They've lost their starting catcher, who had only just finished playing the best baseball of his career, for the next two months.

They've spent the last two games without the game's best run producer.

Center stage

The Philadelphia Phillies have stumbled a bit of late, losing seven-of-nine and seeing their NL East lead shrink. But there's little argument that their manager, Larry Bowa, is deserving of being in consideration for NL Manager of the Year. From the start of spring training, Bowa set about wiping out a culture of defeat that had settled into the organization. "Right away," said Ricky Bottalico, now in his second tour of duty with the Phils, "he wanted us to win games in spring training so we got the urge to win. He instilled that in us early. He gave us a speech before we had even played our first (Grapefruit League) game." Bowa admits he pushed his team hard in February and March. "I'm still pushing them," he said recently. "I want them to have some accountability. This is not a hobby, where you just put some time in. You have to work hard and prepare. They had to be made aware that we don't like losing." Bowa admits he's mellowed some since his first turn as manager with San Diego in 1987 and '88. "I've learned to let my coaches coach," he said. "I hired them because I respect them, so I let them do their jobs. I also learned that you can't name names -- if you have a clubhouse meeting, you can't say 'Joe Blow isn't running balls out.' I used to do that. Now I say things like, 'Some guys aren't running balls out.' " At that, Bowa gives a what-are-you-gonna-do shrug. Clearly, things have changed since his playing days. But that doesn't mean that his Phillies can't take an old fashioned professionalism to their jobs. He also recognizes that the Phils aren't about to win everybody over after 2½ good months. Attendance hasn't picked up much at Veterans Stadium, but Bowa isn't blaming the fans. "You can't erase five or six years in a couple of months," he said. Nor can the Phils believe they've accomplished much to date. "I already told them, nobody gets a flag after the first 60 games," he said. But the Phils may have gotten themselves a manager. -- Sean McAdam

They've been forced to skip the game's best pitcher in his next scheduled starter.

Their shortstop, one of the best half-dozen position players in either league, has not even begun baseball activity, putting to rest any suggestion that he could be back by the All-Star break.

So, of course, they sit with their biggest lead of the season, and their biggest since the end of the 1995 season.

Few teams have been bitten as hard by the injury bug as the Boston Red Sox.

They seek no sympathy.

"No one's going to feel sorry for us," said manager Jimy Williams. "Injuries are part of the game."

It's just that the Red Sox's injuries have really hit them where it hurts. In the span of five days, the Sox placed three infielders on the disabled list -- Lou Merloni, John Valentin and Craig Grebeck -- but because the injuries hit in the wake of an 18-inning game with Detroit which depleted the bullpen, the Sox needed a 12th pitcher more than another infielder. That meant that three games went by without a legitimate backup shortstop.

Oh well.

The loss of Jason Varitek could be crippling. Varitek had done a masterful job in handling a difficult pitching staff. There's Tim Wakefield's knuckler and Hideo Nomo's splitter to begin with. Varitek expertly blocked balls in the dirt, and pitchers felt comfortable throwing any pitch, regardless of the count or the presence of baserunners, knowing that their batterymate would sacrifice his body to prevent balls from getting by him.

Now, the catching duties fall to Scott Hatteberg, with some help from Doug Mirabelli, acquired Tuesday night for depth. Hatteberg isn't the receiver that Varitek is, and he isn't the thrower, either, though the latter isn't very important, since the team's unofficial theme song is The Beach Boys' "Let Him Run Wild."

But Hatteberg was the team's No. 1 catcher as recently as two years ago, and he's good enough to start for more than a few teams. They could do far worse, and the fact they're 3-1 since Varitek went down is evidence of that.

Manny Ramirez, hampered by a viral infection, is expected back any day, but there are lingering questions about Pedro Martinez.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Martinez was sufficiently worried about his shoulder last month to go for an MRI. That's why Williams has been even more vigilant about pitch counts, limiting him to 90 last week at Yankee Stadium.

He had trouble getting loose in his last start, but still managed to two-hit the Phils through the first seven innings, invoking memories of his miraculous relief appearance in the 1999 ALDS.

But Martinez was missing 3-4 mph on his fastball and if the Red Sox have learned anything about their ace, it's that a midseason breakdown is almost unavoidable.

"We've got to be careful with him," said pitching coach Joe Kerrigan.

The good news: recent history shows that Martinez can bounce back nicely following a summer vacation.

In 1999, he came off the DL in early August and went 8-1, 1.06 the rest of the year. Last season, it was more of the same: 9-3, 2.03.

Then there's Nomar Garciaparra, who underwent wrist surgery on Opening Day, and while GM Dan Duquette continues to publicly insist that a return for the start of the second half is still realistic, others aren't so sure.

"I never said anything about the break," said Williams. "You can't rush a player back."

Garciaparra has begun light weight work as he strengthens the wrist, but he hasn't done so much as soft toss or swing off a tee.

"Until I get all the strength back, there's no sense starting those (baseball drills)," Garciaparra said.

There are some who believe that early August is a more likely return date, and even, then, given Garciaparra's reliance on his hands at the plate, no one is sure what kind of presence he'll be.

"He might be two-thirds the player he's been when he comes back," warns a scout. "You can't go into spring training on Aug. 1."

Through it all, the Red Sox keep rolling, a testament to Williams' managerial ability and an expertly managed pitching staff. The great irony is that Williams' penchant for keeping players fresh and rotating lineups -- exactly the things that enrages a talk-show callers and occasionally, Duquette -- is the very thing that puts them in position to overcome the loss of manpower.

They lead the league in ERA, lead the division in wins, lead the game in internal squabbling.

So it doesn't seem to matter much that the injuries to key players keep piling up.

From the scout's seat
One scout's list of the five best two-strike hitters in the game.

1. Edgar Martinez: "He's such an intelligent hitter that he has no real weakness. He keeps his hands in great position all the time."

2. Todd Helton: "He uses the whole field all the time, which is exactly what he needs to do when you've got two strikes."

3. Manny Ramirez: "He can look awful sometimes when he guesses with two strikes, but he also knows what to do with that pitch."

4. Jeff Bagwell: "He's such a pure hitter and so selective that he makes you throw him a good pitch even when he's behind in the count."

5. Pudge Rodriguez: "He's a natural right-center hitter, so he can take a two-strike pitch that way easily. Plus, he seems to fall behind in the count a lot, so he gets a lot of practice at this."

Up and down
Up: Chicago White Sox

Who's the hottest American League team not from the Pacific Northwest?

That would be the White Sox, the team vanquished by the Mariners last October in the ALDS.

Chicago is 14-3 over its last 17 games, bringing the Sox to within four games of the break-even mark and maybe, just maybe, hailing distance of the division leading Twins and Indians.

But is it too little, too late?

"This is a classic case of a team playing well after the pressure is off," said an executive with one AL team. "I'm not sure if it's going to last, an even if it did, I'm not sure it means much."

The White Sox still face the knowledge that they're without Frank Thomas and Jim Parque for the rest of the way, daunting losses to be sure.

But maybe a respectable second-half could get them on track quicker for next year, and along the way, boost the value of some of the players they've been trying to move in deals.

The firing of Cam Bonifay Monday is likely to be just the beginning.

"I'd like to see (interim GM) Roy Smith get that job permanently," said one baseball man, "but I don't think he will. First, he's too closely associated with Cam, who brought him in. Second, I think the whole organization needs to be swept clean."

Indeed, the Pirates have stalled badly in recent years. Bonifay pointed to the rash of injuries suffered by the pitching staff in spring training as the reason behind their poor play.

But after stubbornly hanging around the division race longer than anyone would have expected in 1997, they've made no progress, and in fact, have regressed.

Moving into to the new ballpark only further ratcheted up expectations. But it doesn't always work like it did for the Indians in 1994.

The Players Association believes this is one more empty threat on the part of commissioner Bud Selig and the owners, a forum from which to demonstrate how badly the game needs a massive economic overhaul.

The more owners show they're serious about getting significant changes in the game's economic structure, the more they'll be sending a warning shot for the upcoming negotiations. Or so the thinking goes.

The union has a host of reasons for not believing this is little more than a cleverly orchestrated bluff, not the least of which is the risk of the anti-trust exemption, which could be yanked by angry politicians in Florida or Minnesota.

There are plenty of nagging legal and economic hurdles here, all of which are time consuming.

Regardless of the merit of the argument, one wishes both sides would stop trying to prove a point or get an upper hand in the court of public opinion, and start talking about a new collective bargaining agreement which would guarantee no stoppage in play.

Next year, Bud Selig said, the matchups will change. For the first time, the cross games won't simply be East vs. East, Central vs. Central, etc.

This will give fans a chance to see some fresh faces, which was one of the designs behind interleague play in the first place. It's about time: those Twins-Pirates series don't have the allure they once did.

But baseball should also look at the timing of the games.

Interleague play offers some fascinating pairings, but by scheduling the first round of games for the second weekend in June puts these marquee matchups against the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, the French Open and the Belmont.

Instead of highlighting some special games, baseball gets lost on a crowded sports calendar, competing with three championship events and the final leg of the Triple Crown for the hearts and minds of sports fans.

If baseball put all of its interleague mathcups in July, it could have the landscape to itself, save for the (yawn) opening of NFL training camps. Even there, by putting some of its premier games against two-a-days, baseball might build a little momentum, and with the help of the All-Star game, build some momentum for the final two months of the season.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal writes a major-league notebook each week during the baseball season for ESPN.com.