Monday night, the Phillies had a great chance to open up their series with the Pittsburgh Pirates with a victory. Even after an eighth inning blow up by Kyle Kendrick, a late three-run rally nearly put them into that position. However, it wasn't enough in the eventual 6-4 loss. Last night, they got a bit of revenge thanks to the bat (yes, bat) of Freddy Galvis. Three hits, including a solo home run, and scored the game-winning run when Maikel Franco singled in the seventh. Tonight, a bit of a flashback for Phillies fans in the third game of the series, as former Phil Vance Worley takes to the hill for the Bucs. As for current Phillies, Jerome Williams will make his sixth start in the National League.
In his most recent outing, Jerome Williams put together his worst start since joining the Phillies. In just five full innings of work, the right-hander surrendered four earned runs, two walks, and nine hits, including his first home run since his first start with the Phillies. Despite the rough outing from their starter, the Phillies offense took advantage of the Nationals bullpen meltdown to win the game in extra innings. Williams faced this Pirates team when he was with the Angels last June. That was the only real opportunity any Pittsburgh hitter had a chance to face Jerome, with Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez each collecting home runs.
Following the 2012 season, the Phillies traded Vance Worley, along with minor leaguer Trevor May, to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Ben Revere. Since that time, Worley has been the Twins Opening Day starter, sent back down to Triple A, released by Minnesota, signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh, and finally reinserted into a major league rotation. June 15th marked Vanimal's first major league appearance in over a full calendar year, and since then, he's made quite an impression. In fourteen starts and one relief appearance, Worley has pitched to the tune of a 3.05 ERA and is striking out nearly seven batters per nine innings of work. Only Marlon Byrd has faced Worley before, and is 2-for-4 with two RBIs. It will be Worley's first start in Citizens Bank Park since August 28th, 2012.
Phillies Lineup
- Ben Revere CF
- Grady Sizemore RF
- Chase Utley 2B
- Ryan Howard 1B
- Domonic Brown LF
- Cody Asche 3B
- Wil Nieves C
- Freddy Galvis SS
- Jerome Williams P
Pirates Lineup
- Josh Harrison 3B
- Starling Marte LF
- Andrew McCutchen CF
- Neil Walked 2B
- Russell Martin C
- Travis Snyder RF
- Gaby Sanchez 1B
- Jordy Mercer SS
- Vance Worley P
Andrew Gillen, Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com
