Phillies vs. Braves: Happy Halladay Weekend

Roy Halladay (8-7, 3.88 ERA)

It took him a while but Halladay is finally looking like himself on the mound. He’s riding a two game win streak, but more importantly he has gone at least seven innings in his past five starts. Some may wonder whether it’s worth throwing Hallday out there versus shutting him down and saving him for next year. Given his shoulder troubles it may not be a terrible idea, but try telling that to Doc. This man is a competitor, even if the Phillies playoff hopes have sailed away long ago.

Mike Minor (7-10, 4.71)

Minor’s numbers aren’t indicative of how the young lefty has pitched of late. Minor struggled mightily in the first half, but the Braves stuck with him, mostly out of necessity. He had one of his best games of the season against the Phils back in July, tossing 8 innings giving up only 1 run and striking out 9. The team got even though, beating Minor in the early part of August despite his quality start. Don’t be fooled Phillies fans he’s no push over.

Total Breakdown

As a team the Phillies are only hitting .245 against Minor, but a few players have enjoyed some success against him. Both Utley and Howard have him in their books, and Eric Kratz is hitting a whopping .500! Ok, so he’s only 3-6 off of the lefty, but expect to see Kratz behind the dish.

One player who would enjoy the day off is J-Roll. He’s only hitting .167 (1-7) with Minor on the hill, and after yesterday’s hustle-gate incident Charlie has plenty of reasons to put Jimmy at the end of the bench.

Doc hasn’t had great success against the Braves this year. He’s 0-2, including a shellacking on May 2nd where he gave up 8 earned runs. Chipper Jones has feasted off of Halladay the most, hitting .526 (10-19) with three long balls. Dan Uggla has also enjoyed a power surge against Roy having hit three of his own.

With Halladay’s shoulder troubles now behind him, he can start to correct some of those eye-popping career numbers that the Braves hold against him.