Another day, another blog, and why not? I'm enjoying a relaxing morning here in Philly as we're back at home for a couple of Interleague series. I know the fans enjoy seeing teams from the American League come in, but it's also a lot of fun for the players, too.

Right now we're playing the defending world champions, which is always a good way to see how good we really are. You hear guys say that they always get up to play the best, but it's true. There's no better measuring stick. Of course, it's still the first half of the season and there's a long way to go, but there's no question that we have real work to do. After a pretty hot end of May, we've hit a few road bumps here and there. We'll win a few and lose a few, But when we're hitting like I know we can, we're a really good team.

I myself am feeling good now at the plate. A few multi-home run games will do that, I guess, but things are going well. I was reading Jennie Finch's blog here where she was writing about how she focuses on the mound as a pitcher and it got me thinking too.

How I approach at-bats really depends on what the situation is. If there's a runner on third base with less than 2 outs, what you want to do is get out there and put something in play, maybe a deep fly ball to the outfield or something on the ground up the middle. With a man on base and no outs, I am looking to move the runner and get a run in.

I've learned a lot in my four seasons in Philly, though I don't usually reflect on what's been going on during the season. As far as accomplishments go, I stop and think about it during the offseason when I'm able to take time to look at what I've done the year before or that season. So home runs are nice and all, but right now my main focus is trying to do what I can to help my team win a championship.