The Phillies will square off against the Pirates for the second of a three game series tonight, once again probably in front of another pro Philly crowd. It certainly seemed like a lot of Phillies fans made the cross state drive to catch the weekend series, unfortunately they were treated to a pretty awful loss last night. The Phillies wasted an absolute gem from Cole Hamels en route to a 2-1 extra innings loss. Hamels tossed eight innings of one run, one hit ball and actually had two hits himself... but the Phils provided him with only one run of support.
The offense will look to wake up tonight against Charlie Morton, who has gained some notoriety this year after he basically altered his delivery to look exactly like Roy Halladay. See for yourself.
Morton has not fared well against the Phillies going 0-2 with a 9.75 ERA in three career starts. He's coming off a game against the Mets where he surrendered 11 hits, but overall has pitched well this year. His 2.62 ERA is well below his career 5.38 mark. However, some of that is likely to due to some good luck, because he does walk a lot of batter and doesn't have great swing and miss stuff. He has 26 walks to 29 Ks this year and for his career he has amassed more walks than strikeouts.
He will be opposed by Kyle Kendrick, who is making his second spot start of the year. Amazingly, Kendrick and Morton have faced one another twice in their career, with KK winning both. Kendrick is unbeaten (4-0) in his career against the Pirates.