Back In The NL

Back in the good ole NL the Phils have resumed their winning ways. The schedule makers may have thrown them a nasty slider by pitting them against several of the best teams in the AL, but those same schedule makers must have taken pity on our boys by making sure they eased back into the lesser competition of the NL by starting the Phils off with a three game set at Turner Field, where they've been perfect thus far this season.

With their win last night the Phillies assured themselves their first series victory in seven tries. Their last one? Against these same Atlanta Braves.

Many of the previously slumping Phils batters contributed to the first two wins, but it's safe to say once again that as goes Jimmy Rollins so go the Phillies. The reigning NL MVP had been in a serious funk until the last two nights, but his hitting and fielding were in top form in these two victories. Moreover, Jimmy again looks like his old self, smiling and jabbering with the opposition. Rollins has taken a lot of heat in the blogosphere for his lack of patience at the plate, but he's been hitting in a lot of tough luck, too. Now those hits are falling in and all is well again.

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If most commentators are to be believed, one of the principal reasons Brett Myers was sent down to AAA was to help him gain back his confidence. If that's the case, it's hard to imagine how losing his first start as an Iron Pig is going to help on that front.

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This weekend I am preparing to experience by first Phillies-Mets game live. Normally I would content myself to observe this rivalry from afar but my younger niece and her husband are coming in for the holiday and he is a serious baseball fan...from New York. Anyone want to guess which team he'll be rooting for? Five of us are going to the game: three Phillies fans, the aforementioned interloper and his wife, who could best be described as neutral on the entire subject except that I am sure she wants to preserve domestic tranquility and harmony.