The Phillies come in to this week’s series against the Florida Marlins two and a half games up in first place and are looking to extend that lead to a possible five and a half games.

They begin Tuesday by sending out Marlins’ killer Jamie Moyer (10-6, 3.79) to face off against Josh Johnson (1-0, 4.18). Johnson has four starts this season since coming off Tommy John surgery, and despite only having one win, the Marlins have won all four games. He got his first win his last time out when he went 6 2/3 innings, giving up four runs against the New York Mets. In his other start against the Phillies this season, Johnson gave up two runs in 6 2/3 innings, but got a no decision.

Moyer, on the other hand, has just completely filleted the Marlins in 10 career starts against them, going 10-0 with a 3.03 ERA. Not only has he factored into the decision every time out, but has gotten the win. His last time out against Florida he allowed two runs over six innings and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a game since June 1.

Wednesday night’s game is the battle of the young righties, pitting Kyle Kendrick (9-5, 4.59), age 23, against Anibal Sanchez (1-0, 3.18), age 24. Sanchez’s last time out was his first start in almost 15 months, in which he went 5 2/3 innings giving up two runs on six hits. According to the Phillies website,

Sanchez retired six of the first seven batters he faced, threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 25 hitters and left the game with the bases loaded and two outs after throwing 95 pitches — 56 for strikes. Prior to a rough sixth inning, Sanchez only allowed three runners to reach scoring position.

Kendrick is coming off his second straight quality start after facing the Nationals on Thursday. He went 6 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits. The Phillies are now 15-7 this season when Kendrick takes the mound, tops on the team. That being said, the last time Kendrick faced the Marlins he had perhaps his worst outing of his career, allowing seven runs on three home runs in 4 1/3 innings. He has since rebounded nicely, winning his next two outings.

The final game of the series is a 1:05 PM start and pits the struggling Cole Hamels (9-7, 3.37) against Chris Volstad (2-2, 3.25). Volstad has four major league starts in his career and had his worst outing to date on Friday against the Rockies. The 21-year old rookie gave up five runs in just five innings of work on eight hits. He struck out six and walked three.

Phillies’ ace Cole Hamels has had his share of troubles over the past couple weeks and has not recorded a win since July 3 against the Atlanta Braves, starting with his last start against the Marlins. Hamels actually went into the eighth in that game, and only gave up two runs, both on home runs. The second run came off a Cody Ross in the eighth inning and Hamels has looked shaky ever since.

This a pivotal series for the Phillies, as they look to put some serious distance between them and the Marlins and give themselves a little breathing room. They need to take at least two games from this series because the Mets are facing the struggling Padres and will in all likelihood win at least two of their own games and the Phillies need to do everything they can to keep some distance between them and the rest of the division.