June 11 -- THE MENTOR AND HIS PROTEGE

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Before we get to Brett Myers and the three home runs he served up here last night, I wanted to relate a story that I was told yesterday.

In the sixth inning Friday night in Atlanta, Shane Victorino tried to steal second base against Braves starter Tim Hudson with Ryan Howard at the plate. Victorino was thrown out -- or maybe he was safe. Either way, it was a close play. Too close. After the game, first-base coach Davey Lopes asked Victorino a simple question.

"What was your mistake there?" Lopes said.

Victorino talked about the placement of his hand on the bag when he slid. He wondered about his lead off first base. He even contended that he was safe and that second-base umpire Mike Reilly blew the call.

"What was your mistake there?" Lopes repeated.

"You ran," he said, before Victorino answered.

For two years, Lopes has been Victorino's mentor, the actual voice in his head when he gets to first base. And one of the lessons he has imparted to Victorino (and Michael Bourn last season) is that, regardless of how fast you are, there are times when you simply can't run. Some pitchers, like Hudson, can be too quick to the plate, making it almost physically impossible to steal.

"You can't outrun the baseball," Lopes said.

Lopes has gotten results. Last season, the Phillies led the majors with an 87.9 percent stolen-base success rate. This season, they've been successful 86 percent of the time. Credit Lopes for that. But also chalk up Lopes' return to the first-base coach's box for Victorino's hot streak. Three weeks ago, Lopes returned to the field after recovering from prostate cancer surgery. And, in the last 21 games, Victorino is batting .349 with 25 runs and seven steals.

"Having him there when I get to first base, I get a boost of confidence," said Victorino, who batted .234 with 16 runs and five steals in his first 31 games. "Just having him around, it's big."

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OK, about Myers: "I pretty much stunk," he said, summing things up perfectly.

Myers thought he made two bad pitches -- on the home runs to Hanley Ramirez in the first inning and Mike Jacobs in the fifth -- but really, it was worse than that. Myers consistently fell behind hitters, hiking his pitch count and causing him to last only 5-1/3 innings. But what really bothered him was giving up two runs in the fifth after the Phillies had scored twice to cut the deficit to 3-2.

So, what's your level of confidence in Myers now?

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This is online, but it didn't find it's way into print editions: Chris Snelling has accepted his assignment to Class AAA Lehigh Valley, good news for the Phillies' outfield and bench depth.

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In case you were wondering, Mike Schmidt thought Charlie Manuel made the right move by benching Jimmy Rollins. At least that's what he wrote in his column for the Associated Press.