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Phillies-Astros Preview

Apr 11, 2010 - 4:29 AM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Philadelphia (3-1) at Houston (0-4), 2:05 p.m. EDT

The Philadelphia Phillies' offense shows no signs of slowing down. That could be bad news for the Houston Astros, especially when they have to step in the batter's box against ace Roy Halladay.

Off to its best start in 17 years, Philadelphia goes for the three-game sweep Sunday at Minute Maid Park, where Halladay makes his first career appearance against a Houston team off to its worst start since 1983.

Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino each drove in three runs and led Philadelphia's 11-hit attack in a 9-6 win Saturday. The Phillies, who are 4-1 for the first time since opening 8-1 in 1993, are averaging 8.2 runs and batting .337.

Philadelphia has 10 or more hits in each of its first five games, the first time the club has done that since 1926.

"It just seems like every time you come up, there's a guy in scoring position," said Howard, who hit his third homer Saturday and has two hits in each of the first five games. "It's contagious."

With the Phillies leading the NL with 41 runs, Halladay could get plenty of support in the series finale.

He did in his NL debut, Monday's season-opening 11-1 victory at Washington. Halladay allowed one run, six hits and struck out nine over seven innings.

"It's been fun for me," said Halladay, who was acquired from the Blue Jays in December and is one victory shy of 150. "Nothing against Toronto, but it kind of gives you renewed energy coming over here. It's a team that wants to win and can win."

The Astros do too, but it hasn't happened yet.

Saturday's loss dropped Houston to 0-5 for the first time since an 0-9 start 27 years ago. A .223 team batting average has played a major role in the slow start, but first-year manager Brad Mills sees progress from his club after Jason Michaels and Hunter Pence hit the team's first two home runs of the season.

The five third-inning runs was one fewer than Houston had scored in its first four games combined.

"It was a big step forward," Mills said. "It was nice to see them put together some solid at-bats again and start scoring some runs."

Houston ace Roy Oswalt (0-1, 4.50 ERA) would like to see more of that too. The right-hander looks to end the Astros' skid in his first start since Monday's 5-2 season-opening loss to San Francisco.

After getting an injection in his back to reduce pain from a tight left hamstring, Oswalt yielded three runs and seven hits over six innings in his eighth straight opening-day start. Both runs Oswalt allowed during his 87-pitch outing crossed in the second inning.

"In the second inning, I got out of sync a little bit," he said. "But I fell back in after that. I think I did OK. If you take one inning out of the performance tonight, I think it was all right. Once I got to the third, fourth and fifth, I felt a little better, mechanical-wise."

Oswalt is 5-1 with a 3.34 ERA in nine career starts versus Philadelphia, but he has not enjoyed much success in his career against Howard. The 2006 NL MVP is 8 for 19 with two homers lifetime against Oswalt.

Philadelphia's Placido Polanco has 10 hits in 21 career at-bats versus Oswalt. The Phillies' new third baseman has had multiple hits every game this season, and is batting .542.