Game 106: Phillies at Nationals (1/3)

Philadelphia Phillies: 56-49
Washington Nationals: 38-67

Brett Myers (3-9 5.82 ERA, 8-4 4.89 ERA)
Collin Balester (1-2 5.75 ERA)

Projected lineups

Rollins SS N/A
Victorino CF N/A
Utley 2B N/A
Howard 1B N/A
Burrell LF N/A
Jenkins RF N/A
Feliz 3B N/A
Coste C N/A
Myers P

Harris LF 0/6, 1 RBI, .000/.333/.000
Guzman SS 8/22, 1 RBI, .364/.364/.364
Zimmerman 3B 10/24, 1 HR, 12 RBI, .417/.464/.792
Kearns RF 7/18, 4 RBI, .389/.478/.500
Flores C 1/5, .200/.200/.400
Belliard 2B 2/12, .167/.167/.167
Milledge CF 3/8, 3 RBI, .375/.444/.625
Lo Duca 1B 11/36, 2 HR, 2 RBI, .306/.359/.500
Balester P

The Nationals are currently the worst team in baseball, but with the way they play against the Phillies, you would never know it. The Phillies lineup and pitching staff need to show they're out of their recent struggles by putting their feet down on Washington. For some reason, these guys just cannot hit Nats pitching, but this series, they need to prove scoring 21 runs the last two games against Atlanta wasn't a fluke. Compounding the problem will be facing a guy they've never seen before in Collin Balester. He's a good prospect, but he's yet to find much success at the ML level.

The Washington offense is either in a season-long slump or is just not good. Missing Elijah Dukes hurts, but if Myers can't have success against these guys, he's in trouble. They're last in the majors in runs, tied for 27th in home runs, last in batting average, 29th in OBP, last in SLG and last in OPS. Ouch. The Phillies will have to play strong defense behind Myers tonight, but they're really not a threat to take him deep.