After a wild game yesterday at Citizen's Bank Park, things will probably be a little more normal for the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies this afternoon.
But if the Twins want to emerge on the right end of this series, they'll have to beat Roy Halladay (8-5, 2.36 ERA), a man who already has a perfect game to his credit this season and is considered to be one of baseball's best pitchers. Halladay has also had a great deal of success against the Twins dating back to his career with the Toronto Blue Jays, having compiled an 8-1 record and a 2.73 ERA in 11 career starts against Minnesota.
The Twins will counter by sending Carl Pavano (7-6, 3.92 ERA) and his amazing mustache to the mound. This could be considered a bad thing, since Pavano's last three road starts have been slightly less than stellar. And by "slightly less than stellar," I mean "completely awful." Pavano has lost three straight road starts, and has compiled an ERA of 8.18 over the last two.
On the bright side for the Twins, Pavano has gone at least seven innings in his last five starts and nine of his last ten. Such a start would be a welcome sight for a Twins team that has seen its starting pitchers throw a combined 3.1 innings in the last two games, as Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey both failed to make it out of the second inning on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.
First pitch is slated for 12:35 PM Central this afternoon in Philadelphia.