Battle Of Aces At Sun Life Tuesday Night
MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – The Florida Marlins will look to bounce back from a series-opening loss to the NL East leading Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday night by sending ace Josh Johnson out to try and shut down the Phillies bats.
Johnson is 3-1 on the season and is himself trying to bounce back from his first loss of the season. Johnson saw his ERA jump from 0.88 to 1.68 after his first loss of the season in his last outing.
The Marlins and Johnson will have quite a task on their hands though because the Phillies will send out their ace, Roy Halladay to match Johnson pitch for pitch.
And don't think the Marlins have forgotten about the last time Halladay pitched in Sun Life Stadium. It was last May when Halladay, the reigning NL Cy Young award winner, threw a perfect game against the Marlins.
Still, the Phillies have an immense amount of respect for the Marlins ace. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said he considers Johnson an elite pitcher.
"He's a big talent," Manuel said, according to MLB.com. "Good command with those pitches. The stuff he has, the fastball he's got, to command it like he does? It's pretty good."
And for Johnson, he wants to emulate Halladay and their relationship started last season at the All-Star game. Johnson said he asked Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee if Halladay would mind if he watched the ace's between-starts bullpen. Halladay said yes, and the two talked at the Midsummer Classic.
"That's the guy I was like a little brother to him," Johnson told MLB.com. "I was following him around, trying to pick his brain about what he does after starts, in-between starts, stuff like that. The little things I've kind of added into my routine, that will help in the long run."
Tuesday night, Johnson gets to show Halladay just how much he's learned. The Marlins hope more than 11,000 fans will show up tonight to watch the battle of aces.
