Sox absorb blows

PHILADELPHIA -- Understudy to David Wells? The role calls for a lefthanded Bluto or Blutarski, a Chris Farley, or a Jack Black.

But for the better part of seven weeks, that job has fallen to Lenny DiNardo -- slender, polite, urbane, full head of hair -- a checklist of attributes that falls well short of summoning images of the pitcher whose place in the Red Sox rotation he has held since the start of the season.

DiNardo's days of keeping the La-Z-Boy warm for Wells appear to be rapidly coming to an end, however. DiNardo, who had gone two weeks between appearances, failed to get out of the third inning in yesterday afternoon's 10-5 loss to the Phillies, who broke a five-game losing streak behind five RBIs from Bobby Abreu, who hit a two-run triple off DiNardo and a three-run home run off rookie Abe Alvarez.

Meanwhile, roughly 120 miles away in Moosic, Pa., home to the museum honoring escape artist Harry Houdini, Wells reappeared as the Boomer and showed he may still have a few tricks left on his surgically repaired right knee.

The 43-year-old Wells, emboldened by 66 pitches and five innings of work (4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K's) for Triple A Pawtucket, pronounced himself fit to return to the Sox rotation, without further ado and definitely without any more rehab appearances. Before departing for Moosic, he'd said he'd been told he'd be starting Friday in Fenway Park against Tampa Bay if all went well yesterday.

Sox manager Terry Francona, undoubtedly preferring to see how Wells's knee responds over the next few days, was less inclined to make an official declaration of Wells's return.

''Not by me," Francona said when asked if Wells had been given the green light to be activated Friday. ''I don't know what conversation he has had with [general manager] Theo [Epstein], so again I go back to what I've said before, we'd like to have him pitching for us, believe me, while we have him, but as an organization we'll try to do what's right.

''It's not just for one start. We've got a lot of baseball to play. Believe me, we want him to pitch good and pitch for us."

DiNardo made five starts in Wells's absence, and while the Sox won three, yesterday would not be one of them, not after he walked Jimmy Rollins to open the third and went single, Abreu triple, single, single, single before Francona mercifully pulled him with four runs in. ''The first couple of innings, my ball was cutting away to my glove side," said DiNardo, who stranded three runners over the first two innings, ''but it stayed over the plate in the third inning for some reason. The more I tried, the more I threw it over the plate."

DiNardo, who picked up his first big league win May 7 and hadn't been seen since, refused to blame the extended layoff -- in part dictated by last weekend's back-to-back rainouts in Boston -- for his ineffectiveness. ''It was a long time that I haven't been out there," he said, ''[but] I don't want to put any emphasis on that."

As to whether he'd punched a ticket back to Pawtucket, DiNardo said: ''No one said anything to me yet. I'm going to wait for them to come to me and tell me exactly what's going on. It's out of my control right now. If it happens, it happens. We'll see."

Alvarez, who joined the Sox Friday night and may be back in Pawtucket by tonight if the Sox activate reliever David Riske as expected, had his moments yesterday, stranding the two runners he inherited from DiNardo by inducing a fly ball and a double-play grounder from Carlos Ruiz, then pitching a scoreless fourth.

But in the fifth, Phillies strongman Ryan Howard, whom Alvarez has known from Double A, whacked a changeup away over the flowerbeds in left field for his 14th home run, second in two nights, and eighth this month, most in the majors. An inning later, Rollins doubled -- a ball that should have been called an error as Wily Mo Peña cradled it against his body with his elbow but then dropped it. Why wasn't Peña credited with a catch on Rollins's ball, given that he'd held it against his body for several seconds before it squirted loose? Because according to MLB rule 2.00, ''the fielder must hold the ball long enough to prove he has complete control and that his release of the ball is voluntary and intentional." Peña flunked the second half of that definition.

Chase Utley then singled and Abreu hit one into the bushes beyond the 401-foot sign in center field.

''Abreu was on fire," Alvarez said.

And the Sox, winners of four of six on this trip as they head home to play the Yankees, were not. Home runs by Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell off Cory Lidle gave the Sox seven homers in the series, but both came with the bases empty. By the end of the game, Francona had emptied his bench, and after a variety of double switches that left him with the pitcher leading off the ninth from the leadoff hole, he sent David Ortiz to pinch hit.

''The only guy I didn't want to get in was David," Francona said, ''but we had to."

The weekend interlude of interleague play over, Ortiz will be in there as DH tonight. That's a want, not a need.

The Yankees are back, and Curt Schilling left before the game to prepare to face them tonight. A good time to catch the beat-up Bombers.

''Sure, if they want to credit us for two wins every time we beat 'em," Francona said with a snort. ''It just doesn't matter. It's the same opportunity as always."