Philadelphia Phillies

FOR A LITTLE while there, it looked like the Phillies had found their next great pinch-hitter. Laynce Nix slugged as many pinch-hit home runs this April (two) as he had in his entire career before this season (covering 179 pinch-hit plate appearances). And he was hitting .538 (7-for-13) off the bench.

Even though righthander B.J. Rosenberg was called up three times last year by the Phillies, he was surprised that it happened on Friday.

Former Phillies skipper told his 1980 team how to play, and still has a lot to say in his new memoir.

Jonathan Broxton, the Phillies' good ole friend, was back at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night for the start of the Reds' three-game set in Philadelphia. And perfectly on cue, the Phillies (20-22) welcomed the righty reliever by handing him another night to forget against them, as they scored two runs -- in peculiar fashion -- with Broxton on the bump late in a tie game to beat the streaking Reds (25-17), 5-3. Working with a 3-0 cushion, Cliff Lee...

He has not pitched since May 10, but ballclub remains uncertain whether he will have to go on the disabled list for the injury.

Cliff Lee was solid against the Reds, and the Phillies got some key hits to break Cincinnati's winning streak at six.

Ethan Martin went 7 and pitched pretty well – he gave up 8H and 2BB, struck out 6k. Cody Asche went deep for his fourth of the year. Nick Hernandez with a very nice bounce back from a poor start last time out – 1R, 3H, 1BB, 8K in 6 IP. Brian Pointer with his 14th steal out of 16 tries, Roman Quinn with his 19th out of 24. The SAL leader, Kannapolis (White Sox) 2B Micah Johnson, has 37 in 44 tries, in 36 games. I think that’s worthy of a “wow”…or maybe a “whoa”. Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB. http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20130517

It's Friday night. It's spring. It's beautiful outside. It was a perfect night for baseball. And the Phillies didn't let us down. Here's what I saw happen, in between dinner, kid bedtimes, and another episode of Friday Night Lights: Jimmy Rollins proved me a prophet with his third home run of the year. The two-run shot in the bottom of the third put the Phillies ahead 2-0. Michael Young continues to show those of us who doubted him that maybe we were wrong. After Cliff Lee led off the bottom of the fifth with a double that just missed being a home run and then Rollins bunted him over (small ball!), Young hit a triple to deep center field that put the Phillies up 3-0. In the bottom of the eighth, with the game now tied, the Phillies scored a run without hitting the ball out of the infield. Michael Young walked (again, doubters hanging their heads in shame), Ryan Howard hit an oops-dribbler down the third base line for a single, Delmon Young was hit by a pitch, and Domonic Brown hit a bouncer up the middle that was mishandled by both the shortstop and second baseman. The Phils took the lead 4-3. Here's what I didn't see happen: Jay Bruce hit a two-run home run off of Cliff Lee in the top of the sixth. Was Lee tired after his double and run scored in the bottom of the fifth? Joey Votto clobbered an Antonio Bastardo eighth inning pitch to tie the game at 3-3. The eighth inning continues to flummox Phillies pitchers. After Michael Young scored to give the Phillies the 4-3 lead, Ryan Howard scored on a Carlos Ruiz sac fly. Replays show that Howard was probably out. Lee, Justin DeFratus, and Jonathan Papelbon combined for 8.7 innings of 2 run ball. That Bastardo character . . . . Fill in the blanks for the rest of the game below this Fangraph of a Friday night win. Source: FanGraphs

The Phillies defeat the Reds, 5-3, at Citizens Bank Park.

Cliff Lee pitched and hit well enough to earn a win. He had to settle for being picked up by his teammates.