Philadelphia @ New York preview
Citi Field
Last Meeting ( Sep 11, 2010 ) Philadelphia 3, NY Mets 4
Roy Oswalt stumbled out of the blocks in his debut with the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30.
Six weeks and several wins later, Oswalt and the Phillies have been uninterrupted in their race toward the finish line.
Philadelphia (82-61) will vie for its eighth straight win with Oswalt on the hill in Sunday's series finale against the New York Mets (70-72) at Citi Field.
Acquired from the Houston Astros for left-hander J.A. Happ and a pair of prospects, Oswalt struggled in his initial outing with his new team. A lackluster 5-0 setback to the lowly Washington Nationals admittedly wasn't pretty, but the 33-year-old right-hander has cleaned himself up quite nicely since then.
Oswalt posted a 5-0 mark with a rail-thin 1.85 ERA in his subsequent next seven starts. Even last Monday's outing in which he permitted four runs and six hits in seven innings to Florida Marlins resulted in a win.
Those seven victories have helped the Phillies gain momentum and rise to the top of the division.
The three-time defending NL East champions are tied with the Atlanta Braves (82-61), who recorded a 6-3 victory in 12 innings over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday afternoon. The Phillies and Braves also hold a two-game lead over the San Francisco Giants (80-63) in the race for the wild card.
Although virtually eliminated from postseason contention, the Mets proved to be a thorn in the side to their arch-rivals by handing the Phillies a 4-3 loss on Saturday.
Rookie Ike Davis had four hits and drove in three and Jose Reyes belted a solo homer for New York, which snapped Philadelphia's winning streak at four games.
Mike Pelfrey tossed 7 1/3 strong innings to notch his career-best 14th victory.
Jonathon Niese (9-7, 3.85 ERA) will look to follow in his footsteps on Sunday. The left-hander snapped his own three-game losing skid by being the beneficiary of an offensive outburst in the Mets' 18-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs last Sunday.
Sure, Niese permitted five runs over six innings in the contest - but an 18-run backing tends to cure all that ails you.
Niese has fared well against the Phillies this season, posting a 1-0 mark with a 1.29 ERA in two outings.
And if he needed some more good news, Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins may continue to play the spectator's role in dugout.
The three-time All-Star sat out the first two games of this series with tightness in his right hamstring. Rollins suffered the injury during Wednesday's triumph over the Marlins.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has said repeatedly that there is no guarantee that Rollins would play on Sunday.