The Phillies will play a critical series with the Atlanta Braves before heading into the All-Star break. Here is a preview of the pitching matchups.
Friday: Brandon Beachy (3-1, 3.23 ERA) vs Roy Halladay (11-3, 2.44 ERA)
Halladay has been nothing short of spectacular against division foes since joining the Phillies. Against the Braves, he has a 4-1 record with a 1.65 ERA in five starts. He has thrown a complete game in each of his last two starts, giving up a total of four earned runs in his last two games. He faced the Braves earlier this season, pitching eight innings and allowing three runs, but didn’t receive run support in the game and took the loss.
Beachy has been part of an excellent rotation for the Braves. He’s only received three winning decisions, but he’s pitched well enough to have at least a few more. He has spent some time on the disabled list this season, but is back healthy. He had a short start in his last outing against the Orioles, giving up three runs in five innings. The righthander has made four starts against the Phillies in his young career, and has yet to meet with success, sporting an 0-3 record with an ERA of 5.00.
Advantage: Roy Halladay
Hallday typically dominates against the N.L. East, and Beachy has gotten hit around by the Phillies before. The Phillies offense has hit a little better over the last week, which is bad news for Beachy.
Saturday: Tommy Hanson (10-4, 2.52 ERA) vs Cliff Lee (9-6, 2.92 ERA)
Lee finally cooled off after pitching three consecutive shutouts, and allowed 6 earned runs against Toronto in his last start. The lefty has made two starts against Atlanta this season. In his first start, he didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, and gave up six runs on 10 hits. His second start went much better, and he gave up just three runs over seven innings. In his career, he is just 1-3 against the Braves with an ERA of 6.15 in five starts.
Hanson is having a good season for the Braves. He doesn’t give up many runs, but he also doesn’t go that deep into games. He’s only lasted more than six innings in six of his 16 starts. He hasn’t faced the Phillies yet this season, and has a 1-2 record with 2.45 ERA in six career starts against them.
Advantage: Cliff Lee
The advantage in this matchup could go either way. Lee has been a streaky pitcher in his career, and coming off of a bad start will face a team that he has struggled heavily against in his career. However, Lee gets to make this start against the Braves in Philadelphia, where he is 7-1 with a 1.66 ERA this season. I believe Lee will feed off of the home crowd in a big game against the 2nd place Braves and come up with a good performance.
Sunday: Derek Lowe (5-6, 4.21 ERA) vs Cole Hamels (10-4, 2.40 ERA)
Hamels finally secured his 10th win of the season after going winless in his three previous starts. He pitched a strong, eight inning, two-run game against Marlins. The two-time All-Star has generally performed very well against the Braves throughout his career. His record is 10-6, with a 3.83 ERA in 22 starts. He’s faced them three times this season, and given up seven runs in 20 innings against them.
While he has been unspectacular in three years with the Braves, Lowe is a pitcher that has always frustrated the Phillies over the years. He is 8-5 against them in his career with a 2.99 ERA. Two of his best starts this season have come against the Phillies, allowing just two runs over 13 innings in two starts. He has struggled in his last three outings, allowing nine runs in 17 innings.
Advantage: Cole Hamels
Hamels is performing at such a high level, and has been exceptional against the Braves. Lowe is a below average pitcher that has enjoyed success against the Phillies throughout his career, but I have to believe that his successful run against them will end sooner or later.
Should be a great Series and tightly played games as they usually have versus the Braves. Phils catch a little break by not having to face the best 2 Pitchers from Atlanta’s staff in J Jurrgens and Tim Hudson, but in the end, these games will most likely come down to the 8th/9th Innings and the Bullpens..
The Braves strength is their Bullpen where they have 4-5 Quality arms that have simply shut opponents down .. 3 Quality Lefties in G Sherrill,
Ed O’Flaherty and M Venters and then tough Righty’s in Linebrink and Closer Kimbrell
The Phils need to jump on these Starters and get some runs early to take some pressure off their own Bullpen which is a little thin right now..
Gonna have to hit, because the Braves have been scoring runs lately. McCann has been unconscious and Uggle is actually starting to hit. There are also getting big contributions from Heyward and Freeman. Gonna be a tough series.
*In my Dick Vitale voice*
THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT!!!
PLAYOFF ATMOSPHERE!!!
DIVISION RIVALS!!!
ITS GONNA BE A SLUGFEST TONIGHT BABYYYYYY!!!
phils two out of three, maybe sweep, this starts the tomahawk fade, don’t root to hard for the braves paulman, this series will prove you wrong about the braves and the phils, the best team in baseball, in the end an epic team, one for the ages, go phils
I will be rooting for my favorite team (the Phils) and I do think they should win 2 of 3 (especially since they will not be facing the 2 Top Braves Pitchers in Jurgens and Hudson who they usually struggle against)
Braves 1B Freeman is putting together a nice season and reminds me a little of a young M Texiera and will be a good player for years to come.. Uggla killed the Phils when he was with Florida and typically hits well at Citizens Bank Park as does Catcher McCann… This Braves team is a good all around team and are not intimidated coming into Philly to play the PHils and over the last 4 Season, actually have a winning record vs the Phils in head to head play..
For the Phils look for Howard and Ruiz to have a big Series, (Ruiz has played some of his best ball vs the Braves in the past)
hahaha my boy jake
Jake, one down two to go. Go easy on Paul, he was sitting by the TV with his mini tomahawk & Braves foam finger, crying after Ibanez’s HR.
Hey Paul, WHOOOA OHH WHOOOA!!
BWAHAHA!!! LMFBO!!! Just messing with Paisano.
Great game last evening, Both teams had some opportunities to put more runs on the board.. Doc stuggled a little bit with location early on and was getting hit but settled in midway thru and was keeping the ball down and mowed them down after that.. What can you say about Stutes/Bastardo and Perez.. What I like about these young Pitchers is that they don’t appear to waste pitches, they throw strikes,come after the batters and are around the strike zone really putting batters on the Defensive… Keep it up… and what a shot by Ibanez.. As I stated, these games will be won in the late innings and would not be surprised to see more extra-innings games.. Go Phils..
Another nailbiter and playoff type of game as I expected..
Phils had more to get some runs and failed to get any clutch hits versus that Braves Bullpen.. Can Rollins ever get a hit when there are baserunners on…
D Brown had a real chance to be a hero and failed in the bottom of the 9th Or 10th
For the umpteenth time, anyone who thinks Phils are so great and strong that they will run aweay with the NFC is not a true Baseball fan, This Braves team is built to win with experience and youth and when they get a heatlhy Martin Prado back & C Jones back and get any consistent contributions from RF Heyward and 2B Uggla, they will have a much more dangerous line-up than the Phils will possess, no doubt and with a better all-around Pitching Staff from top to bottom, they will beat out the Phils.. Teams with strong Left-HAnded Relievers give the Phils the most problems… Teams like Braves,SF Giants and Reds are loaded with good left-handed relievers.. Phils cannot counter since they are really short in quality Right-Hand Batters..
Phils lost one to the braves and the pied piper of negativity comes out and says the same damn bs, phils can’t win, the line up is lite, etc., don’t worry paulman, I guess we won’t be hearing from you today after the phils defeat your vaulted braves and take two of three
We’ll see and I am not so sure about that JAkedog,
D Lowe PItches well in BIg Games and the Braves have the momentum, should be a good game and hope HAmels is in top form (Uggla has had success agaisnt him in the past) Bottom line is the Phils are not going to win too many games averaging 1.5 Runs a game and I don’t care who the Starters are for they eventually will be coming of games and then it’s up to the Bullpen Time and Situational Hitting and when the Phils get behind a couple of runs, then they are in real trouble without the Power Hitting/Home Runs like they used to get
Sorry Paul, the Phils will surprise us all 2day, & put up a 5 spot.
5-2 Phils. Hamels 8 strong, another save for “The Bastard”.
Make some moves over the All Star break, Amaro!!! Go Phils!!!
DAAAAMN! What a bludgeoning blood bath! 14 runs, 20 hits, 8 strong for Hamels. Way better than my prediction of 5-2, 8 strong for Hamels. BTW, if Amaro doesn’t get rid of Francisco & play Mayberry more, he needs to get fired. He should have never been sent down to begin with. Francisco sucks elephant ba!!$. If your going to keep Brown, platoon him with Mayberry, when Victorino returns.
Paulman now goes into hiding until the next phillies loss.
hahah jake clearly paulman undercover philly hater
Paul, Paul, HELLOOOO! Is this thing on?
Paul, just burned his mini tomahawk & Braves foam finger.
LMFBO!! Just messing with ya Paul. 😀
Go Phils!
where the hell have you been mr. pw, paul up to his old tricks, when the philly teams win, its “great win”, when they lose then paulman is all anayltical, i told you so prick, man how about mayberry jr, i wish they keep him up, he can rake, i aml on board for this team, this season, awesome to be a phillies fan right now, screw you paulman
hey dd, care to change your opinion about mayberry jr?
The Phils proved today that no team can compete with them in a series. The Phils have scored 28 runs in Cole’s last two starts! HOLY ISH!
Who say the Phils fan doing the tomahawk in the 7th? LMAO. They were mocking Paulman and his fake Phillies fandom. Choke on it Phils-haters
You know what else is funny? Cole should have like 15 wins right now.
Phils and Braves have split their 12 games thus far this Season with 6 Wins each. It was great to see the entire Phils line-up getting into the action..
Hamels has pitched Great all Season and has been more dominant than Halladay so far this Season and more consistent than Lee..
Jake, it is only one game, don’t get carried away. He has proven nothing. I agree about one thing though, he needs to be given more playing time, because he is a very solid DF outfielder. I also said he should have never been sent down in the first place, Franstinko needed to go. Everybody, I still think Brown stinks & Mayberry should platoon with him when Victorino comes back. None of these guys are going to be really good in the long run. But I will be willing to be proven wrong, if they help us win a World Series.
I’m trying to be more positive, because love the Phils. But I do not wave pom poms around, like alot of people on here & ignore the things that I see, that are wrong & need to be fixed. These guys (Mayberry & Brown) are young but are nothing special. I do not give all chunked up & look through red pinstripe blinders. But I agree I do get too fired up sometimes.
I’m trying boys, I’m trying. Can’t argue 1st place, at the break.
Go Phils!!!
Birdo, Cole, Lee & Halladay all should have 13-15 wins. Absolutely no run support. Lee went 5 games in a row, I believe, getting 1 or less runs in support. Hamels hasn’t gotten run support in three years. He should have won 20 games last year too. This offense needs to hit like today, & stop f^@king swinging for the fences. They have zero consistent power. Howard is the only viable power threat, & he is seeing probably 3 good pitches a game to hit, & he is not letting teams pay.