PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Roy Halladay will get a little extra rest after the Philadelphia Phillies‘ game against the Washington Nationals was rained out Sunday.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

Halladay is tied with Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw for the league lead with 175 2-3 innings. The workhorse right-hander led the majors with 250 2-3 innings last season, then pitched another 22 innings in the postseason as the Phillies made it all the way to the NL championship series.

So far, it doesn’t look as if Halladay has been affected by all those innings one bit. He is 6-1 with a 2.51 ERA in his last eight starts and is tied for the NL lead with 15 victories.

Sunday’s game was called more than two hours before the scheduled first pitch, and it’s unclear when Halladay will make his next start. NL East-leading Philadelphia is off Monday and opens a three-game series against West-leading Arizona on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park.

Halladay last pitched last Monday, when he allowed one run and nine hits over 6 1-3 innings in a 5-3 victory at the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Philadelphia and Washington split the first two games of the series. Livan Hernandez tossed 6 2-3 innings of one-run ball in the Nationals‘ 4-2 victory on Friday night, but the Phillies bounced back with an 11-3 win Saturday night.

Sunday’s game will be made up on Sept. 20 as part of a split doubleheader. The scheduled unveiling ceremony for the Harry Kalas statue was pushed back to Tuesday.

It’s also uncertain when Chien-Ming Wang will return to the mound for the Nationals, who are off Monday before opening a 10-game homestand Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds.

Wang, who missed more than two years following shoulder surgery, pitched six scoreless innings in a 3-1 victory at the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. It was his first win since June 28, 2009, for the New York Yankees at the Mets.

The right-hander, who won 19 games in 2006 and 2007 with the Yankees, is 1-2 with a 3.60 ERA in three starts for the Nationals.

 

Aaron Cook(notes) has been solid while winning two starts in a row.

Beating the major league-leading Philadelphia Phillies should prove to be a
more difficult task.

Cook has had plenty of trouble in past outings against the Phillies and has
never beaten them at home as he gets ready to take the mound Tuesday night for
the Colorado Rockies.

Philadelphia (69-39) is looking to capture its sixth straight road series
after rallying for Monday’s 4-3, 10-inning victory. The Phillies have to like
their chances against Cook (2-5, 5.05 ERA).

The veteran right-hander is 1-6 with a 6.19 ERA in 10 career starts against
Philadelphia, including 0-3 with that same ERA in six at Coors Field.

The Phillies have several hitters with good numbers against Cook. Chase
Utley(notes) is 10 for 24, Ryan Howard(notes) 9 for 23 and Jimmy Rollins(notes) 12 for 32. Manager
Charlie Manuel also may be inclined to use part-time infielder Ross Gload(notes), who
is 7 for 9 with a homer and two doubles versus Cook.

Cook should enter with some confidence after he recorded 13 groundball outs
over seven scoreless innings to notch last Wednesday’s 3-1 road win over the
Dodgers. He went winless in his first seven starts before winning the last two.

“I’m not going to speculate after seven starts, but what we’ve had are two
very consistent outings,” manager Jim Tracy said.

The Rockies have dropped all four of Cook’s home starts this year. He’s 0-3
with a 4.03 ERA in those games.

The Phillies are seeking a fifth straight win after opening this three-game
set Monday in dramatic fashion. With Philadelphia down to its last strike,
pinch-hitter John Mayberry(notes) Jr. hit a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth
inning before Shane Victorino(notes) homered to lead off the 10th.

“As a bench guy, you normally get one at-bat,” Mayberry said. “Hopefully,
you make the most of it and I was able to do that tonight.”

The Rockies have dropped six of nine after wasting Jhoulys Chacin’s(notes) stellar
7 1-3 innings.

“They’re 30 games over .500 for a reason, and we just saw it,” Tracy said.
“We were a pitch away from winning and we end up getting beat in the game by two
pitches.”

Howard went 0 for 5, snapping a five-game hitting streak in Denver in which
he went 10 for 21 with a homer and six RBIs.

Since getting swept by Colorado in the 2007 playoffs, Philadelphia has won
20 of 25 meetings including three of four in a division series two years ago.

One of those Phillies’ losses was a 7-1 defeat May 19 charged to Kyle
Kendrick(notes) (5-5, 3.52), who gave up five runs over three innings. Kendrick will
make his fourth career start at Coors Field, where he has posted a 6.35 ERA and
has yet to receive a decision.

The right-hander has had major problems with Seth Smith(notes), who is 8 for 11
with three doubles and a triple against him. Smith is a .383 career hitter
against the Phillies after he had a two-run homer Monday as part of a two-hit
night.

Kendrick gave up four runs in 6 1-3 innings Thursday in a 4-1 loss to San
Francisco.

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins is out again with a bruised right knee.

Rollins was not in the starting lineup for Monday’s game against Los Angeles. Manager Charlie Manuel and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. say Rollins has soreness and swelling and should miss another game or two.

Rollins fouled a ball off his right knee against Pittsburgh on Saturday and was taken out of the game by the bottom of the third.

Also, Amaro says reliever Brad Lidge felt discomfort in his right elbow during a bullpen session Monday morning. Lidge was in Clearwater, Fla., and will return to Philadelphia to meet with team doctor Michael Ciccotti on Tuesday.

Lidge has been sidelined all season because of shoulder issues.

CBSSports.com wire reports
May 22, 2011

PHILADELPHIA — Matt Harrison joined the growing list of pitchers throwing like a Cy Young Award winner against the offensively inept Phillies.

Harrison took a five-hitter into the ninth inning and helped the Texas Rangers avoid a three-game sweep with a 2-0 victory against Philadelphia on Sunday.

His stat line was hardly dazzling. Harrison (4-4) struck out three, walked three and threw 117 pitches in his longest outing of the season, finishing two outs shy of his first shutout since 2009.

Harrison was winless in his previous five starts — a streak easily broken in Philadelphia.

“Everything was working for me and I was throwing strikes,” Harrison said.

Harrison fanned Ryan Howard to open the ninth, but was lifted after he walked Ben Francisco.

Neftali Feliz got two outs for his ninth save. Mitch Moreland had an RBI double off Phillies starter Roy Oswalt and Craig Gentry added a suicide squeeze.

“The plane ride will be a lot better,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “I hope this will be a momentum swing for us.”

Both teams are expected to get a lift on Monday: Chase Utley for the Phillies, and Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz for the Rangers.

Two teams with loaded offenses have been hit hard by injury and underachievement. The Rangers entered batting .196 in their previous five games and they have gone 11 consecutive games scoring four of fewer runs. They have one home run in the past seven games.

Texas touched Oswalt (3-2) for eight hits and broke through for a run in the sixth.

“I knew with Oswalt pitching, it would be a close game, so I wanted to give the team a chance to win,” Harrison said. “It’s good to finally have a win. It seems like it’s been two months. This is a real confidence booster for me.”

Michael Young singled to right and advanced to second on a grounder. Moreland drove the ball the opposite way off the left-field wall for a run-scoring double.

He was left there when shortstop Jimmy Rollins made a nice grab in the hole to throw out Harrison and end the inning.

The Rangers made it 2-0 in the eighth when Gentry’s suicide squeeze scored Adrian Beltre, who had doubled.

Oswalt lost for the first time (10-1) at Citizens Bank Park. He was 6-0 in eight starts with the Phillies. He struck out three and walked two.

Oswalt said he couldn’t change his approach when the offense is slumping.

“You’ve just got to hit your spots a little bit better,” Oswalt said. “You’ve got to kind of dance of between raindrops out there. You can’t give up too many hits in one inning.”

Texas blew its chances to bust the game open.

The Rangers squandered runners on the corners in the fifth when Ian Kinsler grounded into a force out. They had two runners on in the seventh when Young hit into a double play.

Help is on the way.

Washington said Hamilton and Cruz should be activated off the disabled list in time for Monday’s home game against the White Sox.

Both are expected to play Sunday for Triple-A Round Rock in the final game of their minor league rehab assignments.

Hamilton, last year’s American League MVP, is recovering from a broken bone in his upper right arm. Cruz is rehabbing a strained right quadriceps muscle.

The Phillies are in a funk and they’ll need more than Utley’s return to jolt the offense.

The Phillies have not scored more than three runs in a game since May 13. They scored a combined five runs in the first two games of the series, just enough to win with Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee on the mound.

Oswalt wasn’t so lucky.

In the third, Placido Polanco left two runners stranded on a dribbler up the first base line.

The Phillies had eight hits on Saturday, snapping a streak of seven consecutive games with six or less. The NL East leaders had five on Sunday. It was so bad that Howard tried to bunt for a hit in the ninth.

“We’re going to hit, we’re going to hit better,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’re going to bottom out one of these days. Hopefully, it was today.”

Notes

• The Phillies dropped to 5-1 against the Rangers at Citizens Bank Park in interleague play.
• Utley will be activated off the 15-day disabled list before Monday’s game against Cincinnati. The Phillies are set to put RHP Joe Blanton on the DL and recall righty Vance Worley before Monday’s game. The Phillies optioned INF Pete Orr to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
• Rangers SS Elvis Andrus has stolen 23 consecutive bases.
• Kinsler was hit by pitches twice.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – MAY 22: Matt Harrison #54 of the Texas Rangers pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies at…

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

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