Phils go for the sweep behind Jon Lieber today; Rockies counter with rookie lefty Jeff Francis. And the Phandom waits with nervous stomachs to see what veteran middle reliever the team adds, if any, before 4pm this afternoon.
Ryan Howard isn't in today's lineup: we'll go with the theory that this is because Manuel wanted to sit him against the lefty Francis, and not because we're about to swap him for Eddie Guardado.
Francis has a very unusual home/road split over his brief major-league career, at least by Colorado standards: lifetime, he's 9-2 with a 3.74 ERA in 12 starts at Coors. I always figured eventually the Rockies would just start genetically engineering guys who pitch better at altitude: maybe Francis is the super-secret product of billions in government funding.
 Lieber Phi |
vs. |
 Francis Col |
| 9-9 | Record | 9-7 |
| 132.1 | IP | 121.1 |
| 4.69 | ERA | 5.41 |
| 82 | K | 91 |
| 27 | BB | 50 |
| 25 | HR | 14 |
| Lineups | |
| Phillies | Rockies |
| SS J. Rollins | CF C. Sullivan |
| CF J. Michaels | SS O. Quintanilla |
| RF B. Abreu | LF M. Holliday |
| LF P. Burrell | 3B G. Atkins |
| 2B C. Utley | 1B R. Shealy |
| 3B D. Bell | RF D. Mohr |
| 1B T. Perez | 2B L. Gonzalez |
| C T. Pratt | C J. Closser |
| P J. Lieber | P J. Acevedo |