MLB Nl East

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Braves have their longest winning streak of the year.

OK, it's only four games. But before Thursday night, Atlanta was the only team that had not won four straight at some point this season.

And where has it gotten the Braves? Not out of fourth place in the NL East – yet within two games of the first-place Phillies, their victims the past three games.

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From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

This coming weekend, Major League Baseball will reveal its 2009 All-Star teams. So what better opportunity than this to run through a list of this season's "Anti-All-Stars." Anti-All-Stars is far too bland a name, though, so we decided to name the team in honor of Andruw Jones. After all, he was the poster child for guys not earning the lucrative contracts bestowed on them last season. We'll sort through each position and find the player who is least helping his team in comparison to expectations -- whether monetary or from management.

Things went pretty well for Jack Clark during his three years as a St. Louis Cardinal in the mid-1980s. He hit 66 homers and the Cardinals went to the World Series in 1985 and 1987. Sure, they dropped each of those series in seven games and the '86 Cardinals finished 28 1/2 games behind the Mets, but you'd think 20-plus years of perspective might make any leftover pain go away.

You'd think wrong.

Clark still harbors a honey of a grudge against that Mets club and aired his grievances well ahead of the Festivus season.

Mets fans, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Monday night, we passed along the information that Carlos Beltran was visiting a specialist -- and outlined the worst-possible-scenario: Beltran missing the rest of the season. Instead, he's been diagnosed with just a bone bruise, as the team originally believed.

Beltran's choice of doctor raised eyebrows, considering he visited a well-known micro-fracture surgeon, Dr. Richard Steadman. Still, Steadman examined Beltran and determined he just needs to stay off his feet. He did push back the timetable for Beltran's return to after the All-Star break.

As if the Mets needed to deal with more bad news this season Carlos Beltran is now going to visit a specialist. Beltran was in the midst of an All-Star season when he injured his right knee. Right now, all we know is that Beltran has a bone bruise under his knee.

The possibly worrisome news is the fact that Beltran is visiting Dr. Richard Steadman, who performs micro-fracture surgeries. If Beltran does, in fact, have or develop a micro-fracture in the knee area, that's even bigger trouble than his current DL stint. Judging from what we've seen in baseball and other sports, and the fact that we're almost in July, micro-fracture surgery would probably end Beltran's season. We can't get ahead of ourselves just yet, though.

Andre Ethier does not want to take a picture with you. According to the Internet, Andre believes that people would use the photos against him on the Internet. He goes on to blame the hard economic times for making people want to do this. How many baseball players have felt the sting of a fan photo getting out, where an overweight lady (or whatever) is seen standing next to them while they are on the field in their baseball uniform? Did you see how happy she was? I bet they're dating! I bet he was out with her at Dodger Stadium, canoodling instead of playing baseball!

As a person on the Internet, it is now my duty to talk about this. This morning's Dugout is after the jump.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Phillies are grateful to be in the NL East.

The division got out-scored 37-7 on Friday as the AL East swept in interleague play. And it's only the rest of the division's mediocrity keeping Philadelphia in first by a half-game.

After their 11th loss in 13 games, 6-1 to the Blue Jays as Ricky Romero didn't allow a hit in the first six innings, the Phillies held a team meeting.

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Marlins and Tigers are on fire.

Exactly two weeks ago, Florida was eight games behind Philadelphia. Since then the Marlins have gone 9-3, all in interleague play, to close within a game of first place. The hot streak includes four one-run wins and Thursday's 11-3 victory that sealed a sweep of the Orioles and ran Florida's win streak to five.

During this 12-game stretch, Hanley Ramirez has batted .400 with three home runs (one of them a grand slam Thursday) and 19 RBI while Cody Ross has hit .400 with five homers and 12 RBI.

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While he wasn't exactly off to a hot start, Jose Reyes is an extremely important cog to the New York Mets. He's been on the shelf with a torn hamstring tendon since May 20. The Mets initially played well without him, but have since fallen on tough times. They defeated Tampa Bay Friday night, but have still lost six of their last nine games.

It's true that Reyes' absence isn't the only thing ailing the Mets, but he's such a dynamic player he helps every aspect of the team. With that in mind, the Mets can be cautiously optimistic with the news that Reyes has begun to complete some baseball tasks -- albeit on a limited basis.

A bad week for the Phillies got worse Thursday morning when the team placed left fielder Raul Ibanez on the disabled list with a groin strain. The injury has been bothering Ibanez for a while, eliminating the possibility that it had anything to do with providing a stool sample.

The loss of Ibanez won't help the Phillies reverse a trend that's seen them lose four of their last five games. Until they address the need to upgrade their starting pitching, they'll need all the offense they can get to keep winning games. Ibanez, who leads the team in most offensive categories, is a big part of those efforts.