Phillies Pregame – 5/5, 9:40pm EDT

The Game: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Philadelphia Phillies

The Matchup: Max Scherzer (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 SO, 0 BB, 0.00 WHIP) vs. Jamie Moyer (1-2, 4.50 ERA, 12 SO, 10 BB, 1.75 WHIP)

The Story: Highly touted prospect Max Scherzer gets his first big league start against the Jamie Moyer as the Phillies begin a seven game trip to Arizona and San Francisco. The Phillies will play four games against the Diamondbacks, who have posted the league’s best record thus far at 21-10. Scherzer, coming off a perfect 4.1 IP and 7 punch outs in relief of Ed Gonzalez, is expected to remain in the rotation only for a few starts until Doug Davis comes back from thyroid cancer surgery. Scherzer was the 11th overall pick in the 2006 draft. He’s a power pitcher and throws a lot of fastballs. This should be sink or swim for a Phillies team that hits a lot of homers and strikes out a ton.

The Phillies bats certainly have their work cut out for them after a somewhat lackluster weekend against the giants. The D-backs are the first over .500 team the Phils have played since the Mets two weeks ago, so they will need to bring their best game out West. 45 year old Jamie Moyer is coming off a 5.1 IP, 4 ER outing. 6 innings seems to be his target this season. Anything better is taken as a bonus.

We’ll see if Chase Utley and Pat Burrell can continue to carry this team on their backs. At some point, Ryan Howard and the rest of the bats are going to have to pick up the slack.

Stat of the day: The Phillies lead the league in home runs with 48. Chase Utley is first in the league with 13 and Pat Burrell is tied for third with 9.

UPDATE:
Lineups: Phillies – Victorino (CF), Bruntlett (SS), Utley (2B), Howard (1B), Burrell (LF), Jenkins (RF), Feliz (3B), Ruiz (C), Moyer (P)

D-backs: Young (CF), Byrnes (LF), Hudson (2B), Jackson (1B), Upton (RF), Reynolds (3B), Snyder (C), Drew (SS), Scherzer (P)