You’d think a team with everything to lose, a team trying to send one of the best managers the game has ever seen out with a final playoff appearance, would tear into a Phillies team with nothing to play for. Especially a Phils team skipping Roy Halladay’s turn in the rotation for Kyle Kendrick, and sitting Shane Victorino and Placido Polanco.

Instead, Kyle Kendrick got a solid, if not umimpressive, tuneup for bullpen duty in the playoffs, and the Phillies fielded a B-game spring training lineup by game’s end thanks to an 11-5 rout in Atlanta. Surprisingly, the Braves managed 51,139 a$$es in the seats. Not since the days of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz has an Atlanta crowd like that showed up.

Seriously, just check out the box score and you’d think Charlie Manuel got paid by the number of changes he made tonight. Glad we don’t keep score at home.

Charlie Manuel tries to explain to Ryan Howard the complexity of the incentive-laden contracts for managers.

The Phillies lineup at the start: Rollins, Francisco, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, Dobbs, Ruiz, Kendrick.

The lineup at the end: Valdez, Francisco, Bocock, Herndon, Mayberry, Ibanez, Dobbs, Ruiz, Gload.

Atlanta jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Derek Lee double that scored Jason Heyward in the first. Ubanez and Chooch had RBI singles in the fourth to give the Phils the lead. Lee added an RBI single in the fifth to tie the game before the Phils blew the game wide open in the sixth on a JRoll grand slam.

Francisco and Utley each knocked in a run, and Howard added two RBI in the eigth.

The Braves tried to make it a game in the ninth on a three-run double by Lee off of Mike Zagurski.

If only the rest of the Braves lineup had Derek Lee’s heart, maybe they could have taken advantage of a Phils team throwing Kendrick instead of Halladay.

The Braves lead on the Wild Card dropped to 1.5 games pending the outcome of the Padres-Giants game. A win tonight would have secured at least a tie for the Wild Card slot. Instead, the Braves and their raucous crowd have to wait until Saturday when Vance Worley takes the place of Cole Hamels. Oh, and Roy Oswalt is in line for a tune-up start Sunday.

Yeah, the Braves are trying hard to be the 2010 version of the Mets. Unfortunately,

Desperate times call for desperate measures. As cliched as that expression is, it fits what’s happening inside the offices at Citizens Bank Park and the visiting locker room in St. Louis right now.

The Phillies, fresh off losing three of four to the crappy Cubs at Wrigley and then the opening two games in St. Louis on Monday and Tuesday have shuffled the deck the last two days with more moves on the way.

Let’s recap.

On Tuesday Kyle Kendrick gave up seven runs in five innings , including five in the fifth frame alone, was optioned to Triple A Lehigh Valley and Andrew Carpenter was called up to serve as a long relief man.

On Tuesday night, Jamie Moyer hurt his arm and was placed on the DL. Carpenter, in his first outing, relieved Moyer and promptly gave up three runs in three innings. He was shipped back to Lehigh valley on Wednesday and 22-year-old Vance Worley was called up from Double A Reading to take his place.

Also, JA Happ was finally called up from the IronPigs to reclaim his starting spot. However, he may not even be here long enough to make that start as rumors have him involved in a deal to land Astros ace Roy Oswalt.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, skipper Charlie Manuel has seen enough of his runless producing sack of 2010 underachievers and overreachers that he’s made major lineup changes for Wednesday’s game.

Ben Francisco is slated to bat Third on Wednesday in St. Louis. That is not a misprint.

In fact, it looks nothing like it has at any point this year.

Here it is:
Polanco 3B
Victorino CF
Francisco LF
Howard 1B
Werth RF
Rollins SS
Ransom 2B
Ruiz C
Pitcher

Have things really gotten so bad that little-used-until-recently Ben Francisco — the “other” guy in the Cliff Lee deal — is taking over for Ibanez and hitting third. THIRD! Really?

Oh, and the spark plug that’s missing a few electric bolts, JRoll, is moved down to sixth?

Seriously, this is where the Phillies find themselves as they are on the verge of falling out of the postseason mix completely.

Times are desperate and the Phillies are making moves daily to try to find a fix. At least they’re trying, but is there really a cure at this point?

While many are skeptical about making Moyer the last man in the rotation over Kyle Kendrick, the fact is it’s the right move.

Kendrick has pitched phenomenally this spring and has really learned a lot from Roy Halladay. He will be an asset in the bullpen to start the year, and in the rotation at some point.

Moyer is not the best option in the bullpen. He is either a starter or a pitcher on the waiver wire. The wiry veteran has earned the spot in the rotation during his last two starts.

As David Murphy wrote last week, if he implodes this year, Kendrick is still there. And if he pitches well, the Phils have a legit fill in starter when someone gets injured — or when Cole Hamels needs time to get his head straight and confidence back. Both could happen this year.

There are a lot of teams who wish they had a tough choice about the fifth starter. Most can’t find a third starter.

Today is no different. While we just finished writing that Kyle Kendrick is this year’s JA Happ and will be the fifth starter by season’s end, Murphy has a great breakdown of why it makes sense to start the season with Moyer in the rotation. We really like his point that it’s easy to change from Moyer to Kendrick, then from Kendrick to Moyer.

Check it out here.