New city, same view.(Philadelphia Phillies)(Brief Article)

Turk Wendell still is chasing the Braves and is right at home doing it. He's in Philly now, a big change for him. But this Braves thing ... that never seems to change. There he is, into August and looking forward to September again from the perspective of a couple of games behind Atlanta.

Right where he had been as a Met since joining them August 8, 1997. Chasing Atlanta ... it's beginning to feel like a birthright.

"I've been thinking about that," says Wendell, traded July 27 from the Mets to Philadelphia along with fellow reliever Dennis Cook. Another Met, catcher Todd Pratt, went to the Phillies in a separate deal.

One of the reasons Philadelphia made the trades: The young and surprising Phillies need people who know what it's like to be in a pennant race. Until this season, when New York fell off the face of the earth, Wendell, Cook, Pratt and the Mets had been giving the Braves fits over the past few Septembers.

"We never exactly knocked them off," says Wendell, who spent his first four professional seasons in the Braves' organization. "But we gave 'em a hell of a run. Maybe this is the time. Maybe this is the Phillies' time."

The Braves crossed Wendell's mind one night last week in, of all places, Colorado. The Phillies' bullpen totally imploded that evening, blowing a 6-2 eighth-inning lead and losing to the Rockies, 7-6, on Todd Helton's home run in the bottom of the ninth.