Yes, the Phillies are coming off a loss yesterday in San Francisco, but check out how bad things are for other teams. The Phils hold a pretty substantial record discrepancy over the team they'll face this evening. The Phillies, with a record of 74-40, currently sit 34 games above .500 while the Dodgers, with a record of 52-61, are 9 games below even for the season. Pretty amazing considering some pundits thought the Dodgers might be a playoff contender coming into the season.
Charlie Manuel's squad will wrap up their 20-in-20 stretch at Dodger Stadium over the next three days and they kick it off tonight with Roy Halladay (14-4, 2.55) on the mound. The Fightins have fared quite well when Doc starts for them, holding a record of 19-4 in game's he has started for them this season. He'll take on right-hander Hiroki Kuroda (7-13, 2.96) who was the subject of plenty of trade rumblings pre-deadline but didn't want to be dealt. He'll be the second most talented Kuroda in action in the L.A. area this evening.
While the Dodgers were a formidable foe for the Fightin Phils just a few short seasons ago, today, they're a franchise with a proud history fallen on very hard times with ugly ownership issues and a whole lot of debt.
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Matt and I played the "word association" game with the "Dodgers" earlier today. He came up with "Moonshot" while I came up with "Broxton." What do you think when you think Dodgers?
First pitch scheduled for 10:10. Get your post work nap in now so you can see the Doc later.
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As of this posting, there was no update on Placido Polanco's hip, but we'll update you if we hear anything.
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Finally, we leave you with this, from when Stephen Colbert took over the MLB's Twitter account on Friday afternoon. He probably had Dodgers fans on the mind, I'm sure.
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Fair warning: I'm going to stop tweeting after the seventh inning so I can beat traffic. #Colbertless than a minute ago via Social Marketing Hub Favorite Retweet ReplyMLB
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