After last night's playoff-atmosphere pitcher's duel in South Philly, Fightins fans are hoping for another dominant performance from their pitcher tonight, only with a little more run support. Cole's 1-0 win in the opener was the first by that margin for the Phils all season, which isn't all that surprising. Win or lose, they usually score more than one run. With rookie stud JA Happ on the mound tonight, they may not need a ton of run support, but we'd all like to see it anyway to shake the RISP concerns, if only for tonight.
Happ's foe is the newly acquired Brad Penny, who slogged his way to a 5.61 ERA for the Red Sox before being jettisoned to an easier life in the NL West. You probably recall Penny being the subject of trade rumors with the Phillies after Brett Myers went down, at a time when the Red Sox were thought to have too many starters. But, while Penny might have been the type of stopgap solution that former iterations of the Phillies front office might have sought, the current regime and its immediate predecessors knew better, and left Penny in Bean Town.
Riding a few minor league arms while monitoring talent and targeting a top-tier starter proved to be the right move, and a package that included some of the pieces rumored in the potential Phillies-Red Sox deal later netted Cliff Lee. Meanwhile, JA Happ wasn't dealt, and he's still running hot. A win tonight and Happ will be the first Phillies starter since Bob Walk in 1980 to win 11 games. That'd look pretty good on his Rookie of the Year application, no?
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