The Phillies face off against the Pittsburgh Pirates in an all Pennsylvania series this weekend at Citizen’s Bank Park. The Phils come in looking to make up some ground after struggling this week against the Florida Marlins, losing two games, including being shutout on Thursday.

They currently sit one and a half games up on the second place Marlins, and two games ahead of the New York Mets, who won two out of three against the last place San Diego Padres.

The Pirates currently sit one game out of last place in the National League Central with a record of 52-62, whereas the Phillies have the opposite record at 62-52.

The series starts off Friday night with Joe Blanton (6-12, 4.94) going against Paul Manholm (7-7, 3.95) of the Pirates. Manholm has been the Pirates’ best pitcher this season, and has put together an impressive string of outings in the past couple months. That is with the exception of his last time out, in which he allowed five runs on eight hits in six innings. Prior to that, Manholm had given up more than three runs in a game only once in his previous eight outings.

Blanton seems to be settling right in with his new team, getting his first win his last time out by going seven innings and giving up only one run on four hits against a red hot St. Louis Cardinals team. At the time, the Cards featured five hitters with batting averages over .300.

Saturday’s game features two top flight pitchers who have had their share of struggles this season in Brett Myers (4-9, 5.34) and Ian Snell (4-8, 6.14). Snell allowed four runs in four innings in his last start. He suffered some lower back stiffness, but it is not expected to keep him out of Saturday’s start. He has gone four or fewer innings eight times this season and is 3-2 with a 4.50 ERA in five career starts against the Phillies.

Myers is another Phillies starter who seems to have found his touch, improving greatly since voluntarily going down to Triple-A last month. His last time out he went six innings and gave up only two runs against the Cardinals. He allowed four hits and struck out three, but most importantly he did not allow a walk or a home run. Control has been a major problem for the former ace this year and it is a key to his success.

Sunday’s series finale is a 1:35 PM game that pits the oldest player in the league in Jamie Moyer (10-7. 3.78) against a kid making his first start of the season in Jason Davis (1-1, 2.57). Davis is the latest in a revolving door of fifth starters in the rotation. He was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis in late July to provide some bullpen relief for the Bucs.

Moyer was a victim of the Phillies’ recent embarrassing inability to score runs when he got his career loss to the Marlins. Coming into Tuesday’s game against Florida, Moyer was 10-0 in 10 career starts against the Fish. He gave up just two runs despite throwing almost 90 pitches by the fourth inning. Moyer has not allowed more than three runs in a game since June 1 of this year.

The Phillies currently sit in first place in the National League East simply because the Marlins and Mets are even worse than they are. I believe that they Phillies will ultimately win the division, but not because I have any great faith in them, but because I have even less faith in their rivals.

This team is way too inconsistent and does not deserve to make the playoffs at this point. They were essentially shutout in both of their losses against the Marlins this week, since the two runs they scored on Tuesday were due to umpire error, not offensive skill. They were shutout Thursday by a pitcher who was making just his fifth career start and had just gotten his first win his last time out.

This team needs to pick it up, and they need to start this weekend against a seriously inferior Pirates team.