Phils Face Penny
Philadelphia, PA – Brad Penny enjoyed his most successful seasons while pitching in the NL West. The San Francisco Giants are hoping he can regain that form and help them in the wild-card race.
Penny is scheduled to make his Giants debut Wednesday when they continue their three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
San Francisco (72-60) signed Penny on Monday, picking him up off waivers after Boston released the 31-year-old right-hander last week. Penny was 7-8 with a 5.61 ERA with the Red Sox, including 1-6 in his last 11 starts.
Oddsmakers from online sports book Sportsbook.com have made the Phillies -200 moneyline favorites for Wednesday’s game against the Giants. Current MLB Public Betting Information shows that 89% of more than 525 bets for this game have been placed on the Phillies -200.
Penny won a career-high 16 games for the Dodgers in 2006, and matched it in 2007 – making the NL All-Star team both times. He struggled with shoulder problems last year, though, and finished 6-9 with a 6.27 ERA. Los Angeles declined to pick up his option.
Penny’s last started for Boston on Aug. 21 against the Yankees. He allowed eight runs and 10 hits in four innings of a 20-11 loss.
Pitching against the NL might help him get back on track. Although Penny has been inconsistent this year, he made three respectable starts in interleague play with the Red Sox, going 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA against Florida, Washington and Atlanta. He’s 8-5 with a 3.72 ERA against the Phillies, including 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA in his last six outings against them.
Penny will look to help the Giants bounce back after they fell one game behind Colorado for the NL wild card following a 1-0 loss to Philadelphia (76-53) on Tuesday. San Francisco managed only two hits off Cole Hamels, who struck out nine in a complete-game effort.
Hamels cooled off the Giants after their weekend sweep of Colorado.
"Last weekend’s over and we have to focus on the Phillies and (Wednesday’s) game," Ryan Garko told the Giants’ official Web site.
It didn’t help that Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina were not in the starting lineup. Sandoval is bothered by a right calf injury that sidelined him for three games in the middle of last week, while Molina hasn’t started the last seven games because of a tight right quadriceps. Both pinch-hit in the ninth, but neither reached base as the Giants lost for the 11th time in their last 14 tries in Philadelphia.
The win was the 15th in 20 games for the NL East-leading Phillies, who have benefited from their starting rotation’s 2.50 ERA during that stretch.
Philadelphia first baseman Ryan Howard had two doubles Tuesday, and is batting .406 with nine extra-base hits (four doubles and five home runs) and 13 RBIs in his last eight games. He had entered this series batting .128 with three RBIs in his previous 10 games against the Giants.
The Phillies will hand the ball Wednesday to J.A. Happ (10-3, 2.63), who lost for the first time in five starts after giving up three runs in eight innings of a 3-2 defeat at Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Happ had a 1.21 ERA in his previous four outings, during which he gave up only one home run. He allowed two Thursday.
The left-hander is making his first start against the Giants.
Posted: 9/2/09 6:00AM ET
