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Nationals-Phillies Preview

Aug 21, 2010 - 7:49 PM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Washington (52-70) at Philadelphia (69-52), 7:05 p.m. EDT

The Philadelphia Phillies kept pace in the NL East race and maintained their wild-card lead by keeping the Washington Nationals off the scoreboard in the opener of a three-game series.

As they try to stay hot, the Phillies will strive to avoid that fate themselves in their first matchup with Stephen Strasburg, and they'll get a little help with Ryan Howard coming off the disabled list.

After showing better form in his second start back from the DL, the Nationals rookie phenom will seek his first victory in a month Saturday night.

Philadelphia (69-52) stayed within 2 1/2 games of Atlanta and improved to 21-6 over the past month with Friday night's 1-0 victory. The Nationals outhit the Phillies 10-4, but Raul Ibanez's third-inning double brought home the game's lone run.

Philadelphia, which leads San Francisco by one game for the wild card, will now try to beat Washington (52-70) for the 18th time in the teams' last 21 meetings at Citizens Bank Park.

Standing in the way is Strasburg (5-3, 2.97 ERA), who bounced back from the worst outing of his brief career to earn a 5-3 victory over Arizona on Sunday.

"Strasburg throws very hard and locates very well, from what I've seen from a distance," Phillies first baseman Mike Sweeney told his team's official website. "Our objective is to win the game and try to get to him early."

Sweeney will see his playing time decrease with the return of Howard, who sprained his left ankle Aug. 1 sliding back into second base at Washington.

Strasburg allowed three runs - one earned - in five innings, walked none and struck out seven against the Diamondbacks after being tagged for a career-worst six runs over 4 1-3 innings Aug. 10 against Florida, in his return from inflammation in his pitching shoulder.

"I thought I made a lot of improvements," Strasburg told the Nationals' official website. "I started to get the feeling back. I was able to locate my pitches a lot better (Sunday). It was a good win. I thought I made a lot of improvements."

Fortunately for the Phillies, Strasburg likely won't pitch the entire game. He's being restricted to no more than 160 innings this year, and has already logged 119 over 22 games with the Nationals and their minor-league affiliates.

That could open the door for Philadelphia's Kyle Kendrick (8-5, 4.55) to claim his fourth win in six starts.

After struggling during a 15-9 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 10, Kendrick rebounded by allowing one run over 6 2-3 innings Sunday in a 3-1 win at the New York Mets.

Even including the loss to the Dodgers, the right-hander is 3-1 with a 3.07 ERA in his last five outings.

However, Kendrick is 1-2 with a 6.93 ERA in eight career starts against the Nationals including a 17.47 ERA in two this season. He didn't make it out of the second inning of a 14-7 home win April 14, allowing six runs, six hits and three walks.