I’ve been off the reservation for the past week, partly because of other commitments and partly because of malaise toward a team that seems to have lost its mojo. In the last week they finally gave up their seat atop the division, only to reclaim it again tonight thanks to a three-game winning streak.

They put up a measly two runs last night, but that’s all you need against the Nats these days. Brett Myers lived to pitch another day, shutting down the majors’ worst offense, which is still better than the minor league squads he was iffy against.

Tonight the bats finally woke up a little, putting a snowman on the Nats thanks in part to another home run from Chase Utley (that’s two days in a row… hope he’s coming around). They’re beating the worst team there is, which they should, and even better, they’re doing it while the Mets and Marlins beat each other.

This is going to be stressful until the end, I’m afraid.

We’re all familiar with Earl Weaver’s quote about momentum being tomorrow’s starting pitcher. Well, tomorrow’s starting pitcher was Brett Myers, and he seems to have failed his assignment to Lehigh Valley.

Still unable to control his sluggish fastball, Myers threw nearly as many balls as strikes for five innings (walking five, including four straight in the first inning), yet somehow managed to give up only three runs despite loading the bases on multiple occasions.

Keeping it close didn’t matter anyway since the heart of the order once again failed to produce any runs. The loss evens up the NL East before tomorrow afternoon’s rubber match and has a daily observer like myself grasping at straws as to why Utley, Howard and Burrell seem to make going cold a group effort and hoping that the club can just play at or near .500 until Utley snaps out of a month-long funk in which he has driven in a grand total of seven runs (you read that correctly).

Then there’s the more serious long-term issue of Brett Myers. He has forced Pat Gillick’s hand now. Either they call up J.A. Happ and figure out what to do with their sudden excess of overpriced middle relief, or they make another trade for a starting pitcher. We’ll find out which one in the next seven days.

In the meantime, can the brain trust of Manuel & Thompson please help Utley figure out how to hit a line drive again? I’m sure opposing infields would appreciate not having to crane their necks skyward anymore.

Oh, you thought I meant Charlie Manuel? No, that Manuel was watching from the Phillies clubhouse after getting ejected for arguing (rightly so) in the third inning.

Instead it was Mets’ manager Jerry Manuel who botched this one, violating the age-old adage so many of today’s managers like to thumb their collective noses at: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Not broke in this case was starter Johan Santana, who predictably flummoxed the Phillies through eight innings on 105 pitches. Another 15 pitches at most, and the Mets take a one-game lead in the NL East. Instead, Manuel opted for his Billy Wagner-less bullpen and the Phillies scored six in the top of the ninth to win a game they were losing 5-1 earlier and salvage Joe Blanton’s mediocre debut.

You have to hand it to the Phillies: As impotent as they look at times, they never quit. They smelled fresh blood after Santana’s exit last night and made the Mets manager pay for his pussyfooting.

Tonight’s game is even more crucial, not only for momentum building, but more importantly in terms of Brett Myers’ mental health. The opening day starter makes his return to the majors after a month in triple-A to sort out his inconsistencies. A solid outing could go a long way to rebuilding his damaged psyche and making sure the team has another quality starter down the stretch—the guy we expected to be there all along.

The Phillies start the unofficial second half of the Major League Baseball season no longer in sole possession of first place in the National League East.

Don’t ask how it happened; ask how it didn’t happen sooner.

The Phillies stumbled through interleague play and into the All-Star break like a drunk with his shoelaces untied, while the Mets put together a 10-game winning streak to even things up. The Marlins, this weekend’s critical opponent, haven’t exactly played lights out baseball, but they played well enough in relation to the Phils to creep within 1.5 games.

Now, the Mets aren’t going to keep stringing together long win streaks, and it seems unlikely a team as raw as the Marlins will hang in until the end; but this tightening of what was a much wider division race about a month ago means the Phillies need to shape up fast and live up to their tradition of better second-half play.

Except for David Wright and Carlos Beltran, there isn’t a single position player on the Mets I would take over who the Phillies have at the same position. And even though the Phillies’ rotation is still a question mark, would you rather have Johan Santana, a bound-to-get-hurt-again Pedro Martinez, and the rest of the Mets staff?

I didn’t think so.

For the next 66 games it’s put up or shut up time. If the starting pitching improves with the arrival of Joe Blanton (and merciful removal of Adam Eaton) and a sharpened Brett Myers, and the lineup finally snaps out of its funk, there is no reason the Phillies shouldn’t win the division again and seriously contend in the playoffs.

I guess it takes a fairly significant trade to bring me out of my All-Star break slumber, and the Phillies acquisition of Oakland’s Joe Blanton for a trio of minor leaguers certainly qualifies.

Now technically there is only one spot open in the rotation, the one currently inhabited by J.A. Happ and previously occupied by Brett Myers. Myers is supposed to be returning to the team next week, so that would mean Adam Eaton is the odd man out, right?

A quick look at Blanton’s stats this year (5-12, 4.96) begs the question, “What’s the point of this deal?” The popular answer to this is, take away his worst four starts and his ERA is actually 3.58, quite good in the American League. Of course, the same can be said for Eaton (3-8, 5.71). Take away his worst four starts and he has a 4.06 ERA. The again, Eaton has been catastrophically bad in his last five starts and continues to harbor the delusion that he’s only one or two pitches away from having good starts.

What Blanton is that Eaton is not is an innings eater with a career 4.25 ERA, again in the much more difficult to pitch in American League. He’s only 27 and the Phillies will likely control his rights for a few more years. So while Eaton becomes an $8 million mop-up guy, Blanton has the potential to be a solid number two or three starter for a couple of seasons, and it looks like they only gave up one guy with the chance to see the Major Leagues in a Phillie uniform to get him. Adrian Cardenas may turn heads in Oakland someday, but shortstop is occupied in Philadelphia for a while.

My take is this: lots of upside and very little downside to this deal. I wouldn’t say I’m beaming over the trade, but a rotation of Hamels, Blanton, Moyer, Kendrick and a hopefully realigned Myers is nothing to frown at either.