My Fellow Phans,
Our Phillies are riding on a 3-game winning streak. After a miserable series against the Giants, the offense bounced back, Hunter Pence was acquired and the Phillies went on to sweep the upstart Pirates. I apologize for the lack of preview for the Giants series, I was down the shore last weekend and barely got any chance to get online.
Pence is top notch talent and will help this team much more than anybody can imagine right now.
The Phillies are leaving the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park and venturing onto a big 10 West Coast road trip through Colorado, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
West coast trips are always tough and this one is no different. The Phillies could win a bunch of games on this trip, but let’s let the games play out before we make any bold predictions…First stop: Coors Field in Colorado.
Phillies (68-39; 1st – NL East) vs. Rockies (51-57; 3rd – NL West):
(All Game times are in EST)
Monday, August 1:
8:40pm @ Coors Field – CSN
Cole Hamels (12-6 2.61) vs. Jhoulys Chacin (8-8 3.50)
Tuesday, August 2:
8:40pm @ Coors Field – CSN
Kyle Kendrick (5-5 3.52) vs. Aaron Cook (2-5 5.05)
Wednesday, August 3:
3:10pm @ Coors Field – CSN
Roy Halladay (13-4 2.44) vs. Jason Hammel (6-10 4.65)
Breakdown:
The Phillies are facing a couple familiar foes this series.
Chacin pitched back when the Rockies came to Citizens Bank Park. He surrendered just a single run in 7 strong innings in a winning effort against the Phillies. He pitched against Kyle Kendick, who gave up 5 runs in 3 innings. The Phillies lost the game, 7-1. Chacin leads the Rockies in Wins, ERA, Innings, and Strikeouts. With Ubaldo Jimenez gone, this guy is essentially the ace of the staff.
Remember Aaron Cook? - We haven’t face Cook in awhile although from what I remember about him, he always pitches well against the Phillies. His career stats beg to differ: (1-6 6.05 ERA). I still remember him pitching a 1-0 game against Brett Myers. If I recall correctly Ryan Howard hit a solo homer off of Cook for the lone run…So after mentioning the game, I decided to look it up and I was dead on. Here is the box score of Cook' best start against the Phillies.
The Rockies have a solid offense having scored the 5th most runs in the National League. Our aces will look to put a stop to that. They bring with them, the best power hitting shortstop in baseball with Troy Tulowitski and a perennial 5-tool star in outfielder Carlos Gonzalez. Don’t forget to look out for first baseman, and future HOFer, at least in my book, Todd Helton. He’s having yet another good season.
They are a good team on their home field at Colorado. The Phillies will need to be on their toes to win this series.
Analysis:
The last time the Phillies played the Rockies, they scored just 3 runs in a brief 2 game series in Philadelphia.
I think they will score more than 1.5 runs a game this series. Right now, the Phillies are in a groove. Pence was a bow put on a lineup that showed some serious life last month.
If the lineup continues to produce, the Phillies will easily win this series. If not, it will be a dogfight through these next three games against the Rockies.
The Phillies need to concentrate on the Rockies before their big 4-game series with the Giants starts. Just because the Rockies are a sub-500 team, it doesn’t make them a bad team. They are just a talented bunch that came under some hard times this season.
I think they win this series.
Until we meet again Phillies fans; Happy Reading and Go Phillies
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