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After another series loss in Colorado, our Padres come home to face the Phillies in our first non-divisional series of the season. The Phillies have had our number at home the past few years, having won the last 11 straight games at Petco Park (dating back to August of 2008). However, they haven't had the best start to the season and currently sit at the bottom of the NL East, so our Padres will try to take advantage of that.
Joe Wieland will open up this four-game series in his second career start for San Diego tonight. He ran into some early trouble in his debut against the Dodgers, giving up six runs on six hits in five innings. He eventually got into a groove and retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced, but his rough start resulted in a loss. Hopefully those were just first-game jitters and he has that out of his system so he can find success against a struggling Phillies lineup tonight.
On the mound for Philadelphia will be Vance Worley. Worley didn't do too well in his last start either, giving up four runs on eight hits and four walks in six innings against the Mets. He has never pitched against San Diego, and the only player on this team that he has faced is Yonder Alonso.
I think this game will have a lot of bearing on the remainder of the series. Both pitchers are coming off rough outings and both lineups have been struggling offensively. If we can manage a good team performance against the Phillies tonight, it should give the team some confidence to feed off of for the rest of the series. What I'm saying is that this is a MUST WIN GAME.
#Padres lineup vs. #Phillies: Venable 7, Maybin 8, Headley 5, Hermida 9, Alonso 3, Baker 2, Bartlett 6, Hudson 4, Wieland, 1.
— Follow The Padres (@FollowThePadres) April 19, 2012
Let's do something good! End the streak! First series win!
GO FRIARS!! KEEP THE FAITH!!