Remember the Phillies? It's been a whirlwind couple of days in Philadelphia. The Super Bowl-hopeful Eagles got things under way on Thursday night, with Mike Vick giving us a good scare, and the Sixers did the unthinkable and stole all of the headlines... in August.
And then there are the Phillies. An off-day yesterday will be their last for a couple of weeks. They play 17-straight days starting tonight and will do their best to try and get back up to .500 before the season ends. It's not going to be easy.
Roy Halladay (5-6, 4.02) takes on former Phillie Kyle Lohse (12-2, 2.79) for the Cardinals. How about those numbers for Lohse, eh?
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Putting Halladay and the St. Louis Cardinals in the same sentence brings back painful memories. But the end to that wonderful 2011 run now seems so long ago that it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it once did. The Cardinals and Roy Halladay's good pal Chris Carpenter went on to win a world series while all Doc had to show for it was a couple of enjoyable offseason fishing trips.
It hasn't been the easiest year for Halladay, having found himself on the losing end more often than not as well as a lengthy trip to the DL trying to rest up that damn crankiness.
But Roy is coming off one of his best games of 2012 last weekend against the Diamondbacks (7.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 1 BB, 5 Ks) and some positive momentum heading into the final month and a half of the season would do well for the former Cy Young winner and especially so for the embattled fanbase.
The Cardinals currently sit 2.5 out of the Wild Card in the NL so the Phillies can certainly put on their spoiler caps this weekend.
7:30 from the Bank. Could get a little wet. Dust off those Mike Lieberthal shirseys.
Tonight's Lineup:
Rollins, Pierre (LF), Utley, Howard, Brown (RF), Schierholtz (CF), Kratz, Frandsen, Roy.