Coming into this season, the Phillies vaunted "big four" starting pitchers were supposed to be Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt. Now, it seems that Vance Worley (11-1, 2.85) has worked his way into that discussion ahead of Roy Oswalt. Worley has been absolutely fantastic in 18 starts this season (20 total appearances, compiling a sub 3.00 ERA, a 3.26 FIP and a 3.67 xFIP. In one less inning, Worley has been worth 0.2 fWAR more than Oswalt this year. He's striking out nearly eight batters per nine innings and is walking fewer than three. He also isn't home run prone. He hasn't been pitching quite as well recently, though, as he has a 4.38 ERA in his last seven games and is averaging just 5.5 innings per game over that span.
The right handed Worley has been fantastic against southpaw hitters this year, allowing a .213/.280/.304 line to them. Against righties, he's allowing a .246/.304/.417 line. He's also been much worse on the road than at home. In Philadelphia, he has a 2.07 ERA. Outside of Philly, that jumps to a 3.83 ERA.
Worley throws a 90 MPH four seamer, a 90 MPH cutter, an 85 MPH slider, an 84 MPH changeup, a 90 MPH two seamer, and will also occasionally work in a 76 MPH curveball. The only pitch that fangraphs has at a negative value is his changeup, and that is barely below average.
Only one Brewer has ever seen Worley: In two PA, Jerry Hairston has failed to reach base.
For the Brewers today, Yovani Gallardo (15-10, 3.71) will be taking the mound. This will be his 31st start of the year, tying 2010 for the most he's had in a season. He already is 1.1 innings over his previous career high in innings pitched, set in 2009. A couple long starts would put him over 200 innings for the first time in his career. Gallardo hasn't been particularly great recently, giving up a combined 11 earned runs in 10.2 innings over his last two starts. He had a 1.71 ERA in his seven starts prior to that, though, so hopefully today he will turn it right back around.
The only Phillies hitter to have faced Gallardo at least ten times is Hunter Pence, who has a .240/.296/.360 line against Yo in 27 PA.
A beautiful lineup:
Hart 9
Morgan 8
Braun 7
Fielder 3
Weeks 4
Green 5
Betancourt 8
Lucroy 2
Gallardo 1
In the Bullpen:
Michael Fiers hasn't pitched in the majors yet.
Frankie de la Cruz pitched 1 inning (34 pitches) Thursday.
Marco Estrada pitched 1 inning (21 pitches) Thursday.
Tim Dillard pitched 1.1 innings (23 pitches) Thursday.
Takashi Saito pitched .1 inning (13 pitches) Friday.
Kameron Loe pitched 1 inning (12 pitches) Friday.
Francisco Rodriguez pitched 1 inning (10 pitches) Friday and 1 inning (25 pitches) last night.
John Axford pitched 1 inning (17 pitches) last night.
LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1 inning (14 pitches) last night.