Philadelphia Phillies Stream of Consciousness

The Twins finished up their homestand by practicing their take-out slides at second base against Ubaldo Jimenez and the Rockies, which helped them to drop to five and four on the homestand. Next, they head to Philadelphia to take on Ryan Howard and the Phillies. I don't know much about the two-time defending NL champs, but I know I like their uniforms. Do any other professional teams make such use of that burnt-maroon color? What's that color called anyway? Regardless, I think it's great. It's a trademark color, easily identified with the team. Of the top of my head, here are the only other quintessential baseball team colors in the bigs:

Marlins = teal
That's all I can think of. You could say Dodgers branded with blue and the Reds with red, but there are tons of pro teams that use those generic colors. I guess there are even a bunch that use teal. But there are none that use the Phillies shade of red/brown. See? It doesn't even have a name.


Anyway, the Phillies are 34-30 headed into the weekend, trailing Atlanta and New York. Notice that? The Twins get to play the top three teams in the NL East. Maybe the AL Central and the Twins will finally gain some respect once they turn them into mince-meat. It would be a real black eye if they failed to do so.... And they're off to a nice start after losing two of three to the Braves last weekend. Gee-whiz.

So Roy Halladay is pitching against the Twins on Saturday. Big deal. Unlike Ubaldo Jimenez or Johan Santana, the Twins have faced Halladay many times when he was with Toronto.

Note: In eleven starts against the Twins since 2001, Halladay is 8-1 with a 2.73 ERA.

Also, Nick Punto finally gets the chance to face the team that traded him away for Eric Milton. That should provide some motivation.

Prediction: Phillies take two of three as Twins field Sunday lineup including Punto, Valencia, Plouffe, Tolbert, Harris and Butera.