Halladay Back on the Mound Today
NL Cy Young Award pitcher Roy Halladay will be making his first start since a shortened outing last Monday in which he succumbed to heat exhaustion. He has said he’s felt fine since that time so the Phillies don’t expect anything but a return to his dominant pitching style. Halladay (11-4, 2.57) matched a career high with 14 strikeouts the last time he faced the San Diego Padres (44-57). In that game on April 24, Doc pitched 8-2/3 innings, giving up just one run on five hits and one walk. He has two wins in two career decisions against the San Diego club.
The Padres are trying to end a nine-game skid against the Philadelphia Phillies (63-36). Today’s starter, righthander Tim Stauffer is 6-6 with a 2.83 ERA and he has pitched well lately, winning four of his last five starts. He even pitched well in his last loss surrendering just two runs, one earned, over six innings against the Dodgers. In his only start against the Phillies this season, he went six innings giving up just two runs on four hits. He struck out seven. Stauffer has a good repertoire of pitches which keeps hitters guessing.
Stauffer seems to throw a lot of pitches and rarely goes deep in games so the Phillies are likely to be into the Padres bullpen by the seventh inning. They hammered Chad Qualls yesterday in the seventh inning, hitting three homeruns. Up until that point, Qualls had only given up one homerun all season. The Phillies may not want to count on that happening again as the Padres bullpen is considered to be one of their strengths.
Ryan Howard will most likely return to the starting lineup today. He has had success against Stauffer in the past, going 4-for-8 with two homeruns. Howard led off the seventh inning yesterday with a dramatic pinch-hit homerun.
Cameron Maybin currently has a nine-game hitting streak in which he is batting .405. He hit a two-run homer yesterday. However, he is only 1-for-10 in his career against Halladay. He’s also stolen a base in five straight games.
Braves Watch. The Atalnta Braves fell back to five games behind the Phillies. They will be playing the Cincinati Reds again; this time on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Tonight will be Brandon Beachy (3-2, 3.75) for the Braves against veteran Dontrelle Willis (0-1, 3.38) for the Reds.
In the Dirt 