Philadelphia Phillies vs. Houston Astros

Citizens Bank Park

April 1-3, 2011

The Phillies open the season against the Houston Astros. In game 1, Roy Halladay matches up against a familiar face in Brett Myers. Myers had a less than stellar spring, going 0-2 with an ERA of 9.00. The former Phil is coming off of his best year in the majors going 14-8 with an ERA of 3.14.

The Astros have five position players who have hit Halladay pretty well in limited atbats. Carlos Lee is the only Astro with more than eight career plate appearances against Halladay. So it is very likely that Halladay gets the best on some of the inexperienced players.

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Decent piece, albeit short…

As we all know, you can’t win the division or a playoff spot in April, but you sure as heck can lose one. Even though my team preview has only been out a matter of moments, I’d like to break down how each of the five starters has done in their career in the month of April. We all have high expectations of how we think they will perform, but this will give you an idea of what should happen.

• Halladay: 57 GS – 28-18 with a 3.88 ERA (7.0 IP, 7 Hs, 1.4 BBs, 5 Ks)
• Lee: 26 GS – 13-5 with a 2.84 ERA. (6.1 IP, 5.4 Hs, 1.7 BBs, 5 Ks)
• Oswalt: 50 GS – 21-18 with a 3.42 ERA (6.2 IP, 6.5 Hs, 1.8 BBs, 5 Ks)
• Hamels: 20 GS – 7-8 with a 4.11 ERA (6.1 IP, 6.3 Hs, 1.8 BBs, 6.2 Ks)
• Blanton: 26 GS – 7-11 with a 4.62 ERA (6.1 IP, 7 Hs, 1.7 BBs, 3.7 Ks)

The numbers in parentheses are how each start went on average. While Blanton and Hamels have higher ERAs, they both have been pitching better as of late. The stat that sticks out the most to me is the number of innings pitched per start. Each starter has gotten into the seventh inning on average. That’s a good sign to me.