Philadelphia Phillies (83-61) at Florida Marlins (73-69)
Time: 7:10 p.m at Sun Life Stadium
TV: CSN
Weather: Sunny, chance of thunderstorms – 79
Twitter: @philliesnation
After taking the front-end series of this NL East road trip, the Phils look to continue their winning ways tonight in Miami. The club has won 14 of its last 17 road games after losing the previous 12 of 15.
They will face Andrew Miller again for the second time in a week. As you may recall, the Phils knocked him around in his last appearance, scoring at least one run in every inning he pitched. Miller left the game with a line featuring 7 runs on 11 hits in just four innings.
The Phillies will counter with Joe Blanton who seeks an audience with the top side of .500 as he looks for his 6th win of the season. We all know the story with Joe: if he can get through the first inning unscathed, he should give the Phils a good chance to win. In 11 starts since the All-Star break, he is 3-1 with a 3.67 ERA, so even if he doesn’t leave with the lead, he’s not digging the team into an insurmountable hole. Plus, the offense has been known to awaken when Kentucky Joe is on the mound, unlike with Hollywood Hamels.
Speaking of the offensive machine that is the Phillies lineup, its sparkplug Jimmy Rollins found out via an MRI that he has a mild hamstring strain. He is scheduled to rejoin team tomorrow in Florida but will likely not start.
Tonight’s lineup: Victorino CF, Polanco 3B, Utley 2B, Howard 1B, Werth RF, Ibanez LF, Ruiz C, Valdez SS, Blanton P.
GO PHILLIES!