope it becomes a trigger point for a team that has stumbled out of the starting gate for the second straight season. Returns, of course, have become as commonplace for the Phillies in recent years as they are the day after Christmas. They were able to survive and recover from the lengthy absences of shortstop Jimmy Rollins in 2010 and second baseman Chase Utley in 2011.

NEW YORK - Baseball is a funny game. Charlie Manuel has dedicated his 69-year-old soul to mastering it as best he can, yet he often yields to that adage when confronted by the inexplicable. He is not alone. So when the Phillies rallied Friday in the sixth inning of a 4-0 victory over the Mets, the manager must have wondered what he'd done to deserve this. For the fourth straight day, his team put a runner on third base with no one out. The previous three instances generated failures.

OTHER THAN AN eighth inning pinch-hit appearance, Chase Utley watched from the dugout as the Phillies offense went blank for the third time in 8 days. After a day of rest, Utley was back in the lineup on Wednesday and in a new spot, too. For the first time since the end of the 2011 season, Utley hit second. Following a 2-week spell that has seen the Phils offense score three runs or less 10 times in 12 games, Charlie Manuel saw it fit to alter his lineup for the second time this homestand.