April 21 -- ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

DENVER -- Greetings from the Mile High City.

In addition to being one of my favorite stops in the National League (very underrated among East Coast folks who so rarely come out this way), Denver is, of course, where the Phillies' brief playoff run came to a close last October with a Game 3 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field. I'm sure last night's sweep-averting 5-4 win over the Mets made the overnight flight more pleasant for the Phils, who will send Kyle Kendrick to the mound tonight.

A little about Denver: Coors Field is located in the LoDo (lower downtown) section of town, and there are plenty of good restaurants nearby. If you're ever here, check out this place, or this one, or even this one. But if you eat here, make sure you bring your appetite. Not far from LoDo, you'll find 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian nirvana with plenty of restaurants and shops.

The Rockies were the talk of the town last autumn, winning 14 of their last 15 regular-season games, including that thrilling play-in game against the Padres to capture the NL wild-card berth (still waiting for Matt Holliday to touch the plate, by the way). Then, they swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks to advance to the World Series, where they were ousted by the Red Sox. But, like the Phillies, the Rockies are off to a slow start in 2008, taking a 9-9 record into tonight's game. Here's a preview of what you'll see over the next two days.

PHILLIES (9-10) at ROCKIES (9-9)
Tonight, 8:35: RHP Kyle Kendrick (1-2, 4.40) vs. LHP Mark Redman (2-1, 4.60)
Tuesday, 8:35: RHP Brett Myers (2-1, 3.96) vs. LHP Jeff Francis (0-2, 5.89)
Hot: Phillies 2B Chase Utley is 8-for-16 (.500) with five homers and eight RBIs in the last four games; Phillies C Chris Coste has six hits in his last 10 at-bats; Rockies LF Matt Holliday (right) is 13-for-34 (.382) in the last eight games; Rockies 2B Clint Barmes has started four of the past five games and is 8-for-25 (.320) during that span.
Not: Phillies 1B Ryan Howard has one hit and seven strikeouts in his last 14 at-bats; Phillies C Carlos Ruiz has two hits in his last 14 at-bats; Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki is 6-for-41 (.146) in his last nine games; Rockies C Yorvit Torrealba, who batted .389 against the Phillies last season, has four hits in his last 21 at-bats.

More later from the ballpark.