Marlins-Phillies rained out, no makeup date set; Johnson vs Halladay duel on Thursday

Marlins-Phillies rained out, no makeup scheduled

PHILADELPHIA — The perfect rematch will have to wait.

Rain forced postponement of Wednesday night’s game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins, pushing back one of the finer pitching matchups.

Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game the last time he faced Josh Johnson, winning 1-0 on May 29 at Miami. Johnson also was sharp, allowing only an unearned run in seven innings.

Halladay and Johnson were ready to start against each other Thursday night. No makeup date for the rainout was announced.

Florida outfielder Mike Stanton, one of baseball’s most heralded prospects, was set to face Halladay. Stanton made his major league debut Tuesday night and went 3 for 5.

Stanton was the youngest player with that many hits in his MLB debut since Danny Ainge went 3 for 4 in his first game on May 21, 1979, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Stanton was 20 years, 212 days; Ainge was 20 years, 65 days.

Wednesday night’s game was called before it began. Not in the original starting lineup for Philadelphia was right fielder Jayson Werth, benched for the second straight game and fourth time in 10 games amid a prolonged slump.

Werth was batting .336 with eight homers and 31 RBIs on May 17, with a slugging percentage of .664. While the Phillies struggled in losing 13 of the past 19 games, Werth has hit .150 with two home runs.

In explaining his reasons for sitting Werth before Tuesday’s game, manager Charlie Manuel was asked whether he thought looming free agency was weighing on Werth’s mind.

“I think something like that has to,” Manuel said then. “It has to. I definitely think that. I think everyone is like that. Even if a guy is quiet, I know it does. I know in his mind that he thinks like that. He really got off to a tremendous start and when things started going a little bad for him, he thinks about it.”

Werth was angered by the comments and said that wasn’t the case.

“I don’t think anyone can say they know what I’m thinking,” he said. “I’m playing hard every night. I’m hustling. I’m playing to win. The contract is the last thing on my mind. (The comment) bothered me. It made me sound selfish, and I’m not selfish. I play to win. I’m not worried about my contract and I never have been. At no point have I stopped hustling or playing the game the way I always do — to win.”

Manuel said Werth will play on Thursday.

“I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding,” Manuel said. “I definitely didn’t mean to say something negative. I want him to play good and to have the best season he possibly can have. I think I was talking about how good he can be and how good he is. Whatever. That’s all I got to say. I said I’m going to rest him two days. He will be in the lineup (Thursday). You can print that. He’ll be hitting fifth.”