Atlanta, fresh off of a 3-game sweep of the Washington Nationals, makes its inaugural trip to Philadelphia in 2014 and takes on the Phillies this evening at 7:05 PM ET on Fox Sports South and ESPN. Ervin Santana will pitch for the Braves as he attempts to build on a strong debut last Monday, and the pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernández) will take the mound for Philly.
Ervin Santana, who tossed up a masterful 8 innings of shutout ball with 6 strikeouts and zero walks, will start on the mound for Atlanta today. Chris Johnson will give way to Ramiro Peña at 3rd base today, as Fredi González has decided to give the sputtering third sacker another day of rest. This pushes last week's NL Player of the Month Justin Upton into the cleanup spot, and all of the other regulars who normally bat behind Johnson in the 4-hole will slide up one spot in the order.
Ben Revere remains sidelined for the Phillies due to sore ribs. Tony Gwynn Jr. will play center field and bat leadoff in his absence. Otherwise, the Phillies are at full strength, and are led by sizzling-hot second baseman Chase Utley, who leads the Major Leagues in fWAR with 1.5 (Justin Upton is 2nd with 1.2) and wRC+ with 287 (another Brave, Freddie Freeman, is 2nd with 255). Roberto Hernández, the former Cleveland Indian and Tampa Bay Ray, takes the ball for the Phillies this evening, and has struck out 14 batters while walking just 2 in 10.1 innings of work on the young season.
Talk about the game below. And just for fun, here's the world's greatest .gif: