Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Roy Halladay (2-2, 6.04 ERA)

Doc’s line still doesn’t look so great at first glance, but he has cut his ERA in half after his first two starts. His last outing against St. Louis was vintage Halladay. He pitched a complete game (thanks to mother nature) only giving up two hits and striking out six. More importantly he had command of all his pitches, and he had great movement as well. Another solid outing tonight against the Pirates will put all the doubters to rest, and continue to build Doc’s confidence as he continues his re-invention. It won’t be any easier as the Phils offense is still a no-show nearly a month into the season. At the rate they’re going, a no hitter might be needed from Halladay if the Phils are going to win one.

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Wandy Rodriguez (2-0, 0.56 ERA)

The Phillies offensive struggles are only magnified when facing a pitcher like Wandy Rodgriguez. Not only is he left handed, but Rodriguez has been lights out to start the season. He came to the Pirates at the trade deadline last year from Houston and pitched well, but he’s kicked things into another gear this year. I won’t be so cynical to say that it’s because of his impending free-agency, but whatever the motivation it’s working. He missed a start due to a minor injury, but rebounded in his last start dominating the Braves. If you can keep the 2013 Braves in the park you’ve done a great job. Anyone looking for answers as to why Wandy has been so good can just look at his command. He’s only allowed one walk in three starts, throwing his fastball and breaking stuff wherever he needs em.

Game Notes:

It’s no shock to find out that Halladay has great numbers against Pirates hitters in his career. One guy who has his number though is Gaby Sanchez. Go figure. Despite being right handed don’t be surprised to see him in the lineup tonight. Sanchez is hitting .257 (7-27) with two long balls off Doc.

It wouldn’t have been my first guess, but Ryan Howard actually has good numbers against Rodriguez. He’s 4-12 against him with a homer and a .585 slugging percentage. Howard isn’t the only Phil who’s had success off him, with Michael Young and Jimmy Rollins hitting a combined 10-27 (.370).

Recent history doesn’t favor the Phillies in this match up, but with good lifetime numbers expect to see Howard break his power slump tonight, and help put Wandy on the hook for his first loss of the year.

Jun 26, 2012; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz (51) hits a home run during the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies defeated the Pirates 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Carlos Ruiz is having a better first half of the season than anyone would have ever expected.  Can everyone imagine how horrible this team would be without his heroics? 

It is pretty easy to worry about the offense.  The type of pain that losing 1-0 in the playoffs last year has subjected us to has caused all of us to cringe any time the other team scores a run.  The offense came through tonight.  Ty Wigginton and Carlos Ruiz homered and Placido Polanco continued to swing a hot bat.  The offense got to Eric Bedard for four runs and eight hits in his six innings of work.

Vance Worley is now a .500 pitcher.  After throwing really well in his last few starts with nothing to show for it, Worley pitched into the sixth inning tonight and certainly did enough to win.  He tired in the sixth, leaving men on second and third with no outs.  He got off the hook thanks in large part to a great play from John Mayberry Jr. who threw out Michael McKenry at the plate during an attempted sac fly. 

Johnathan Papelbon rebounded from blowing his first save of the year by getting the save.  This assured that the Phillies can not lose this series and that is certainly something. 

The moment that the Phillies looked like they weren’t going to blow this one was when Micheal Schwimer got out of a man on second and third with no outs jam without allowing a run.  It has become painfully obvious that the bullpen is fucking terrible and a solid outing from one of the kids in the pen is fantastic.

The most attractive play of the game belonged to Chooch.  After Andrew McCutchen doubled to start the eighth, Clint Hurdle put in Josh Harrison to get down a bunt and move McCutchen to third.  Harrison popped the bunt near the screen and Chooch ran it down.  After that he hit a home run and continued to be awesome.

The hero of the game and the first half of the season is Chooch.  He leads the national league in hitting after going 3-4 and after mashing his tenth homer of the season, he now has a carrer high ten and its not even July.  He calls a great game and made a great play on a foul bunt tonight.  He is absolutely the best player on this team right now.

The villain of the game was Michael McKenry.  Apparently Rod Barajas passed on his ability to be a very average player that kills the Phillies as McKenry went 3-3 with a walk, two RBI and a home run. 

Remember how the Phillies have a crappy bullpen?  Well, tomorrow, the bullpen is going to throw the whole game.  I am predicting a shut out.

Doesn't this kind of look like Joe is preparing to eat something in this picture?: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

It seems that the Phillies and Pirates have switched places defensively.  Over the last few years the Pirates have seemed to play enough crappy baseball to lose games and the Phillies have done just the opposite.  The Pirates committed four errors with two of them leading directly to Phillies runs.  It is nice to watch another team be bad at stuff.

The Phillies jumped out to a four run lead on the unfortunate looking Jeff Karstens in the first inning of tonight’s game.  Jimmy Rollins lead off the game with a double and from that point on Jose Tabata started to throw the ball all over the place.  Juan Pierre moved Rollins to third.  Hunter Pence blooped a single in front of Tabata, who tried to get Rollins at home, but couldn’t.  Carlos Ruiz followed with an opposite field single, scoring Pence and advancing to third on throwing errors from Pedro Alvarez and Tabata.  Shane Victorino singled in Chooch and was knocked in on another single from Placido Polanco who advanced to second on another error on the throw from Tabata.  This sequence looked an awful lot like the old sub .500 Pirates.

Joe Blanton pitched well with the lead.  He gave up a solo home run in the top of the third, but was pretty much around the plate and worked his way through seven innings.  He also tied his season high with eight strikeouts.  When you look at Blanton, it is pretty evident right away when he is going to be effective.  If he is down in the zone with his fastball, he will be good.  If he is up, it is batting practice.

The Phillies tacked on a couple more runs in the third with another Placido Polanco RBI single and in the fourth with an absolute moonshot from Jimmy Rollins.  The Pirate bullpen has been really good this year, but managed to walk in a run in the bottom of the seventh.  This was a stress free 8-3 Phillies win.  As fans, we all really needed to see them play like this after Sundays’ crapfest.  Here’s to hoping that Ultey’s supposed return this week can give the team a boost going into the all star break.

The moment that I knew this was destined to be a Phillies victory was when Chad Qualls got Casey MaGehee to ground out to end the game.  The way that this season has been going for the Phillies’ bullpen, I am pretty shocked that Papelbon wasn’t warming up when Qualls came in the game.

The most attractive play of the game was possibly the longest home run of Jimmy Rollin’s career in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Jimmy got the green light 3-0 and absolutely crushed the living hell out of a fastball, depositing it in the right field bleachers after banging it off the Budweiser sign on the second deck.  Outside of Carlos Ruiz, Jimmy is the best hitter on the team right now.

The hero of the game was Joe Blanton.  He managed to toss seven innings of three run baseball.  He has seven more wins this season than Cliff Lee.  I think that Blanton should be the hero of the game every time he isn’t terrible.  He was not terrible tonight.

The games most hatable villain was Jose Tabata.  He accounted for two of the three Pirate runs and hit a home run off of Blanton.  He also committed two throwing errors leading to a couple of Phillie runs, but he probably contributed the most offensively as well.  This wasn’t a real good one for the Pirates.

Tomorrow Vance Worley looks to get the Phillies a series win against Eric Bedard.