"The game had ended, and nearly all the Phillies made their escape from Citizens Bank Park quickly and quietly. They would have to report for another day game soon enough and, really, it wasn't as if the team wanted to hang around and savor the nuances of Saturday's muggy 5-1 loss to Toronto.

There are games like this, annoying bunions on the schedule in which very little goes right. Cole Hamels wasn't very good and the Phils' offense couldn't do much with Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum, who had the annoying ability on this occasion to throw his diving change-up for a strike.

The Phillies fished around for the ball, but they didn't find it very often, and that was pretty much how things went. It was another game to tick off the calendar and nothing more. After winning four games in a row and seven of nine, it was a silent shrug.

Out the door of the clubhouse and down the hallway that leads to the dugout, the stillness was broken by the rhythmic crack of balls being hit in the indoor batting cage. Thwack!-2-3-4-Thwack!-2-3-4-Thwack! And on and on.

When Raul Ibanez finally finished, dripping sweat, he carried his two bats to the locker room and, not for the first time, had the place to himself."