Five For Five: A Mets/Phillies Series Preview With Whole Camels Of The Good Phight

It's Amazin' Avenue Five For Five time, everybody! Memorial Day weekend may have pushed us back a day but late and slightly abbreviated is better than nothing. The Mets and Phillies play game two tonight at Citi Field and once again, Whole Camels of SB Nation's The Good Phight was kind enough to give us some insight into where the Phillies sit at the moment.

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SS: Roy Halladay left his last start with a sore shoulder and he's scheduled to get it examined on Tuesday. If he were to potentially miss some starts, who do you think would take over his spot?

WC: Probably journeyman Dave Bush, who has put up some pretty nice numbers for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The most obvious "prospecty" options aren't so promising -- Tyler Cloyd is still adjusting to Triple-A, and Austin Hyatt was just demoted to Double-A Reading after posting a 7.92 ERA in five May starts for the IronPigs.

Losing Roy Halladay for more than a start or two is about as close to "worst case scenario" as the team can get, so it's crossy-fingers time.

SS: The last time the Mets and Phillies squared off, the Phils bullpen was a mess but I see a few new names in there. How has the pen pitched over the last few weeks with the new additions?

WC: Better, but it'd be hard to be much worse than they were. Much of the improvement comes from Jose Contreras settling in having some good outings. Antonio Bastardo is in a decent groove, and Jonathan Papelbon has been as advertised.

"New guy" Raul Valdes has been unsustainably great, but 10 strikeouts and one walk in seven innings will get the job done under any circumstances.

SS: Jimmy Rollins continues to struggle, sitting at a paltry .224/.282/.276 coming into Tuesday's game. Having watched him play, do you have any theories as to what has caused his early struggles and the disappearance of his power?

WC: No idea, really, although there have been some signs that he might snap out of it soon. No matter how we slice the numbers at this point we're still in small sample size territory, but it's more than a little disconcerting for your recently extended shortstop to get off to a start like this. In good news, his fielding remains consistently excellent, which is something that we know Freddy Galvis could never provide, oh wait.

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Thanks again to Whole Camels of The Good Phight! First pitch tonight is at 7:10 PM and the pitching matchup will feature Jeremy Hefner facing off against Joe Blanton.