Shane Victorino

So it's winter in Las Vegas, and you're looking to make a bet. Over-under on Cliff Lee's wins at home is five and wins overall is 10. Do you take it? Yes would have been the answer for most of the population with any knowledge of baseball. So it's late summer in Las Vegas, and you're looking to make a bet. Over-under on Cliff Lee's wins at home is one and wins overall is five. Do you take it? I don't know is the answer for anyone who has followed Lee's star-crossed 2012 season with the Phillies.

MILWAUKEE - We interrupt the controversy du jour to bring you one of the real reasons the Phillies are making vacation plans for October. The eighth inning. As the airwaves back in Philadelphia buzzed with talk about Jimmy Rollins' failure to run out a groundout in Wednesday's loss to the Marlins, the Phillies watched another eighth-inning lead disappear with one swing of the bat. This time, it was Corey Hart hitting a two-out grand slam off Josh Lindblom to give the Brewers a come-from-behind, 7-4 victory on Thursday.

MIAMI - By the time Cole Hamels concluded his latest masterpiece, a 4-0 shutout of the Marlins that extended his scoreless innings streak to 22, he had his pick of metrics in which to take pride. An ERA that stood at 2.91, eighth in the National League. A win total that grew to 13, tied for fifth. Strikeouts? 158, good enough for third in the league. But for a pitcher who spent 2010 and 2011 watching Roy Halladay grind his way into the later innings of nearly every start, the innings total means the most.

RIGHTHANDER Ethan Martin wowed his new home crowd, making his first start for the Reading Phillies since being acquired in the Shane Victorino trade. But it most certainly wasn't how he started the game. It was how he finished. The Los Angeles Dodgers' 2008 first-round draft pick took the hill in the top of the first, and after working deep into the count, registered his first punchout in an R-Phils uniform. Martin then prepared to face the Binghamton Mets' second batter of the game as Wilmer Flores stepped to the plate.

When Ruben Amaro Jr. recently engaged a few of his rival general managers in discussions, the topic of third base arose, and they all reached one conclusion: It is a difficult position to fill. "Somebody's going to play there," Amaro said. "We'll have to try to figure it out. " The Phillies, theoretically, have three lineup holes to fill for 2013. Amaro has effectively guaranteed Domonic Brown one of the outfield jobs, leaving two others, plus third base. The rest of the infield is locked up, assuming the team exercises catcher Carlos Ruiz's $5 million option.

IN ALL LIKELIHOOD, there is a more delicate way to broach this topic, but regardless of how you spin it, the notion remains the same: If any major league organization decides to hand Michael Bourn the $15 to $20 million salary that some national pundits estimate he is worth, the next owners meeting better feature a Brooks Brothered line of executives waiting to purple nurple the guilty party. And Phillies fans better hope that it isn't David Montgomery wincing in pain. Michael Bourn is a relative topic for a variety of reasons, mostly because he happens to be in town at a time when the lower half of Charlie Manuel's lineup reads Mayberry-Kratz-Schierholtz-Frandsen.

DAYS OFF are few and far between in major league baseball, but the Phillies did not waste their rare reprieve, taking time instead to support a charitable cause. The Rollins Family Foundation hosted its seventh annual Celebrity BaseBOWL Tournament at Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes on Thursday evening. Proceeds benefited the Northeast Region of the Arthritis Foundation, with Jimmy Rollins' foundation specifically hoping to assist children suffering from arthritic conditions. Many of Rollins' Phillies teammates, including Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Kyle Kendrick and Roy Halladay, attended the event.

FOR THE FIRST time in a long while, it is possible to look into the crystal ball and see something positive rising from the ashes of 2012. Over the course of 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday, the Phillies saw Roy Halladay look stronger than he has since April, Domonic Brown look like a professional hitter who is just starting to find his way, and Chase Utley look like the player who was the best offensive second baseman in baseball for half a...

Ed Wade's perspective on last week's two ground-shaking trade deadline moves was unique. He was the general manager when the Phillies paid $50,000 for Shane Victorino in the Rule 5 draft in December 2004, a move that proved to be among the most important during the team's run of success that has at the very least stalled in 2012. He was also the general manager who sent Hunter Pence from the Houston Astros to the Phillies at last year's trade deadline, a transaction celebrated in Philadelphia as the piece that would lead to another parade down Broad Street.

When he wasn't dealt by Tuesday's non-waiver trade deadline, righthander Joe Blanton thought he might be with the Phillies for the rest of the season. So when he heard Friday afternoon that he had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named or cash, he had a natural reaction. "I was pretty shocked," Blanton said, talking to reporters in the Phillies dugout moments after hearing the news. The trade was made after the Dodgers claimed Blanton off waivers.