Utley leads All-Star Voting

As of about five minutes ago, Chase Utley was 100,000 votes ahead of Chipper Jones for the lead among all major leaguers in fan All Star balloting. So either Utley's hot start to the season has raised his national profile, or he's got a reallllllly big group of family and friends who all have access to the internet.

Either way. . .

As one intrepid commenter has already pointed out, Chris Coste is not starting tonight. Manuel said yesterday Coste likely would start tonight. But Ruiz got the start instead. No rhyme or reason. As the kids say, it is what it is.

. . .Pat Burrell's back in the line-up. His official injury was announced in the press box, and relayed to you, as "left neck stiffness." Which begs the question: was that his throwing neck, or his non-throwing neck? Burrell seemed fine today. He joked that his dog had the pillow two nights ago, leading to the stiffness. I think he was joking, anyway.