Last night’s 10-1 romp of the Tampa Bay Rays went about as good as last week’s nightmarish homestand went poorly.

An early, big lead allowed Charlie to rest the majority of his beleaguered bullpen the day after an off day.

The Phils scored 8 runs against the Orioles over the course of a 3 game sweep, and managed 10 runs in 4 innings tonight against baseball’s most touted pitching prospect in David Price.

Jamie Moyer, who vacillates between serviceable and atrocious, had the benefit of taking the mound for the first time tonight with a 6 run cushion.

And so it goes for the Phils. They cannot buy a win at home against mediocre pitchers wearing the uniforms of mediocre franchises, and then they head out on the road, beat up and beat down, and smoke the Rays.

This is not the recipe for a repeat run, right? Right? At some point, this team is going to need to come back to Philly, forget their home woes, and start beating the crap out of opposing teams.

The Phils crooked road record and domination of the Washington Nationals are the only things separating the Fightins from a losing record and a 3rd or 4th place spot in the NL East standings.

So, how worried should we be about this team? Jimmy Rollins is lost at the plate. Raul Ibanez is hurt. The starting rotation is hardly settled. The bullpen is showing cracks due to overuse. Charlie’s ready to start throwing furniture in the locker room. And the majority of the Phillies don’t seem to be too worried about all of this. As though they are just waiting for the right time to turn it on in 2009.

We can thank a lame roster of NL East competition for lulling the Phillies into a false sense of comfort about their current position.

The Mets are not only sloppy and lacking fire, but they are riddled with injuries. The Braves and Marlins have squeezed closer to relevancy with the recent swoons by the Phils and Mets, but they won’t be mistaken for real contenders this year. And the Nationals are, well, the Nationals.

As a diehard Phils fan, is it not almost physically painful to think of the squandered opportunities that have prevented the Phils from blowing this division wide open and burying the Mets?

It could be 8 games or even more right now. Even if they just played shitty at home instead of abysmal. Shitty at home would have them 8 games up.

I have to stop thinking about it. It literally hurts.

The most frustrating thing about this team may be the same thing that turned them into champs last year; unbridled confidence. The Phils seem content with their position in first place, even if their lead is more tenuous today than it was a week ago. After 68 games in 2008, the Phils were 40-28 and 3 games up in the division. Tonight they find themselves 37-31, 3 games behind last years pace, but they hold a 2.5 game lead over the Mets.

So who’s right? The chill Phils and their glass half full approach? Or panicky Phils fans who are counting missing wins in the standings and wonder if the Phils will be able to withstand the inevitable Mets charge?