April 22 -- SOBERING STATS

CINCINNATI -- Good morning. Another beautiful day here. Hope you're enjoying your Sunday.

Not to make you choke on your Cheerios, but as you undoubtedly read in your Sunday News Journal (shame on you, if you didn't), only six teams have started a season 5-11 or worse and still made the playoffs: 2001 Oakland A's (5-11), 2000 San Francisco Giants (5-11), 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates (5-11), 1951 New York Giants (4-12), 1914 Boston Braves (3-13) and 1908 Detroit Tigers (5-11). Also, the Phillies have started 5-11 or worse 23 times in their history and finished with a better-than-.500 record only twice, in 1982 and 1952.

Certainly, that doesn't bode well for the 2007 crew. Then again, as the slogan on the New York lotto sign at Shea Stadium says, "Hey, you never know."

Those stats, by the way, come courtesy of Newark resident David Smith (right), a baseball historian who has founded the Web site retrosheet.org that is used by almost every baseball writer that I know. Keep up the great work, David!

Regardless, the mood in the clubhouse was decidedly more upbeat this morning. As expected, Ryan Howard is back in the lineup. And, with Freddy Garcia starting, the Phillies think they have a good chance to win a series for the first time this season. One other lineup note: With the Reds sending RHP Matt Belisle to the mound, Pat Burrell isn't in the starting lineup. Lefty-swinging Greg Dobbs is starting in left field. It's Dobbs' third start of the season and first in the outfield. He started at third base April 6 at Florida and first base Thursday at Washington.