Carlos Ruiz is out of the starting lineup for the third straight game with a mild right hamstring strain. Brian Schneider is catching in his place in Wednesday night's series finale against the Mets at Citi Field.

Ruiz did take part in some sprinting exercises before batting practice and said he felt a lot better than when he arrived to New York on Monday. Ruiz said the hamstring had been bothering him for a few days and became more of a problem when he ran from first to third on a single in the sixth inning in St. Louis on Sunday.

With Thursday's off day in the schedule, the Phils decided it made sense to be conservative in returning Ruiz back into regular action. He expects to play when the Phils return to Citizens Bank Park Friday against Miami.

"I’ve had two days, Charlie giving me today and then tomorrow, that will be good for me," Ruiz said. "I was running outside today and I feel better, I don’t want to say (100 percent), but close. I think today and tomorrow are going to be the difference I’ll see how I feel Friday."

Ruiz is available to pinch hit tonight, just as he was Tuesday night.

In other injury news...

-- Roy Halladay was checked out by Mets team doctor David Altchek Wednesday. Halladay simply wanted a second opinion on his right shoulder. The Phillies won't have an update on Halladay until Friday, when he is expected to talk to the media for the first time since landing on the DL.

-- Laynce Nix ran for the first time since landing on the DL on May 11 with a left calf strain. Nix caled it more of a "really light jog" and isn't close to returning or going on a rehab assignment.

Roy Halladay will but shut down for a minimum of three weeks and isn't expected to return to the Phillies rotation for six-to-eight weeks.


That's the reality of the medical exam and the ensuing roster move that sent the two-time Cy Young Award winner to the disabled list Tuesday.


Two days after leaving his start in St. Louis after two innings due to shoulder pain, Halladay was examined at the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson Hospital. He was diagnosed with a Grade 1/Grade 2 right latissimus dorsi strain. 


While good news may be difficult to grasp when you lose a pitcher of Roy Halladay's caliber for what could be two months, there is no structural damage in the 35-year-old's shoulder and he will not need surgery.

"We hate to have him down, but it's nothing that requires anything other than rest," assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said.

The Phillies recalled catcher Erik Kratz to take Halladay's spot on the 25-man roster. Kratz will give the Phils some insurance as Carlos Ruiz battled back from a hamstring injury; Ruiz is out of the lineup tonight but is expected to be available to pinch hit and return to regular starting duty Wednesday.


The Phils could choose to give Ruiz an extra day though, since they're off Thursday.


Thursday's off day also gives the Phils a little flexibility: they can use four starters on regular rest through the next week. They won't need a fifth starter until Wednesday, June 6.


By that time, Vance Worley (elbow) could be ready to rejoin the rotation. Worley threw his first bullpen session since landing on the DL three weeks ago this afternoon at Citi Field.

Just when the underachieving, injury-plagued Phillies appeared to be turning a corner, winning four in a row including three straight over the defending World Champion Cardinals, what may have been the most ominous cloud of the season swept into St. Louis.

Roy Halladay left his start Sunday after two innings. 

The Phillies said Halladay was removed as a precaution due to right shoulder soreness. the two-time Cy Young Award winner and ace of the team's starting-pitching rich staff will be re-evaluated in the next couple of days. No MRI is currently scheduled.

After his most recent start prior to Sunday, a a 5-2 defeat to Washington at Citizens Bank Park, Halladay was asked if he was healthy. He half-laughed and said, "Yeah" twice.

Halladay gave up five runs on nine hits in six innings that night.

Halladay's exit Sunday was curious because it came after throwing a 10-pitch, 1-2-3 second inning against the Cardinals. But his second inning was preceded by a first inning that was like at least a few of the games he's pitched this season: very un-Halladay-like.

Halladay gave up a two-out grand slam to Yadier Molina to fall into a 4-0 hole in the game's first inning. Before Molina's slam, the second slam Halladay has surrendered this season, Halladay issued a two-out walk to David Freese and back-to-back, one-out singles to Skip Schumaker and Matt Holliday.

Halladay has a 3.98 ERA in 11 games this season. He allowed four runs or more in three of his last six starts.

Halladay has a 6.11 ERA this month.

After giving his knees a break in the first half of May, Chase Utley has been taking regular infield work ever since May 16, when the Phillies played the first of two games at Wrigley Field in Chicago.


But he will travel with the Phillies from St. Louis to New York tonight. He won't be spending Memorial Day taking his rehab to Clearwater, to begin playing in games.

So what is his status? Here is what Utley had to say Sunday morning at Busch Stadium:

Q: How has the pain threshold been as you've progressed in taking regular ground ball work?

Utley: Every day it seems like it's getting a little bit better. The last couple of days I've pushed it and increased the intensity a little bit and they have responded well, so that's a good sign in my eyes.

Q: You have increased the intensity of ground balls?

Utley: Yeah, moving a little bit quicker, a little bit harder and a little bit more.

Q: Have you been running regularly?

Utley: As far as running around, shagging balls in the outfield, kind of using that time for agility.

Q: So there's a purpose to the outfield stuff?

Utley: Without a doubt.

Q: Is there a number of ground balls in mind before ready to go on rehab?

Utley: I think it's just more of a feel. Right now, I'm taking anywhere from 20 to 40 groundballs. The last few days have picked up that intensity as far as range and how hard I'm going after the ball. There's a little bit more of a process and I've worked a little harder. It's encouraging that the following day I feel the same as I did the day before.

Q: Any idea next step, to Clearwater?

Utley: No. But I'm encouraged by the way it has gone the past week or so.

Q: You have been shagging in left field, and said you've done so with a purpose. Chance you'd play out there?

Utley: I haven't thought about it too much.

A quick update on six Phillies players on the disabled list:

-- Chase Utley (left knee) will travel with the Phils from St. Louis to New York on Sunday night, according to general manager Scott Proefrock. For the last 10 days, Utley has taken part in regular hitting and infield work during pregame batting practice sessions.

Utley is currently (Saturday BP) taking throws from the outfield at second base, applying mock tags. It's unknown when Utley will take his rehab to Clearwater, Fla. When he does go to Clearwater, he will hop right into extending spring training or rehab games.


--Ryan Howard (Achilles) and Michael Martinez (right foot) were both scheduled to hit in simulated games on Saturday in Clearwater. Howard has been at the Phillies spring training facility four four weeks, but has yet to appear in a game. He has ben doing both light running and fielding exercises within the last week.


--Jim Thome (back) played in his second extended spring training game in as many days on Saturday. Thome had an RBI double and an infield single on Friday. Thome has been on the DL since May 2. the Phils hope to have him back in time for a stretch of nine straight interleague games in American League ballparks, when they'll need a DH, that begins on June 8.

--Justin De Fratus (right elbow) threw for the first time in a month on Friday. According to Proefrock, the session went well as De Fratus was scheduled to play catch again Saturday.

--Vance Worley (right elbow) played light catch with pitching coach Rich Dubee before batting practice at Busch Stadium early Saturday afternoon. Worley is eligible to come off the DL on Monday, but has yet to throw off the mound in his rehab. Proefrock wasn't sure if Worley would have to go on a rehab outing or not before returning to the rotation.

During the first two months of the season, a lot has been lacking with the Philadelphia Phillies. 


The most obvious items are the All-Star bats in the middle of the lineup, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. Their absences have undoubtedly had a trickle-down effect on the offense and the team at large.


But it's also been an interesting clubhouse. A lot of the faces everyone has been used to seeing (Brad Lidge and Raul Ibanez come to mind) have been replaced by new personalities (Jonathan Papelbon comes to mind). 


If you subtract both Howard and Utley, since they have been away from the team for the majority of the season's first seven weeks, the Phils have six players regularly in their clubhouse who were on the World Champion 2008 team. Six. 


That's not to say that turnover is a bad thing. But there are plenty of players who either haven't won or are still finding their way in a new environment.


Prior to Tuesday's game against the Nationals - a game that ended with the Phils dropping their season-high fourth straight in a 5-2 defeat - Charlie Manuel talked about this very subject. 

"I don’t know how you guys look at it, but I look at it like if I’ve been in an organization that’s lost for a long time, and then like, you know, you come into the atmosphere of a winner, I look at that as different," Manuel said. "There’s more pressure. But also, too, those guys, I’m not saying they can’t come into the fold and be on our team, but there’s a time where they feel comfortable."

This leads us to Roy Halladay, who had never been in the playoffs in 11-plus major league seasons before joining the Phillies. 

Halladay is in his third season in Philadelphia now, however, and he has a very good idea of how to go about winning baseball games. Just look at the back of his baseball card.

Stunningly, the Phils have lost six of the last seven times Halladay has taken the mound. 

No, Halladay hasn't been his normal, dominant self in some of those games: he has a 4.75 ERA in that span. Yes, the offense hasn't showed up in most of those games, too: they've scored a total of seven runs in five of those six losses.

But throughout it all, Halladay has not lost his composure. Probably more than anyone in the clubhouse, the 35-year-old Halladay, despite not having a World Series ring, gets it.

Following Tuesday's defeat, a game that he put the Phils in a 5-1 hole in the first four innings, Halladay was at his best not as a pitcher, but as a voice of a struggling team. It's the kind of voice that's been missing in the 2012 season.

Here are some of the highlights:

On the season's first two months, when the team has underachieved and found a home in last place: 

"Definitely frustrating, but you have to put it behind you. The first two months, they’ve been tough for all of us. You do everything you can to fix it, that’s it. I think it gets back to going out and trying to play a little bit more loose and focus on your job. I think, including myself, we’ve got a lot of guys who are going out and trying to carry the weight of the team. You can’t play that way. I think we’ve seen that. I think everyone is trying to pick up slack for what we might not be doing and guys we’re missing and all of that, and that only seems to compound the problem. A lot of us need to just go out, play the game and have fun playing the game. When you start pressing, start trying to do things you don’t need to do, it makes things worse."

On whether turning things around comes individually, or if players need to hold each other accountable:

"Charlie says it all the time, you do it because you want to, not because you have to. I think its hard when things aren’t going the way you want them to go, but, that’s how you play the game. Ultimately it is a game, and I think that’s important to remember. Its tough to do in places like this where fans expect a lot, media expects a lot, players expect a lot. But I think it’s important to keep that in mind and to try to play that way, regardless of your own expectations and everyone else’s. You have to get back to playing the game, and enjoying playing the game."

On whether he'd be comfortable addressing the team if needed:

"Yeah, I would. I think finding the right time to do that is tough. Guys are beating themselves up and you have a bad day and it's not necessarily the thing you want to hear or anybody else wants to hear. And it doesn't even have to be a team gathering. Just talking to guys and being teammates. We've got a good group. We've got a great chemistry. We've played good at times, and we haven't at times, and it's just a matter of going out and enjoying it. The more we press, it's not going to take care of itself. You prepare as well as you can and go out and let it all hang out."

On whether it's more difficult for the pitchers to succeed when they're regularly getting little run support:

"I don’t know if it’s necessarily the offense or a matter of just trying to win games, but yeah, there’s a lot more tension to the games and you’re doing everything you can, every pitch to help your team win. I don’t know if that’s just because we haven’t scored as many runs or because we haven’t necessarily played as well,but I think there is a certain weight that ultimately falls on our shoulders as pitchers to be able to overcome that. There’s been a lot of games that, and maybe it’s the way you’re pitching, too, at times, where you feel like I’ve got to be a little bit better, and a lot of times that doesn’t work in your favor."

On whether he's concerned about his own numbers, given his high standards:

"I’m definitely not happy with the results. I’ve always tried to prepare as well as I can to get myself ready and accept the results and that’s really all you can do. I feel like I’ve tried to continue to do that and will continue  to do that going forward. I’m not concerned. I feel like I know how to overcome it and I think we do as a team. I think when you start getting concerned it adds a whole elementthat you don’t need. I’m going to keep preparing and accept the results. That’s all I can do."

For just the second time in 43 games, Jimmy Rollins will not be in the Phillies starting lineup.


Rollins' wife, Johari, gave birth to the long-time shortstop's first child, a girl, on Sunday night. Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said Rollins would not be at the ballpark Monday.


Congrats to the Rollins family.

Speaking of Rollins... inside this afternoon's game notes are two flattering stats for the leadoff hitter. He has reached base safely in 20 of his last 21 games (.362 on-base percentage) and is hitting .302 (26-for-86) in 21 games at Citizens Bank Park this year.


While those numbers don't lie, it hasn't been the best seven-week stretch for Rollins.


He's hitting .229, which ranks 19 among major league shortstops. He has a sub-.500 on-base percentage (.295). He has seven extra-base hits in 42 games.


"He’s gotten off to slow starts before, it’s nothing new to him," manager Charlie Manuel said. "He’s going to have to pick it up for us. I think he will."


Rollins' slow start is reminiscent of his 2009 season.


Rollins was hitting .234 with a .279 on-base percentage through his first 42 games that season. He also got worse before he got better that summer.


In Late June of 2009, Rollins was benched for a four-game, interleague stretch through Tampa and Toronto. Rollins was hitting .209 with a .253 on-base percentage as late at July 2, 2009 (through 71 games).


He did pick it up after the All-Star break: Rollins hit .272 with 14 home runs in his final 74 games of the '09 season.


Here is the Phillies lineup for tonight's game vs. Washington:


1. Juan Pierre, LF
2. Placido Polanco, 3B
3. Shane Victorino, CF
4. Hunter Pence, RF
5. Carlos Ruiz, C
6. John Mayberry Jr., 1B
7. Freddy Galvis, SS
8. Mike Fontenot, 2B
9. Kyle Kendrick, P

Chase Utley took ground balls for the second straight day at Wrigley Field during batting practice Thursday.

Utley, who has missed the first six weeks of the season while battling chondromalacia in his left knee, said he'll likely take a day off tomorrow and continue to gauge how he feels on a day-to-day basis before going giving himself the clearance to take his rehab to Clearwater. When he does go to Clearwater, it will be to play in games.

Although he's inching closer, Utley isn't there yet.  

"I wish I could tell you, obviously the better I feel, the shorter it will take," Utley said on the progression from taking regular infield work to playing in rehab games. "But it’s still going to take a little time to get to game speed, obviously."

Utley also did some running today, at a speed he called "close to" 100 percent. Overall, Utley was encouraged.

Having gone through a similar ailment a year ago - his right knee - Utley has grasp on when he can move from baseball activities to baseball games.

"Over the past year or so I know the pain threshold I can play at," he said. "And right now, I’m in the good zone."

[Here is some video of Utley talking with reporters this afternoon]

While the Phillies prepared for a brief, two-game series at Wrigley Field, Vance Worley was back in Philadelphia having his ailing right elbow examined.

Elbow injuries can cost pitchers a while season. So you're not making too big of a leap assuming that Worley was probably a little nervous as he awaited today's MRI results.

Thankfully for the 24-year-old right-hander and the Phillies, the results were encouraging.

Worley's MRI revealed no structural damage. He will be shut down for a week in the hope that the inflammation in his elbow will subside and he'll only miss two or three starts.

"There’s inflammation in the posterior joint. No structural damage," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Wednesday. "Right now we’re going to shut him down for a week from throwing. And then we’ll get him reevaluated and hopefully by that time he’ll start another throwing program. Generally its pretty good news. When you don’t have structural damage  - as far as the future is concerned – that’s a good thing."

Worley threw his normal, between-starts bullpen session Sunday and, according to Amaro, felt a little more discomfort and stiffness than normal. But the injury has been a progressive one, not something that stemmed from one incident or one game.

As for when Worley could return, Amaro said he wouldn't be able to gauge that until Worley begins throwing again.

"We have no idea how long its going to take, we’ll just see after he’s reevaluated after a week of getting shut down whether he can start throwing and then we’ll know how he feels after that, and we’ll know how long it will take to get him back," Amaro said.

Kyle Kendrick will step into Worley's place in the rotation, just as he stepped in for Cliff Lee last month. Kendrick, who rebounded from an ugly start last month in Phoenix to deliver two decent games before Lee returned, will make his fourth start of the season tonight at Wrigley.


-------------------------------------------------------------

More notable news from the north side of Chicago:

-- Chase Utley (left knee) took ground balls during batting practice. It's the first time he's taken infield work in three weeks, when he worked out with the Phillies at Chase Field in Arizona. Utley rejoined the Phils after a month-long stay in Phoenix 11 days ago, but hadn't felt comfortable with his knees to take infield work until today.

-- Ryan Howard and Jim Thome are both hitting off live pitching in Clearwater. Howard (left Achilles') is also taking part in fielding drills and doing light running exercises, too -- pretty much the same stuff he was able to do when spring training camp opened three months ago.

Thome (back) was eligible to return from the DL on Monday, but he'll need to play in at least   few rehab games to get his bat back in game shape.

There was little good, a lot bad and a healthy share of ugly in the Phillies 10-6 loss to the Mets on Wednesday night, a defeat that finished off a three-game sweep by their northern-most NL East neighbors.


While there was certainly a lot of ugly to choose from - Shane Victorino's ill-timed diving attempt in center, Jose Contreras' latest shaky outing, any pitch thrown by Kyle Kendrick - but the most telling moment came in the eighth inning, after the Phils had already blown a 4-2 lead. With one out and runners on second and third, Hunter Pence dropped a ball that most Little Leaguers catch.

What followed: a decent amount of the 43,840 fans at Citizens Bank Park - the second smallest crowd since the current 217-game sell-out streak began in 2009 - decided Pence's error was too much. They headed directly for the exits.


After it was over, the Phillies (14-18) were four games under .500 for the first time in exactly five years. (They were 15-19 on May 9, 2007). And Charlie Manuel, like the fans, decided he had seen too much ugly baseball. 


So he called for a team meeting.


Here is a collection of what the principle figures in the game - and within the team at large - said Wednesday night.




CHARLIE MANUEL


on calling a team meeting: “After I watched that game, I felt it was necessary,” Manuel said. “I think watching the game tonight, the upset part got me. And usually I stay pretty cool. But tonight, the way we played, what developed, I felt like it was time for me to say something to our guys.”


on what's wrong: "I think they’re trying too hard in the game. Things like that. We can do things to get better in the game, as far as preparation, practicing, doing things right. We can get back to playing the game the way it should be played. If we can.


on whether the problem is preparation or execution: "The whole thing, the whole environment of how we’ve been doing. I’ve been sitting here watching for 31 games – how we’ve gone about things. How we get ready for the game, how we play. … We’ve got to get better, the whole game, we’ve got to execute better and we’ve got to pitch better and definitely hit better."






CLIFF LEE


on Charlie calling a meeting: "We haven’t been playing well, there’s no doubt about it. Basically, we screwed the game up as many ways as we possibly could, every way you can. I feel like we were due for something like that. Something needs to change. We need someone to shake it up and get us on back on track to being the team we know can be.”


on whether it's disappointing it had to come to that, given the talent/expectations on the team: "It's still early. But we can't put ourself in too big of a hole. Something has got to change. All you can do is try harder, prepare harder, work harder and be as focused as you can."

HUNTER PENCE

on dropping an easy fly ball in the eighth inning, which preceded a three-run home run: "It’s awful. I’m trying too hard, thinking too much, pressing. There’s no excuse for it. It’s awful. It’s unacceptable. I understand everyone’s frustration."

on the reaction it generated, boos and sarcastic cheers when he caught the next ball: "I’d boo myself too. I’m probably madder than they are that I dropped the ball. I understand. It’s awful. It’s not like I’m going to sleep easy or be OK with it. It’s the worst feeling to let the pitcher down and the team down, but I’m not here to feel sorry for myself. I’m going to just take it and use it as fuel to play better, to get better."

on Charlie calling a meeting: "Charlie is an unbelievable manager and everything he said is right. It’s not acceptable to play the way we’re playing and the way I’m playing. We’ve all got to look ourselves in the mirror. We’ve all got to figure something out."

JIMMY ROLLINS

on whether Manuel's message was received: "Any time you manager talks, you listen. His message was definitely clear. If we go out there and execute and play ball the way we're supposed to, things will start working out. We just haven't been doing that a lot this year. A few times, but not enough."

on whether there's a need for more focus and intensity within the team: "There's definitely not a lack of focus. The thing is, in sports, you train yourself and your body knows what to do. But when you go, your brain gets in the way and you start thinking about what needs to be done and how you're going to do it. And you confuse yourself. With that being said, you tend to have lapses of concentration. But it's not because of a lack of focus. It's because you're trying too hard. You run out of ideas. Next thing you know, you're in a big hole trying to dig yourself out."

on whether there is a this-just-isn't-our-year vibe: "It's too early for that. It happened before in 2007 and it ended up being a very good year for us and put us where we are now. You get 100 games into it and you find yourself way back, then you say this isn't the year. Until then... I don't know how many games we're back, we've made up more."

KYLE KENDRICK

on his rough relief appearance (five runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batter in one inning): "I just didn’t have any command. I didn’t get off the mound since my last start and that’s my fault. I’ve got to get off the mound and throw a side. I should have thrown my regular side. In this role, you have to get off the mound. That’s my fault — I’ve got to prepare better. I feell behind in the count. Everything was up after that. It wasn’t good."

on whether Charlie calling for a meeting hit him harder because of his role in the game: "Yeah, this is not a one-man team. I got the loss I blew the game, so partly, I think he was talking to myself. So I’ll take that. I gave up the runs that ended up losing the game, so that’s me all the way."

In case you (a) live under a rock or (b) just aren't into consuming sports in the current 24/7 climate, surely you heard about what happened last night in Washington.

Cole Hamels hit Bryce Harper. Harper took first base and made his way all the way around the bases, stealing home. Afterward, Hamels came around to admitting he plunked Harper on purpose. Harper seemed OK with it.


And then, today, Washington general manager Mike Rizzo went on the offensive, calling Cole Hamels pretty much every name you can say in a PG setting. 


Hamels is likely to get suspended; not for hitting Harper, but for admitting he did it on purpose.


It's been, well, fun? 


But one of the things I found most interesting in Rizzo's comment today was that he didn't seem as mad at Hamels for hitting Harper as he did for Hamels' candor afterward. The Nats GM didn't like what he thought was boasting.


"(Harper) has never done a thing. And then Hamels patted himself on the back (for hitting him)," Rizzo said. "Harper’s old school. Hitting him on the back, that ain’t old school. That’s [bleeping] chicken [bleep]."


OK, so not everything he said was PG-rated.

But back to the point. Anyone who knows Hamels or listens to him talk on a regular basis (present company included) can say this much about the 28-year-old, Southern Californian: he's not the best at biting his tongue.

No, Hamels isn't of the sector of modern athletes who simply says thing to get a rise out of people; he says things without a filter. He's honest - which most people usually want from their athletes - but sometimes he's almost too honest; Hamels doesn't always monitor whats coming out of his mouth until it's too late.

Examples?

The most famous Hamels' foot-in-mouth moment came during the 2009 World Series, when he made the following comment after losing Game 3 to the Yankees.

"I can't wait for it to end," Hamels said of what was a personally frustrating season. "It's been mentally draining. At year's end, you just can't wait for a fresh start."

That comment was not received well. But in the context of that postgame interview, Hamels didn't sound like someone who was complaining about his own struggles as much as someone who was just mentally drained from a bad game and a season that didn't quite play out like his storybook 2008.

Another example?

Another New York team was involved. 

Hamels did a radio interview in December of 2008 - less than two months removed from winning a World Series MVP. He was asked about the Mets back-to-back late season collapses that paved the way for the Phils' division titles in 2007 and '08.

"Last year and this year I think we did believe that [they were choke artists]," Hamels said. "Three years ago we didn't because they smoked everybody, and I think we all thought they were going to win it all. Unfortunately that didn't happen."

"But, yeah, that's kind of what we believed and I think we're always going to believe that until they prove us wrong. For the past two years they've been choke artists."

Now, having listened to the interview at the time, deciding if it was something worth writing about, it was clearly obvious that the the WFAN radio hosts baited Hamels into calling the Mets "choke artists." They kept saying "choke artists" until Hamels would repeat it. It was shameless, but it worked.

And, even if it wasn't his intent to use the words, Hamels still said them and couldn't take them back.

More recent examples?

The Phillies offense has failed to find consistency this season, in case you hadn't noticed. When the starting pitchers are asked on an almost nightly basis about little run support, they almost always deliver a politically-correct answer, not wanting to stir up trouble or offend their teammates. 

But in each of the last two starts, Hamels alluded to the offensive struggles. Here is what he said just six days ago, after a 4-2 game in Atlanta gave the Phils five wins in their last seven games.

"We still have a lot to do," Hamels said. "Hitting-wise, we were able to get a lot of big hits. But we have to do it early on and keep putting the pressure. We just can't get a few runs and then score when things get tight again. We still need to run through what we're capable of doing. ... We have to keep plugging away. I still think we have a lot of work to do."

That gives you an idea of what we're talking about here. Hamels is honest, sometimes brutally so, as if he can't help himself.

From the perspective of last night's postgame interview, that's exactly what it felt like. At first, he didn't want to come out and say he hit Harper on purpose.... but then his mouth began moving and he told every detail except the time and place he was when he decided he would hit Harper.

Hamels didn't boast about the play; he was just a victim of once again saying something that he probably would have liked to take back shortly after saying it.

He's made a habit of doing that. And he's also aware of it.

"Sometimes I might not say the best things or the smartest things, but I've learned and am learning," Hamels said after his can't-wait-for-it-to-end comments in 2009. "I wasn't able to sleep the past couple of nights because of it."