In our second installment of the “View from the Philly Pressbox” we’ll review the 3 games series, against the Florida Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, in which the Phils won the last two games after losing the home opener of the season.

Cole Hamels struggled on opening night at The Bank. Hamels struck out 9 batters in his 5.1 innings but allowed 8 hits and 4 runs, 3 earned. Joe Savery saw his first action of the season in relief. David Herndon and Jonathan Papelbon also threw in the game. The Phils managed only 6 hits off of four Marlins pitchers, none of them off their bullpen. Anibal Sanchez pitched well and picked up the win. Jimmy Rollins had 2 hits while Freddie Galvis got his first major league hit and first two RBI’s.

Roy Halladay is off to a great start. He won his 2^nd game of the season. Doc threw 7 innings, allowing 5 hits and 1 run. He walked 1 and struck out 3. He lowered his ERA to 0.50. Chad Qualls and Michael Stutes threw perfect innings of relief. The hits finally started coming, 14 total. Carlos Ruiz continued his hot hitting with 2 hits, including his first home run of the season. Rollins, Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco all added a pair of hits while Hunter Pence banged 3 hits. Galvis added 2 RBI’s.

Game 3 belonged to Joe Blanton. The #5 starter in the rotation made his first start of the season a dandy, leading the Phillies to a 3-1 win. Blanton threw 7 innings, allowed 3 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and struck out 3. Chad Qualls pitched the 8^th for his first hold of the season and Papelbon pitched the 9^th to earn his 2^nd save. Offensively, Hunter Pence added 2 more hits, raising his average to .391. Ty Wigginton belted his first home run of the season as did Shane Victorino.

To summarize the series, the Phillies pitching was outstanding again with quality starts from Halladay and Blanton. The Marlins also have good pitching with Sanchez, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, however, the Phillies banged out 28 hits in the series. That’s a good sign!

Next up, the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park. Their ace Johan Santana threw on Wednesday against Washington, losing to Steven Strasburg, 4-0. Santana won’t pitch against the Phils. The Phils will throw Cliff Lee on Friday night against R.A. Dickey, Vance Worley against Jon Neise on Saturday at 4:05 and Cole Hamels against Mike Pelfrey on Sunday afternoon. The Mets have started the season with a 4-2 record. The Mets have listed 3^rd baseman David Wright as day-to-day after breaking his pinky finger on Monday. If Wright can tolerate the pain he could play at some point during the series.

As far as the Phillies lineup, Charlie Manuel has made a few moves; however, he seems to have settled back to his opening day lineup. Juan Pierre did get some work in the leadoff spot. Pierre is hitting only .214 in his 4 games played. With only 6 games in to the season Pence is leading the team in hitting at .391, followed by Ruiz at .375 and Victorino at .333. No one has more than one home run. Pence and Galvis lead with 4 RBI’s each.

The season is still very young and the bats will be warming up. Like everyone else we expect Hunter Pence to lead the way for a good portion of the season until Chase Utley and Ryan Howard return. We’ve attached the link to our Phillies Profile on Pence.  https://phillypressbox.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/phillie-profile-hunter-pence/

It would be a great weekend for a Phillies sweep of the Mets!

 For now, WE’RE OUTTTTTTA HERE!!!!!

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