Phillies to deal aces from deck

The Philadelphia Phillies are slated to send All-Star Roy Halladay to the mound on Friday as they open up a series at home against the Atlanta Braves (7:05pm ET).

Halladay (11-3, 2.44 ERA) continues to mow down batters as he looks to win 20+ games for the second consecutive season. Last year Halladay went 21-10 in his first Phillies campaign, posting a 2.44 ERA, a 1.04 WHIP, and a .245 opponent's batting average. How's he looking this year? A 2.44 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, and a .241 opponent's batting average.

The righthander went back to Toronto to face his old club in an interleague matchup last time out, and the results were par for the course: Nine innings pitched, three runs allowed on eight hits, eight strikeouts, and just one walk.

That result marked Philadelphia's ninth consecutive win in a Halladay start, and on the season the Phillies are 15-3 when the righthander takes to the mound.

The last time he lost, though, was on May 15 against the Braves (in Atlanta), when he came out on the wrong side of a 3-2 decision. Halladay gave up all three runs on eight hits over eight innings of work that day, walking two and fanning seven.

Getting the call for the Braves on Friday is expected to be Brandon Beachy (3-1, 3.23 ERA), who left his last start against the Phillies (May 13) with an oblique injury after allowing three runs on six hits over just two innings of work. The righthander also started against the Phillies back on April 9, taking the loss that day after giving up four runs on seven hits in six innings pitched.

On Saturday Cliff Lee (9-6, 2.92 ERA) gets the call for Philadelphia and he had his consecutive scoreless innings streak snapped in Toronto over the weekend, getting pounded for seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits in his 7 1-3 innings of work. The lefthander had won his previous five starts, throwing shutouts in the last three.

Tommy Hanson (10-4, 2.52 ERA), riding a five-game winning streak of his own, is listed as the Braves' probable pitcher for Saturday; he hasn't faced Philly this year.

Two other NL playoff contenders also meet in a series this weekend, with the St. Louis Cardinals hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks. The second game of the series on Friday lines up as Ian Kennedy (8-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Kyle Lohse (8-5, 2.97 ERA), with Daniel Hudson (9-5, 3.75 ERA) taking on Chris Carpenter (4-7, 3.74 ERA) in Saturday's matchup.

The Cardinals thought they'd be without superstar first baseman Albert Pujols for one to two months, but instead the slugger was activated from the disabled list this week after rehabbing his broken wrist for a mere two weeks.

And if Pujols starts cranking the ball again it'll be great news for the Cardinals' playoff chances � and for those who are already supporting St. Louis on the MLB futures market. Oddsmaker currently has the Cards, in a dogfight in the NL Central division, at +1500 to win the World Series this season. Their weekend opponents, meanwhile, are at +2200 right now as they jostle with the San Francisco Giants at the top of the NL West standings.