New York @ Philadelphia preview
Citizens Bank Park
Last Meeting ( Apr 30, 2010 ) NY Mets 9, Philadelphia 1
One of the starting pitchers in Saturday afternoon's New York Mets-Philadelphia Phillies tilt owns the stingiest ERA in Major League Baseball.
Care to guess who it is?
Conventional wisdom would suggest it's Phillies ace Roy Halladay (4-1, 1.80 ERA), long considered a mainstay in the discussion for baseball's best hurler.
But as it stands, the answer - albeit from a relatively small sample size - is Halladay's counterpart on Saturday.
Mike Pelfrey (4-0), who is the owner of a rail-thin 0.69 ERA, will look to guide the Mets (14-9) to their ninth straight victory on Saturday. New York is enjoying its longest winning streak since posting 10 straight wins in July 2008.
Pelfrey hasn't surrendered a run since his season debut - against the Washington Nationals on April 9. Twenty-four consecutive scoreless innings have followed - in addition to a 20th-inning save against the St. Louis Cardinals.
That's a far cry from last year, when the 26-year-old right-hander was weighed down by his bulky 5.03 ERA and sent fleeing to a sports psychologist in the offseason.
Should Pelfrey keep the Phillies off the scoreboard on Saturday, he has a chance to break Jerry Koosman's franchise record for scoreless innings (31 2/3), which was set in 1973.
Pelfrey will play pitch-and-catch with Rod Barajas, who belted a pair of solo home runs and added a run-scoring double in Friday's 9-1 trouncing of the Phillies (12-10). Barajas is batting .571 with six home runs and 13 RBIs against Philadelphia in seven games since 2008.
Ironically, Barajas was Halladay's batterymate during his stint with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Halladay, who was the team's prized acquisition of the offseason, came to the City of Brotherly Love as the key cog in a three-team, eight-player blockbuster deal in December.
The 32-year-old right-hander cruised through his first four outings - all victories - and permitted only three earned runs. In his last start, however, Halladay allowed five runs in seven innings in a loss to the San Francisco Giants.
The six-time All-Star will have to silence the red-hot bats of the Mets, who belted four home runs and eight extra-base hits on Friday.
David Wright has found his stroke after a prolonged early-season slump. The Mets third baseman, who belted a two-run homer in the second inning on Friday, has hit safely in seven of his last 14 plate appearances.
Conversely, the Phillies' high-octane offense has slowed to a crawl en route to losing eight of their last 12 contests.