First Place, Baby!

I thought they'd get there, but not this quickly. After a 16-5 wipeout of the Colorado Rockies this afternoon and the Marlins' 4-0 loss in St. Louis, the Phillies (19-15) are now percentage points ahead of Florida (20-16) for the top spot in the National League East. Incredibly, the Phils are 19-9 against everyone besides the Fish; Florida has struggled to a 14-16 mark against all non-Phils opponents. Head to head, they've won all six meetings this year and have gone something like 18-3 in the last 21 matchups. Maybe by the time we see them again in July, the baseball gods will find some other joke to play on some other team.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Rollins went 4 for 6 this afternoon, continuing a scalding hot road trip in which he's scored something like 12 runs. Bobby Abreu hit home run no. 10 on the year, and Brett Myers earned his second win of the season (and of the last six days) with a good-for-Coors-Field outing: six innings, five hits, three walks, four earned runs. The rotation has now collected 14 victories on the year; my thought back in the spring was that if the five starters can come in with 65 or more wins between them, the Phils would be in great shape. They're about on pace now.

Granted that they've been beating up on some poor teams--the Diamondbacks, Giants and Rockies are all well under .500--but considering how the bottom-feeders bedeviled us throughout the 2003 campaign, I'm not complaining at all. Considering the presence of Placido Polanco and Billy Wagner on the disabled list, and the likelihood that Jim Thome should be there too, I'm happy to take the good timing and good fortune where we can find it.