My Fellow Phans,
Our beloved Phillies hit the road for the first time tonight when they help open up Turner Field down in Atlanta.
Here at the pitching matchups for the series:
Tonight (7:35) - Cliff Lee (1-0 3.86 ERA) vs. Tim Hudson (1-0 1.29 ERA)
Saturday (1:10) - Roy Oswalt (1-0 3.00 ERA) vs. Brandon Beachy (0-0 1.50 ERA)
Sunday (1:35) -Cole Hamels (0-1 20.25 ERA) vs. Derek Lowe (1-1 0.77 ERA)
Braves Outlook:
So far this season, it has been the Braves’ pitching that has been the standout part of the team. They have the 4th best ERA in the Major Leagues thus far this season at 2.75. The three starters that they are going to throw at the Phillies this weekend are no flukes. Hudson and Lowe are established starters and Beachy is a stud prospect finding much success in the big leagues. Their bullpen appears to be just as strong as their rotation.
Offensively, they rank in the mid 20s in terms of batting average, on-base percentage, as well as slugging percentage. This is not to say that they don’t have plenty of capable hitters in that order. Heyward, McCann, Jones and Uggla are all above average hitters offensively and could provide some problems for the Phillies pitching.
Who’s Hot: Catcher Brian McCann has started this season out on an impressive .423 clip while veteran third baseman Chipper Jones is hitting .320. Young superstar Jason Heyward leads the team in homers with tied; tied with Dan Uggla for that honor…Derek Lowe has been all but unhittable this season allowing just a single earned run in 11.2 innings.
Who’s Not: Tommy Hanson has had a pair of ugly starts so far this season pitching to a 6.00… Offensively, the only Brave hitters with an average above .250 are McCann and Jones.
Phillies Outlook:
Although, the Phillies’ rotation is getting all the headlines, the Phillies’ offense is what has been the real story of this team thus far. The Phillies league the majors in batting average, are tied for 2nd in runs score and are second in hits overall. This series is going to be an interesting one since it was providing one of the hottest starting staffs against one of the hottest hitting lineups right now.
The Phillies’ pitching hasn’t been unhittable this year, but it has been good enough for the Club to win 5 of 6 games. I think the question mark of this series will be what happens with Cole Hamels. After, one of his worst starts of his career, it will be curious to see how he can bounce back. I think he’ll be fine and we should see three solid pitching performances from both teams this series.
Who’s Hot: Ryan Howard has led the way for the Phillies hitting .480 with a pair of home runs and 8 RBIs this season. Placido Polanco and Wilson Valdez are hitting over .400 on the season. Jimmy Rollins (.375), Ben Francisco (.320) and Raul Ibanez (.304) round out the group of 6 Phillie starters hitting over .300 so far this season…Danys Baez has seemed to taken a 180 degree turn from last year as he has thrown 4 scoreless innings so far this season.
Who’s Not: Carlos Ruiz has struggled at the plate thus far this season with a .176 clip… After a rough opening start by each, Hamels and Joe Blanton (14.54) both have double digit ERAs.
Prediction:
I think the Phillies take 2 of 3 from Atlanta in this series. All 3 games will be close and low scoring, but the Phillies current offensive hot streak should help them eek out a couple late victories and earn the series win. This is a huge series for both teams, both of whom people are predicting to make a run at the National League East title this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment