Before the game?

Reasonable question.

By the end of the game?

Silly reporter.

After declaring in no uncertain terms that his sprained left ankle was ready for action, Rollins entered his bat as evidence, hitting a two-run home run and an RBI double while leading the Phillies to a 7-4 win over the Giants.

Rollins displayed all the attributes that caused the Phillies to miss him so dearly, finishing a triple shy of the cycle, while injecting a heavy dose of energy into a team that entered the weekend having lost two straight. As well as Eric Bruntlett played at shortstop while Rollins slowly recovered from the ankle sprain he suffered on April 8, there is a reason certain players become MVPs.

He seemed intent on showing that no area of his game was lacking. The switch-hitting Rollins turned a doubleplay and got hits from both sides of the plate.

He started out slowly, grounding out in his first two at-bats. But even as he ran down the baseline after those at-bats, it was obvious the shortstop was back.

He removed any doubt in the fifth inning, when he stepped to the plate and crushed Pat Misch's first pitch into the seats in left-center. The home run, his third of the season, also scored Cole Hamels, who momentarily raised his season average to .300 with a two-out single that dropped in front of a diving Fred Lewis in leftfield.

Rollins, who finished 3-for-5 with 3 RBI and a run scored, later capped off the Phillies' three-run eighth inning by hitting an RBI double that gave them the final margin.

But Rollins, who grew up in nearby Alameda, Calif., wasn't the only player who made a successful return.

Pedro Feliz had two key hits in his first trip back to AT&T Park since he signed with the Phillies this offseason. The third baseman, who spent 8 years with the Giants, tied the game at 4-4 in the sixth inning by sending a double off the rightfield wall that scored Ryan Howard from second. In the second inning, he had a key single that moved Pat Burrell from first to third and put him in position to score on a single by Carlos Ruiz.

Even when Feliz struck out, good things happened. In the eighth inning, he was in the batter's box with no outs trying to advance runners on first and second. At the time, the game was tied at 4-4. Feliz failed to get two bunts down, then struck out on a pitch in the dirt. Catcher Bengie Molina blocked the ball, but it bounced away from him and allowed So Taguchi to reach third and Jayson Werth to reach second.

Taguchi scored on a grounder to second base by Ruiz to put the Phillies up, 5-4, while Werth scored on a pinch single by Greg Dobbs. Rollins then drove in the final insurance run with his double to rightfield.

The Phillies' rally in the eighth gave Hamels his fourth win. The young lefthander pitched well for six of his seven innings, the lone exception the Giants' three-run fourth inning.

The Phillies didn't play poorly in the field, but two great defensive plays would have kept the Giants off the scoreboard in that fourth inning. Randy Winn led off that frame with a high fly to deep centerfield that a sprinting Victorino couldn't seem to judge properly. The ball fell and Winn reached on a double.

Hamels and the Phillies were one out away from getting out of the jam when Eugenio Velez got a small piece of a 2-2 pitch and sent a ball hopping weakly to shortstop. Rollins charged hard, but didn't get a chance to attempt a throw as the ball squirted out of the webbing of his glove. Even if he had fielded the ball cleanly, it is unclear whethere he would have had a shot at getting the ball to first in time to stop Velez. Winn, who was running on the play, scored from second, and Emmanuel Burriss followed it up with a two-run triple that scored Velez and Rich Aurilia.

Hamels rebounded from the frame, allowing only one more hit before leaving in the seventh. He finished with seven strikeouts and three walks, while allowing four runs on six hits.

The Phillies improved to 21-16. *