I'm back at lovely Tropicana Field - honestly, I do LOVE it --- there's air conditioning here. Considering the heat index is triple digits, I'll take a sorry-lookin' cool ballpark over a sweet-lookin' hot one.

I digress...

A bunch of Phillies are taking early batting practice - in case you missed it, they didn't hit at all against the Orioles. Among those hitting - DL'd slugger Raul Ibanez. It's the first batting practice he's taken since being place on the DL last week.

No sign of Ryan Howard, however. Diagnosed with acute sinusitis Monday morning, Howard did not fly with the team last night.

The team hoped he would feel well enough to fly on his own today and play in tonight's game, but no word on that yet. Stay tuned, however - the clubhouse opens in 10 minutes and I'll throw up a blog entry on Howard's status then.

Also, Clay Condrey, as expected was placed on the 15-day DL. You can read more about his recent struggles/ailment in the blog post below. Left-hander Sergio Escalona, who is earning a lot of frequent rider miles on the Allentown-Philly trip along the Pennsylvania turnpike, takes Condrey's place on the active roster.

Escalona may earn more miles in a couple days: Brad Lidge is throwing a minor league rehab outing tonight for the Clearwater Threshers up the road in Tampa.

Lidge could be activated as early as tomorrow; or the Phils could opt to have Lidge throw another rehab (likely Thursday in a Gulf Coast League game at the Carpenter Complex, since the Threshers will be on the road in Jupiter (the city, not the planet).

Once Lidge is activated, Escalona's latest cup of coffee will be expired once again.