Halladay and Sabathia will duel in the series opener.


While it was nice to see the Phillies leave Boston on a positive note with a 5-3 win against the Red Sox, it's difficult not to look ahead and dread the Phils' three-game series in New York against the red-hot Yankees.

The two teams have been on two completely different paths this season as the Yankees have seemingly breezed their way to an impressive 40-23 record, while the Phillies are struggling for every single run, much less a win.

There is, however, some hope for the Phillies and their fans that they can pull out a couple wins during this stretch and use it as momentum to get their season rolling.

First of all, the Phillies seem to always do this. At some point between June and August they start looking like a bunch of scrubs and drop games to teams with no business being on the same field. But they pull out of it just in time to get things rolling and suck us all back in.

But during their stretch of incompetence, it's clear they play to the level of their competition; good or bad. So when they open up their series against the Yankees this Tuesday, it's likely they'll come out and look like the team everyone expected to represent the NL in the World Series and not the team barely hanging in the middle of the pack in the NL East.

And if they can get their bats moving and play well against a team like the Yankees, it could go a long way toward repairing their damaged psyche and hopefully translate into a run that can get them back on top of their game, and the NL East.

Secondly, Roy Halladay will be pitching on Tuesday. Halladay is 8-4 on the season with a 1.96 ERA and a few complete games, including MLB's 20th perfect game all-time.

His win-loss record isn't bad, but it's very misleading. There's only been one game all season long that he truly lost the game. The other three have been a complete lack of run support. So even though he only allows one or two runs, it's going to be difficult to win when his offense couldn't even get him that.

Halladay will duel C.C. Sabathia (6-3, 4.01 ERA), who has been a bit inconsistent this season when he's not playing the Baltimore Orioles. In fact, it's been almost a month since he's beaten a team other than the Orioles, and is a mediocre 2-3 against the other teams he's faced.

The Phils are really going to have to get the bats going on Wednesday and Thursday to help support Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer respectively, but if they can score even three or four runs on Tuesday, it should be enough to get the opening win and, hopefully, some momentum.