This is just piling on

Trent and I still aren't conceding, but it's hard to say there's much reason to believe the Red Sox are going to pull this off.

With that said, do the baseball gods have to keep picking off the bones of the Red Sox carcass? Can we at least end the season quietly without any more injuries?

Apparently not: Felix Doubront (I forgot he was even still on the big-league roster) strained his pec.

He's not headed to the DL and obviously wasn't going to fuel the great comeback of 2010, but it's still deflating.

Today's games: In a game we managed to stay awake for the ending (because it was an afternoon tilt), the Phillies beat the Dodgers 5-1 to stay three games behind the Braves. ... Jon Lester, who will be needed for an amazing comeback, survived a rocky start (five runs in the first two innings) to put himself in line for a win after his mates scored six runs in the 7th inning. The Red Sox beat the Orioles 9-6 to stay eight and seven games behind the Yankees and Rays, respectively.

Unwelcome return

I logged on thinking that Davey Lopes' comments about Chase Utley and his knee, and the Phillies' offensive explosion, would give me an excuse to downplay the return of Manny Ramirez to Fenway.

Nope.

An even bigger former Red Sox/roider/horse's ass stole my attention. Roger Clemens decided tonight would be a good night to catch a game in the Monster seats. What an ass. Doesn't he have a lawsuit to worry about?

The Globe reports that Manny was largely booed, but that there were some cheers and a video tribute to the former Red Sox slugger. He rewarded the appreciation by showing no acknowledgment. I probably would have neither cheered nor booed.

Manny aside, Felix Doubront won his big league debut despite giving up five runs (three earned) in five innings. The Red Sox beat the Dodgers 10-6 behind home runs by Manny's bud David Ortiz and former Dodgers Adrian Beltre and J.D. Drew. Former Phillies prospect Carlos Monasterios got shelled.

If you care (I don't) Manny was 1-5 with a run. Daniel Bard struck him out looking to end the game. {Greg cared so little that he stood up and cheered when Manny struck out.}

Phillies: Davey Lopes told Baseball Prospectus that Chase Utley has a knee injury, confirming much speculation. Utley denied it, but said he wouldn't ever say if he's injured:

Chase Utley said today he is a private person, so he probably would not admit if an injury affected his play.

Utley then said he is fine.

The Phillies said he is fine, too.

He looks fine tonight. Utley, who dismissed before the game that he has an injured right knee, singled and scored from first on a triple in the first inning, hit a three-run home run to right field in the second inning and made a fantastic diving catch in the third inning.

He also specifically refuted Lopes' comments:

"I think there's a little confusion and maybe a little bit of a difference of opinion with what Davey said," Utley said before the game. "In my opinion, an injury is something that keeps you off the field. When you play 162-games-plus over the course of the year you're going to have aches and pains. That's part of this game. That's part of being a baseball player. In my opinion there's no injury whatsoever."

In case you don't believe him - because he said he wouldn't admit if an injury affected his play - Chase was 2-5 tonight with two runs, four RBI and a home run. He was a big cog in what we hope is the official start of hittin' season as the Phillies beat the Twins 9-5. Ryan Howard was a bigger cog, going 4-4 with three runs, three RBI and two home runs, a triple and a double.

Former Red Sox slugger returns to Fenway

Lost in the shuffle of the NL West portion of the Red Sox' interleague schedule is the return of a former Red Sox whose exemplary character and offensive contributions are still missed long after he was traded to the National League.

I speak not of Manny Ramirez, whose Dodgers play in Boston this weekend, but of Adam LaRoche, who had an interesting nine-game stint as a Red Sox last year:

The first baseman spent little more than a week in a Red Sox uniform last year, acquired on July 22 and then traded nine days later.

In between, he managed to homer in his first game, stroke a big double to help beat the A's in his third, and move in with teammate and fellow hunting enthusiast J.D. Drew. The arrival of Victor Martinez made LaRoche expendable, so he was traded to the Braves at the deadline for fellow first baseman Casey Kotchman.

LaRoche, now on the Diamondbacks, could be bitter about having been moved around so much, but he's not:

"I see it as a pretty classy gesture on the Red Sox' part," LaRoche said. "When they got Victor in that trade, they easily could have forgotten about me and not tried to trade me. I could have stayed here and been a platoon guy and played a couple of times a week.

"But I remember Tito (manager Terry Francona) calling me into his office and saying, 'We feel bad we got you and now we've got Victor and there's going to be this big circle of guys playing third and first. We’re doing everything we can to get you moved before the deadline.'"

Classy remarks on his part.

The phenom starts again: Yes, Stephen Strasburg makes his third major league start on Friday (another national broadcast, of course), but I'm more interested in Felix Doubront getting his first call-up to make a spot start for injured Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Today's games: Things went well tonight for the Phillies in New York on the 24th anniversary of Jamie Moyer's big league debut. J-Moy didn't pitch well that night, but the young Cubbie was able to beat Steve Carlton and the Phils. Gary Matthews went 2-4.

That was win No. 1. Tonight was No. 265, as Moyer went eight innings in the 6-3 win. (Only two were his; Brad Lidge struggled but allowed only the one run.) Tonight was win No. 700 for Charlie Manuel. I felt good when the Phillies scored six runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings, including their first back-to-back homers of the season (Jayson Werth and Ryan Howard). But I was worried that they didn't keep piling up runs. Baby steps, I know, but you need to be relentless to beat the Empire.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, kept it closer than they should have against former Phillie Rodrigo Lopez and the D-Backs, but they won 6-2 behind seven solid innings from Jon Lester.

LaRoche, who was 1-4 last night, went 1-4 again tonight.