In case you hadn't noticed, they hadn't exactly had much success against him lately.

The Phillies scratched Rollins from the lineup because of a sprained left ankle, which he suffered on a pickoff attempt in the eighth inning of Tuesday's 5-2 victory over the Mets.

That certainly wasn't Rollins' way to give the Mets an advantage against his team.

"Hell no," he said before the Mets clobbered them, 8-2. "They definitely think so. I've been told by Sandy [Alomar] and Sandy Jr., 'You're not playing? Oh, we're going to win.' I'm counting on my other padres to make sure that doesn't happen."

Charlie Manuel had penciled Rollins into the lineup hours before the game but took him out after Rollins joined his teammates for a pregame stretch.

"It hasn't changed from yesterday," Rollins said. "It never felt bad. It's never been swollen. My mobility going left to right is pretty sore and that's where my game is, especially defensively. Me at 50 percent and Eric [Bruntlett] at 100 percent, I'll take my chances with him. I don't think [it will linger], and I definitely hope it doesn't. It's just sore. It isn't anything more than that right now."

Rollins had X-rays taken before the game, and the results were negative.

Shane Victorino hit first in Rollins' absence. Bruntlett, who committed two errors and went 1 for 4 at the plate, hit second. He admittedly didn't make a good first impression.

Rollins said he wasn't sure if he would be able to play tonight in the series finale against the Mets. But he said he more than likely could pinch-hit against a righthanded pitcher.

Rollins entered last night with the third-longest consecutive-games streak in baseball behind Cleveland's Grady Sizemore (366 games) and Atlanta's Jeff Francoeur (334).

Rollins' streak stood at 230 games.

If this injury happened later in the season, Rollins said he probably would play. But this is Game No. 9, so there's no reason to rush.

"If it was 155, I'd be medicated," he said with a smile. "If I miss one or two [games] here, it's better than 15. I want to go out there and play every day, but [ESPN analyst] Joe Morgan and [coach] Milt [Thompson] said it, they agreed: You go out there on a bad ankle, you start getting some bad habits at the plate. My swing feels pretty good right now, so I don't want to start that."

Madson hurting?

"I'm ready to go," Madson said.

"He threw fine," pitching coach Rich Dubee said.

The Phillies said the soreness was unrelated to the strained right shoulder that forced Madson to miss the final two months of the season.

"I didn't want to just keep throwing through it and be out for three months, so they told me to take a couple days," he said.

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