I’m going to go to France more often if it means the Phils will run off a string of 5 wins at a time. In a related note, no one ever told me how difficult it is to get information in Europe ab out what is happening in the US. My hotel room had CNN World, and there was no ESPN. Not even ESPN Desportes. Thank God for free wi-fi connections at the hotel and my trusty iPod Touch.

Ok, so four of them were courtesy of the hopelessly inept Washington Nationals, but when it gets the Phils back to first place in the suddenly pedestrian National League East, no complaints, right?

Before the Phillies met the Nationals for their 4 game weekend series, the Phils met with President Obama at the White House for the obligatory meet and greet with the champs. Which prompted Andy Martino of the Inquirer to swing and miss with this article comparing Obama to the Phillies. Yo, Andy! This isn’t the first time that you’ve injected politics into your writing. My suggestion would be to make it the last, as well. It struck the wrong chord, and it just doesn’t belong in the sports section.

Obama did deliver a great address to the Phillies, which he probably had some help from his campaign manager David Plouffe and Joe Biden, both of whom root for the right team.

On to the baseball, the Phils took all four games from the Nationals, despite getting just 1 quality start from their rotation (thank you, Brett). The Phillies also swept even though Brad Lidge blew his second save of the young season.

The one casualty of the series was Chan Ho Park’s spot in the rotation, which he lost to J.A. Happ after an awful outing against the Nats (1.1 IP, 5 ER, 4 BB).

I don’t know about you, but Park’s comments after losing his spot weren’t exactly the most comforting if you’re hoping for him to grab his new role by the throat. Sure, it was his initial reaction, but, c’mon Chan:

“I don’t like to be in the bullpen because you’ve got to prepare every day and pitch back-to-back-to-back,” he said. “It feels different from being a starter. Mentally, it’s kind of tough to be prepared every day.”

…….

“Do you think I’ll do good in the bullpen?”

With plenty of lefty arms in the pen once JC Romero returns, moving the more effective Happ to the rotation will allow Chan Ho Park to come out of the pen in long relief situations during the remainder of Joe Blanton’s 2009 starts (just kidding, Joe).

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From May 14-16, a 4 game span, Raul Ibanez went a ridiculous 11 for 17 for a sizzling .647 BA with 3 HR and 9 RBI. John Gonzalez of the Inqy has some ideas for how we can get Raul into the All-Star Game.