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Phillies-Marlins Preview

May 28, 2010 - 6:15 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Philadelphia (26-20) at Florida (24-24), 7:10 p.m. EDT

With a lineup full of All-Stars, the Philadelphia Phillies are confident that they'll break out of their massive offensive rut soon.

Held scoreless in 46 of their last 47 innings, the Phillies will try to turn their fortunes around and snap a season-high, five-game slide Friday night against the host Florida Marlins.

Philadelphia opened its nine-game road trip against NL East teams with three consecutive shutouts to the New York Mets, including Thursday night's 3-0 defeat.

Shane Victorino had three singles in that loss, but Raul Ibanez had the only other hit as the Phillies (26-20) saw their division lead trimmed to 1 1/2 games over Atlanta, two over the Mets, and three to the Marlins (24-24) and Washington.

The Phillies, who were also shut out by Boston on Saturday, have batted .186 during their losing streak and scored all three of their runs in those five games in the ninth inning of Sunday's 8-3 loss to the Red Sox.

However, there's little panic from the two-time defending NL champs.

"You know it's not going to be like that all year," third baseman Placido Polanco said. "We're going to bounce back eventually."

Facing a team that's given up 15 runs in the past two games would seem to be a good way to get back on track, but the Phillies have batted .223 and averaged 3.8 runs while dropping nine of 12 to Florida.

Philadelphia took an 8-6 victory in their first meeting this season against the Marlins and collected 12 hits, including homers from Polanco and Chase Utley. Florida, however, held the Phillies to one run over the final two games at Citizens Bank Park.

Ricky Nolasco and Nate Robertson helped contain Philadelphia in those games, but Florida will start Chris Volstad (3-5, 4.31 ERA) in Friday's opener.

A 4.76 ERA hasn't helped Volstad while he's dropped his last three starts, but three runs of support from the Marlins have probably hurt a little more.

Cameron Maybin gave him the only run Saturday in a 4-1 loss to the host Chicago White Sox.

"Volstad, he gave up three runs in six innings. On most nights, you have an excellent chance to win," manager Fredi Gonzalez told the team's website.

The right-hander, who had two four-start losing streaks last season, is 1-2 with a 4.01 ERA in his last four outings against the Phillies.

Ryan Howard, who is in a 2-for-18 slump, is probably happy to see Volstad as he's had six hits in 15 at-bats against him (.400), including four homers

The Phillies will counter with Kyle Kendrick (2-2, 5.66), who had a two-game win streak snapped by the shutout to Boston. The right-hander also gave up five runs in 4 2-3 innings in Saturday's 5-0 defeat.

He's 2-2 with a 6.31 ERA in five career starts against Florida and was tagged for seven runs in 1 1-3 innings in the most recent one, a 10-8 home loss Sept. 9, 2008.

To avoid another defeat, he'll likely need some help from his teammates who are on the Phillies' longest scoreless streak in 27 years.

Philadelphia went 42 innings without a run from May 18-25, 1983, with a lineup that included Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt and Tony Perez.

The Phillies' previous six-game slide was a little more recent - June 16-21.