Colorado @ Philadelphia preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 24, 2010 ) Colorado 2, Philadelphia 10

If the past two games are any indication, the Philadelphia Phillies have turned the corner from the offensive woes that prompted them to change hitting coaches, while the Colorado Rockies must be wondering what happened to the Phillies' struggling lineup.

Philadelphia will look for its third consecutive win against the Rockies and its fourth in a row overall when the four-game series continues Sunday at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies pounded Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez on Saturday, chasing him in the third inning of their 10-2 victory, and they've had 11 or more hits in each of their past three games.

Since firing hitting coach Milt Thompson after Thursday's 2-0 win at St. Louis and replacing him with Greg Gross, the Phillies have pounded 23 hits and scored 16 runs in the first two games against Colorado.

They've hurt the Rockies with big innings, scoring five in the fifth frame in Friday's 6-0 win and blowing up for seven in the third inning Saturday. Ryan Howard's three-run triple and Jimmy Rollins' two-run triple were the key hits in Saturday's outburst, and Raul Ibanez added a two-run homer later in the game, giving him five RBIs in the first two games of the series.

The Phillies will try to continue the offensive resurgence against 29-year-old left-hander Jeff Francis, who is 1-1 with a 7.59 ERA in four career starts against them.

Once the Rockies' ace, Francis missed all of 2009 and the first six weeks of this season with injuries.

His comeback has been marked by inconsistency, but Francis (3-3, 4.63 ERA) turned in his best performance of the season Tuesday at Florida, holding the Marlins to three hits over seven scoreless innings in a 10-0 win. He struck out a season-high seven and didn't issue a walk.

While the focus has been on the Phillies' offense for the past few days, their pitching staff has been dominant during their three-game winning streak, allowing a total of two runs.

They hope 27-year-old left-hander J.A. Happ can continue that trend when he makes his first major-league start in more than three months.

Happ made only two starts this season before he was sidelined with a strained left elbow, and he has faced a long road back from that injury. After his rehab assignment expired, Happ was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, where he went 0-1 with a 4.54 ERA in five appearances (four starts) and threw three scoreless innings Tuesday at Indianapolis.

Jamie Moyer's strained left elbow landed him on the disabled list and forced the Phillies' to make a move, and Happ finds himself back in the rotation hoping to pick up where he left off before the injury.

Happ (1-0, 0.00 ERA) allowed just one unearned run over 10 1/3 innings in his two major-league starts in April, though he did issue six walks in his last start for the Phillies on April 15 against Washington.

In two regular-season appearances against Colorado, Happ has thrown 11 1/3 scoreless innings, including a four-hit shutout at Citizens Bank Park last August 5 in which he struck out 10.