Phillies dominate All-Star voting

Five Philadelphia Phillies — second baseman Chase Utley, shortstop Jimmy Rollins, third baseman Placido Polanco, center fielder Shane Victorino and right fielder Jayson Werth — are currently in line to start the July 13 All-Star game at Angel Stadium. Utley, with 687,724 votes, is the league’s leading vote-getter in the first announced balloting.

The Phillies had three players represented in the NL starting lineup at last year’s All-Star game. Philadelphia first baseman Ryan Howard and catcher Carlos Ruiz are currently in second place at their respective positions.

Utley, a four-time All-Star batting .307 with 10 homers and 23 RBIs entering Tuesday’s game, sports the biggest lead between first and second place in the majors, as he leads the second-place Rickie Weeks of the Brewers at second base by more than 500,000 votes.

First baseman Albert Pujols and catcher Yadier Molina of St. Louis are leading at their positions.

Pujols, the three-time NL Most Valuable Player, has been an All-Star eight times in his first nine seasons and has started six times.

Rollins, who was recently placed on the 15-day disabled for the second time this season and has been limited to just 12 games, currently leads the Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez, who has started back-to-back All-Star games and is batting .299 with seven homers.

Another surprise is at the hot corner, where Polanco (309,458 votes) holds the early lead over the Mets’ David Wright (236,387).

McNamee testifies

The star witness in a possible perjury case against Roger Clemens testified before a federal grand jury in Washington, a sign that the panel could be nearing a decision on whether to indict the seven-time Cy Young Award winner for allegedly lying to Congress.

Brian McNamee, Clemens’ former personal trainer, spent more than 2 1/ 2 hours inside the courthouse where the grand jury meets. Wearing a dark suit and a bright blue tie and accompanied by two lawyers, McNamee gave a quick wave to reporters as he left the meeting rooms but did not speak.

“No comment,” said one of his lawyers, Richard Emery. “Everything is fine.”

The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses for at least 16 months as it tries to decide whether a case can be made that Clemens lied under oath in 2008 when he told a congressional committee that he had never taken steroids or human growth hormone.