NL East

The Atlanta Braves media, team, and fans were absolutely giddy over Tuesday's dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win in the opener of the three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution story during the series compared the arrival of rookie sensation Jason Heyward to that of when Earvin "Magic" Johnson joined the Lakers.

Whatever.

Atlanta writers were singing a different song following Roy Halladay's 2-0 shutout of the Braves on Wednesday, show courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

To say Jason Bay has had a fairly quiet start to his time as a Met would be an understatement. The prized offseason acquisition has been as good as invisible in the heart of Jerry Manuel's lineup, struggling to find his grove at the plate.

If Citi Field is the ballpark where home runs go to die, Jason Bay is the hitter who has killed innings that once start with so much promise. Well, him and Jeff "4-6-3" Francoeur.

When you think of top pitchers in the game, names like C.C. Sabathia, Tim Lincecum, Zack Greinke, Felix Hernandez, and Johan Santana come up.

Nowhere in the discussion does Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay come up...except with Phillie fans.

However, after what we've seen from Halladay in the first four games of the 2010 season, is it too early to give him the NL Cy Young Award?

Philadelphia fans would be happy for Major League Baseball to go ahead and do this, while others would be hesitant, especially San Francisco Giants and New York Mets fans.

Originally posted on Midwestropolitan .

Last year I got into a debate with a couple of guys from work.  The night before, I had just watched the end of a Cubs game and witnessed one of the lamest things I had ever seen/heard.

The Cubbies had just pulled off a victory and I started to hear 1970s folk music playing.  I literally thought there was an audio problem with the broadcast.  I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't a mistake, and the annoying sound was coming from Wrigley Field.

With a late-inning rally the Nationals were able to pull past the Rockies last night to win 6-4 and improve their season record to 8-7.

According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, the Astros, who have very little hope of competing this year, are considering trading their ace Roy Oswalt who has a no-trade clause.

Washington Nationals top prospect Stephen Strasburg pitched five strong innings today allowing only one hit. The righty struck out six and walked only one batter. So far on the season for AA-Harrisburg he has pitched 12.1 innings, allowed one earned run on seven hits and three walks. He has also struck out 17 batters.

Carlos Beltran met with the doctors in Vail, Colorado this week in what was supposed to be a final test before he started rehab, but even though he is “making progress,” Beltran has not been cleared to resume baseball activity.

The Mets wouldn’t call it a setback, but in reality it is hard to imagine that this isn’t exactly that. Two weeks ago they said it would be any day until he was going to start running again, but here we are and Beltran still off his feet.

SYRACUSE CHIEFS - AAA

Just call him Nate McClutch.

The Braves center fielder, who was hitting a mere .138 with just one RBI all season, sure picked a good time to break out of his slump.

McLouth hit a leadoff 10th-inning solo blast against Jose Contreras to cap Atlanta’s stunning comeback 4-3 win over division rival Philadelphia.

The Braves have now won five of their last six games and find themselves in a first-place tie with the Phillies atop the National League East standings.