Phillies Notebook: Phillies will walk a fine line in Atlanta

NEW YORK - High above leftfield, the Citi Field scoreboard told an out-of-town story that will impact the Phillies when they close out the regular season with a series against the Braves.

The Braves lost again yesterday. The Cardinals won. That means St. Louis is now just a game behind in the wild-card standings. Which in turn means that Charlie Manuel will walk a thin line between respecting the integrity of the game by doing everything he can to win, and still do what he has to do to get his team ready for the playoffs, which begin Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.

Roy Halladay was pulled from yesterday's 9-4 win over the Mets after throwing 77 pitches. Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt likely will be on similar pitch counts the next two games.

Then there's the regular-season finale on Wednesday. Right now, the plan is not to start Cole Hamels, who would be pitching on short rest. They'll use Kyle Kendrick or Joe Blanton instead, even though the result could have important postseason implications.

"We do have to think about that, but that's tough to handle," the manager said. "We've got to get ready for ourselves. We've got to make sure we're ready. And we want to play better than we've been playing and we want to be ready going in. And we're not going to be able to use Hamels in that game for quite a long ways because he's going to pitch that third [NLDS] game for us.

"Even if we start [Hamels] he's not going to pitch very much. We'd like to put him in a position where he can throw some and get a win. More than likely, he's definitely not going to throw a lot. We're looking at two innings, three at the most."

There's no recognition for the most underappreciated players on a team, but maybe there should be. And if the Phillies did hand out a MUP Award this season, it might well go to righthander Kyle Kendrick.

He's been effective. He's been versatile; in 15 starts he has a 3.14 earned run average, in 18 relief appearances it's 3.23. He's a righthanded pitcher who has held lefthanded hitters to a .237 batting average.

So while much of the speculation about next season's roster has rightly focused on shortstop Jimmy Rollins and closer Ryan Madson, it's also interesting to ponder where Kendrick might be.

He won't be a free agent until after the 2014 season, but he made $2.45 million this season and is arbitration eligible. Meanwhile, the Phillies are already bumping up against the luxury-tax threshold and could have several tough decisions to make this offseason.

"As of now, here," the 27-year-old said when asked where he saw himself pitching in 2012. "Maybe same role. Maybe just starting. Maybe in the bullpen. I don't know. I don't see why I wouldn't be here."

Because you've pitched well enough to be attractive to other clubs that don't have as much pitching depth as the Phillies?

"Yeah. But if you pitched good, why wouldn't they want you back, you know?"

Money?

"We'll see. Obviously that's their decision," he said. "But I'd like to come back here. This is the organization, what I know. I want to come back but it's their decision."

The Phillies still need one win in their final three games to reach 100 for the season for just the third time in franchise history. It's a milestone that once appeared inevitable, but missing it might not be the worst thing.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Of the 30 teams that won at least 100 regular-season games from 1980 to 2010, only four became World Series champions: the 1998 and 2009 Yankees, 1986 Mets and 1984 Tigers. Nineteen of the 30 failed to reach the Series.

Since 1986, two of 25 100-win teams have become champs. In the same time period, three teams with no more than 87 wins took the Series: the 2006 Cardinals (83), 2000 Yankees (87) and 1987 Twins (85) . . .

From 1991, Atlanta qualified for the playoffs 14 straight times. Six of those teams won 100-plus games, but only one of them reached the World Series, while four sub-100 Braves teams advanced. The 1995 club, the only one to win it all, had the fewest wins of the bunch - 90. Those Braves beat Cleveland, a 100-game winner.

The annual rookie hazing ritual was played out yesterday. After the game ended, the first-year players (Vance Worley, Michael Stutes, Justin DeFratus, Erik Kratz, Michael Schwimer, Joe Savery) came back to the clubhouse to find that their clothes had been removed and replaced by embarrassing costumes that they had to wear on the trip to Atlanta. Savery, for example, was dressed as an Applebee's waitress.