Of holidays, sweeps, car accidents and All Stars: It was an interesting weekend

Greetings, loyal readers! Before I get started summing up what the Phillies are doing tonight, I figured I should post a little something on this past weekend.

Break out the Brooms:

Man, it's been a while since the Phils have played well at home, hasn't it? To make it even better, they swept the Mets, pushing New York three games under .500 and four games back. All of the things that I was talking about last week came back against the Mets. The starting pitching looked great, Jimmy Rollins finally started to hit again, and that swagger that the Phillies had last year was out in full force. The Phillies held the Mets to just three runs in the three games, and it was by far the best home series that the Phils have played this entire season. Of course, I didn't get to see any of the games, since I was in Maryland for a family reunion, and missed the last half of Sunday's game thanks to a car accident that I was in, but from what I read and heard about, the team looked very sharp.

Who wants to be an All Star?

So the All Star rosters were announced yesterday, and the Phillies managed to get three players on the team for now. Chase Utley was named to his fourth straight All Star team, while Raul Ibanez was voted onto the team for the first time in his career. If Ibanez is healthy, those two will start. Meanwhile, Charlie Manuel decided to bring St. Louis native Ryan Howard along as well, giving the Phils three All Stars. Howard will also be taking part in the Home Run Derby, which he won in 2006 when he beat David Wright. Just goes to show you that the Mets can't even win All Star contests.

Of course, those three aren't the only three Phillies that could make the team. Shane Victorino is on the Final Vote ballot, and has a chance to make his first All Star team. As of right now, he's trailing Pablo Sandoval of San Francisco, but that can change very quickly. Phillies fans, we got Shane up to fifth in outfielder voting, we can get him on the All Star team! Vote for Shane!

Note: You can vote for Shane on that post above this one.

Well, that about wraps it up for now. The Phils should be finished up with the Reds very soon, so I'll have something up about that in a bit.