Series Preview: Braves vs Phillies
These types of previews are always hard.
The Braves faced off against the Phillies just 10 days ago, where they were swept. Not much has changed for either team since then.
The Braves split a series against the Nationals, which was a bit disappointing for the team, but they rebounded to take 2 of 3 from the Astros. the Phillies rode their sweep right into town against St. Louis, taking the first two of the series before flaming out and splitting that series and the following series against the Marlins.
While most of the breakdown of the current Phillies roster can be found here, lets take a look at the similarities and differences of the Phillies this series and last weeks series.
- Cole Hamels will not be pitching! It was a marathon 13 inning game that ended very badly for the Braves, but lets not forget that Cole Hamels started the first game of last weeks series with 7 shutout innings of 5 hit ball. Hamels has owned the Braves in his career, and it is a sigh of relief that he will not e starting any of these next 4 games.
- Unfortunately, NL East slayer Kyle Kendrick will kick off this weekend series. As previously noted, Kendrick seems to struggle against most everyone but his rivals, including the Braves, who he threw a quality start against last time around (7 IP, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K). Getting to Kendrick will be the toughest part of this series, but maybe Fredi Gonzalez‘s new lineups will fare better?
- Antonio Bastardo has had some ups and downs against the Braves in his career, but his performance against the Braves last week was nothing short of great. Bastardo threw 3 shutout innings over two games, earning the win in that 13 inning game. That brings him up to 4 shutout innings on the year versus Atlanta, featuring just 2 hits and 4 strikeouts alongside no walks. Good news is that Bastardo could potentially be unavailable tonight, having thrown 2 straight days and 3 of the last 4. If we can’t get to Kendrick, the weak Phillies bullpen is the place to start.
- Chase Ultey has been the Phillies most dangerous hitter this season, including a .304/.360/.348 line in 6 games against the BRaves this season, but Utley has cooled off as of late. Ultey has hit just .235/.298/.353 in the past two weeks, and only .242/.301/.330 for the month of June.
- The Braves get a chance to spin the wheel against the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona. Roberto Hernandez has been pretty awful this year, but lucked into a win last time around.
- Atlanta also gets to touch off against Sean O’Sullivan, who currently sports a 5.89 ERA in 218 innngs in the bigs. Yikes.
Game 1:
7:05 PM EST, Friday, June 27th
Probables: Julio Teheran (6-5, 2.41 ERA) vs Kyle Kendrick (3-7, 4.20 ERA)
Game 2:
2:05 PM EST, Saturday, June 28th
Probables: Ervin Santana (5-5, 4.15 ERA) vs Roberto Hernandez (3-6, 4.41 ERA)
Game 3:
7:15 PM EST, Saturday, June 28th
Probables: David Hale (2-2, 3.14 ERA) vs Sean O’Sullivan (1-2, 6.92 ERA)
Game 4:
1:35 PM EST, Sunday, June 29th
Probables: Aaron Harang (6-6, 3.78 ERA) vs David Buchanan (4-3, 4.79 ERA)