Howard Takes Stage Tonight

Before every all star game is the State Farm Home Run Derby. This year will feature another one of your Phillies stars in Ryan Howard. Howard is in his third derby, winning in 2006 and failing to get out of the first round in 2007. As the big story of the derby, Howard was born in St. Louis, the location of this year's game and derby. He will have to win the hearts of the home crowd as he goes against home town hero Albert Pujols. The game will be on ESPN at 8 PM ET.

NL contestants:
Ryan Howard - Phillies - 22 HR
Albert Pujols - Cardinals - 32 HR
Prince Fielder - Brewers - 22 HR
Adrian Gonzalez - Padres - 24 HR

AL contestants:
Brandon Inge - Tigers - 21 HR
Carlos Pena - Rays - 24 HR
Joe Mauer - Twins - 15 HR
Nelson Cruz - Rangers - 22 HR

My predictions:
Pujols, Howard, Pena, and Cruz will advance.
Pujols over Howard in the Final.

Howard Joins Cast of 1B in Derby

The National League announced their four Home Run Derby contestants. Outside of hitting home runs and being catalysts in their respective offenses, all four of these guys share another similarity: playing first base.

Albert Pujols of St. Louis, Adrian Gonzalez of San Diego, Prince Fielder of Milwaukee, and Ryan Howard of Philadelphia will represent in the NL in the 2009 Home Run Derby held in St. Louis, Howard's home town.

These four big men are all very capable of winning the crown. Howard has plenty of experience in the contest, winning it in 2006. This is his third time. It will be the second appearance for Pujols and Fielder. Gonzalez is the only HR Derby virgin in the cast.

Pujols is currently leading the Major Leagues with 31 homers. Gonzalez has 24, Fielder has 22, and Howard has 20.

Phillies Sweep Friars

Coming off of a sweep versus Washington, the Phillies started their little West Coast trip as they played three games in sunny Southern California versus the Padres. The Padres came into this series on a 10 game home winning streak. That came to a screeching halt as the Phillies starting pitching dominated all three games and Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez sparked the offense at key times.

Joe Blanton took the mound Monday in the Phillies weakest start of the series. He threw seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits with five strike outs, earning him a quality start. Chase Utley and Howard went back-to-back in the fifth to make it a 4-1 game and then Adrian Gonzalez and Scott Hairston mirrored that feat in the sixth to make it a 4-3 game. The Phillies would tack on another run and Brad Lidge made his only appearance of the series, earning his 13th save in 17 chances as the Phillies won 5-3.

Tuesday's pitching match up was very interesting as Antonio Bastardo was making his major league debut in place of Brett Myers and facing Jake Peavy, a player who the Phillies have interest in acquiring before the trade deadline. Peavy only lasted one inning as he got rocked for four runs in the first. Bastardo went six innings, giving up a solo home run and four hits total and striking out five. It was also Ibanez's birthday as he gave the rookie Bastardo a present, going 3-5 with two homers, a double, and five RBI's. The final was 10-5 as Ryan Madson earned a rare five-run save.

Last night's game was utter dominance from JA Happ, making his 3rd start of the season. He improved to 4-0 and dropped his ERA to a 2.48 after throwing seven shut out innings, giving up four hits and striking out four. Howard hit a two-run bomb in the first inning to get the scoring going. JC Romero made his season debut, going 1.3 innings, giving up the only run (which was unearned) on two hits and one walk and striking out a batter. He was having trouble locating his pitches which usually comes with a first appearance. He will be fine and I am far from worried. The Phillies won 5-1.

Series MVP: Ibanez (6-15, 2 HR's, 2 doubles, 6 RBI's)

Next Series: @ Los Angeles Dodgers

6/4 - Hamels (3-2, 5.21), Kershaw (3-3, 4.34)

6/5 - Moyer (4-5, 6.75), Milton (2-0, 3.14)

6/6 - Blanton (4-3, 5.86), Kuroda (1-1, 2.53)

6/7 - Bastardo (1-0, 1.50), Wolf (3-1, 3.21)

A Few Notes and News

Bastardo impresses in debut:

I'm still tired from watching these 10 PM starts but hey, that's what a true fan does. Besides, I didn't want to miss Antonio Bastardo's debut. And boy did he put on a nice little show. He went six strong innings and threw 101 pitches, eclipsing the 75 pitch handicap Charlie Manuel and set for him. In his six innings, he surrendered four hits and one run, a homer hit by Adrian Gonzalez in the 6th, and struck out an impressive five batters.

Another impressive fact about his first start was that he threw 77 strikes (out of 101 pitches), just under 80%. Now that number will decrease as he should be mixing his stuff up with more sliders and curve balls. A 4-0 head start was also a nice touch which definitely boosted the 23-year old's confidence. He'll face the Dodgers

The return of JC:

No not Jesus Christ, but JC Romero. Romero is officially off his 50 game suspension for "substance abuse," and will be activated for tonight's game verses the Padres. I found this out when perusing the Phillies Nation like I always do as PN writer Tim Malcolm got the news via David Murphey's Twitter page that with the activation of Romero will be the sending down of Sergio Escalona back to AAA.

Eyre talks retirment:

Scott Eyre is about 90% sure he'll retire after this season. The 37-year old lefty has been dominant for the Phillies this year in the absence of Romero. Eyre is 0-1 with a 2.84 ERA in 12 2/3 innings this year. He is 26-30 with a 4.33 earned run average in 632 innings lifetime.

A snippet from Philly Inquirer writer Andy Martino:

"My wife is probably ready for me to be home," said Eyre, who has two sons, ages 8 and 10. "I've been playing for 13 years, and it's basically all she's ever known. We'll talk about it at the end of the year, but as of now I would say, yeah, I'll retire."

OTHER NEWS: Johnson seeks 300:

One of my favorite players to watch growing up, Randy Johnson, will be chasing history tonight. He is set to take the mound versus the Nationals to try (well not really) to win his 300th game, becoming the 24th player in baseball history to do so.

Johnson, currently with the Giants, is 299-164 with a 3.29 ERA and 4843 strikeouts. His strikeouts numbers are 2nd all time and 1st among lefties. His k/9 is a historical 10.7, which leads every player to ever step on a major league mound. He started his career in Montreal and then played in Seattle, Houston, Arizona, and New York (AL).

That game versus the Nationals is at 7:05 ET tonight.

Howard Co-Wins Player of Week; Mayberry Sent Down

A couple weeks after Raul Ibanez wins NL Player of the Week, Ryan Howard split the honors with Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres. Howard hit 4 homers last week including his monstrous grand slam. He also totaled 10 RBI's and a slugging percentage of 1.000. This was Howard's 4th career honor and first of the season.

In other news, John Mayberry Jr's tenure ended for now in the majors as the Phillies sent him back down to AAA Lehigh. That move will make room for Antonio Bastardo, who will be making his major league debut in a start versus Jake Peavy and the Padres tonight. This was a smart move since Mayberry wasn't being used much at all in his tenure and was losing the valuable at bats he would be getting in Lehigh. We'll see him again when the Phillies travel to AL teams.