Categories: 2016 GamedayPosts

Gameday: Padres (3-6) at Phillies (4-5)

Time: 1:05 p.m.

Broadcast: TV Comcast SportsNet; radio 94.1 FM WIP

Weather: 57 degrees, mostly sunny

Starting pitchers: LHP Drew Pomeranz (1-0, 3.60 ERA) vs. RHP Vincent Velasquez (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

Lineup: Hernandez 2B/Herrera CF/Franco 3B/Howard 1B/Rupp C/Blanco SS/Bourjos RF/Goeddel LF/Velasquez P

Notes for today:

The Phillies will try to do something they haven’t done since April 12 of last year: be a .500 team. On that day they were 3-3.

Ryan Howard gets the start again against a left-handed pitcher, since Darin Ruf is still sidelined with an injured shoulder.

Maikel Franco is off to a good start this year but having more trouble against lefties (.222/.300/.667, 1 HR, 1 2B) than against righties in the early going.

Andres Blanco gets his third start of the year, stepping in for a scuffling Freddy Galvis. Over his career he’s had more success against lefties (.288/.334/.420, 11.333 PA per XBH) than righties (.256/.309/.368, 14.297 PA per XBH).

Padres’ outfielder Wil Myers leads National League hitters with 12 strikeouts. Fellow Padre Corey Spagenberg has 10. The Phillies’ leaders? Odubel Herrera (10) and Howard (9).

The Phillies now have the third-best pitching rotation in the National League (4-3, 2.50). The rotation’s 59 strikeouts is tops in the league, 11 more than second place San Francisco (same number of games).

By the way, this is the first time this season the Phillies . The last time they wore red? A random day in 1992 in, ironically, San Diego.

Your Gameday Beer: Missed it yesterday, so let’s play two today! The picks come from the Lancaster Brewing Company (Lancaster). Go with its Bitter Harvest E.S.B., just as it says, a bitter beer but very tasty and sessionable, and since it’s a weekday special, its Strawberry Wheat. Also sessionable at under 5% ABV, it pairs well with any sort of light sandwich.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.