Good morning from sunny Philadelphia, though I hear the rain is coming in. We're coming up on a month go in the season with two more roadtrips and two more homestands after this week. Just like last year, it's going to be a tight race down the stretch.

I'd say the keys are definitely going to be the normal, everyday things... getting good, quality starts from our pitchers, trying to have them go deep into games, have the bullpen come in and take over when need be, play good defense, offensively we have to go out there and get runs and try to put up as many as possible to make it easier on our pitchers.

We know what's on the line, though our team doesn't really talk about the approaching end of the season as much as you might think. As a collective group, we all know what we need to do and how we're going to need to play in order to get to where we need to be, and that means playing in the playoffs in October.

Over the last few weeks, we all know we were going through a little bit of an offensive lull, but we're all confident that we're getting out of it just at the right time. The key I'd say, and this applies to everyone reading this who plays the game, is not to get too worked up, high or low. One piece of advice that I got from Jim Thome when he was here was stay on an even keel. You can't get too low, you can't get too high. It's all a part of the game. It's a long season.

You have to go out there knowing that you'll have some good days and some off days, but it's how you come back and rebound from both that is what's most important. Last night was a great win for us, but now we have to follow it up with another one in the last game against the Dodgers, and then get ready for the Mets coming to town.

Big week ahead and good luck to everyone as they head back to school. Work hard and have fun.