Phillies at Reds: It’s a Dog Day at the Ball Park

It's a tough night for Phillies fans when Cliff Lee tosses seven strong innings and allows just two runs, yet the offense fails to put him in a position to get the win. Chase Utley gave us a brief moment of hope with his rare pinch-hit home run -- a true The Man moment -- but that didn't last long with the Reds getting some luck against Jeremy Horst and Mike Adams. The struggling offense will look to bounce back tonight against right-hander Homer Bailey (1-1, 5.73).

The Phils will counter with Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 5.40). Both pitchers have been solid in one outing this season and have gotten hit around a bit in another. Bailey was fantastic against the potent Nationals but then struggled against the also potent Cardinals.

Beerleaguer has a nice look at how effective Bailey has been over his past 10 starts (2.36 ERA and .169 opponents batting avg):

Bailey has a mid-90s fastball, a slider, curve and split. He uses the fastball most of the time, but turns to the slider when ahead vs. righties and the splitter when ahead vs. lefties.

Bailey's slider had the second-most vertical break in baseball last season, to Clayton Kershaw. The opposition hit .170 off the pitch. They're hitting .227 off his fastball through two starts this year.

Chase Utley is back in the lineup tonight and Humberto Quintero will handle the catching duties.

7:10 pm from Great American Ball Park. Look out for plenty of TV shots of dogs. It's Bark in the Park night, yo. Sad Darin Ruf isn't around for this one.