" Ryan Howard's rolled ankle in the first inning of Sunday's win over Washington left Charlie Manuel without his biggest offensive star, but that was simply the icing on the cake for the Phillies' depleted offense.

Hot-hitting left fielder Raul Ibanez was a late scratch from Sunday's lineup after he rolled his wrist diving for a fly ball off the bat of Adam Dunn one day earlier.

Although Ibanez stayed in Saturday's game after the injury -- even hitting a two-run home run -- he told Manuel on Sunday that the injury had worsened.

"He said the wrist was sore, so we didn't play him," Manuel said. "He couldn't play."

General manager Ruben Amaro reported that a "precautionary x-ray" came back negative on Ibanez's wrist.

The 38-year-old Ibanez has a 10-game hitting streak during which he's batting .417 with three homers and 10 RBI.

Difference a day makes

After blowing the lead and losing the game Saturday, Brad Lidge said he had plenty of time to reflect on what went wrong. One day later, he was focused on engineering a different ending.

"They hit some fastballs (Saturday) night," Lidge said. "I need to throw my fastball still, but I had to make some adjustments and make some better pitches, really."

Lidge wasn't giving away any trade secrets, but whatever adjustments he made worked splendidly. He retired three straight batters in the ninth for his 11th save, and Manuel said he looked sharp doing it.

"He threw some breaking balls over the plate, got ahead, and they were swinging at them," Manuel said. "His command was better, and that was probably the biggest thing.""