Series Preview: Braves at Phillies

Fresh off a series loss to the Miami Marlins, the Phillies (5-11) welcome the somewhat surprising 8-7 Atlanta Braves to town for a 3-game weekend series. As a result of the series with Miami, the Phils are tied at the bottom of the NL East with the Marlins.

The Braves arrive at Citizens Bank Park after having been swept by baseball’s hottest team, the New York Mets. Atlanta still holds 2nd place in the NL East to this stage, despite most prognosticators predicting them to finish fourth.

Atlanta brings a heavy arsenal of hitters in 1st baseman Freddie Freeman (4 HR/8 RBI), outfielder Nick Markakis (.373/.467/.412), 3rd sacker Chris Johnson (.300/.371/.433), and shortstop Andrelton Simmons (.291/.339/.418) who surprisingly leads the Braves with 10 runs batted in, and who may be the best defensive player in the game today.

The Fightin Phils retaliate with Cody Asche (.333/.382/.490, 2 HR), Freddy Galvis (.314/.375/.431), and Odubel Herrera (.291/.339/.455, 7 R). Chase Utley paces the club with 9 RBI thus far, while no Phils hitter has struck more than two homeruns.

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The Braves made some national waves this past week when left-handed reliever Andrew McKirahan tested positive for Ipamorelin and was subsequently suspended 80 games under MLB’s drug program. McKirahan was selected by the Marlins in the Rule 5 draft in December, but was released and then picked up by the Braves. He’s allowed 2 runs over 4.1 innings.

Braves’ president of baseball operations, John Hart, was not pleased and commented, “We are disappointed in the decision Andrew made… We are disappointed for him and for the ball club. This was a guy who was beginning to pitch meaningful innings for us. The guys have been grinding. This was not good for the club.” McKirahan was the fifth major league player suspended for violations of the drug policy so far this season.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Aaron Harang (1-0, 1.96 ERA) v. Alex Wood (1-0, 3.93 ERA) – Harang has turned in quality start after quality start thus far. He looks to build off last week’s performance (6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 6 SO, 2 BB) and once again give the Phillies a chance to win. Wood put up a pretty similar line (6.2 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 0 SO, 2 BB) and hopes to not give up so many key late runs this time around.

Game 2: David Buchanan (0-3, 9.22 ERA) v. Shelby Miller (2-0, 1.69 ERA) – After a bad start to the season, Buchanan comes into this outing hoping to continue a more positive trend. He produced his first decent start (5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 4 SO, 3BB) in his last time out. Miller continued his stellar season with another brilliant outing (6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 6 SO, 3 BB). Having bested Toronto twice now, Miller commented, “You’ll take both of those outings against the Blue Jays at home… You’re coming into their home field, where they hit great. Coming out with a win is a positive thing.”

Game 3: Jerome Williams (1-1, 3.71) v. Trevor Cahill (0-2, 9.95 ERA) – Williams has been solid for the Phils thus far, and will attempt to repeat the results from his most recent outing (6 IP, 2 ER, 8 H, 6 SO, 1 BB). Cahill, acquired from Arizona earlier this year, hopes to last longer in this game than his mediocre last time out (4 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 SO, 1 BB).

SERIES KEYS:

Find a way to play better defense – The Phillies have the 2nd most errors in baseball and are playing pathetic defense. This is an issue we saw frequently in the Marlins series. The Phils must lock down that aspect of the game, and at least try to play fundamental baseball with the gloves this series.

Get Chase Utley Going – Utley has been a shell of himself lately. He’s been playing poor defense and was riding a one of the longest hitless streaks of his career, which had brought him down to a .109 batting average before he broke the streak on Wednesday, going 1 for 4. Regardless of his being 36 years old, Utley is still the Phillies’ most advanced hitter. Despite his struggles, he leads the club in runs batted in. With a day of rest on Thursday, all eyes will be on Utley this series as he continues to try and break his funk.

BROADCAST INFORMATION:

Game 1 (Friday)- 7:05 PM, TV: CSN, Radio: 1210FM, 94AM, 1480AM (Spanish Language)

Game 2 (Saturday)- 7:05 PM, TV: CSN, Radio: 1210FM, 94AM, 1480AM (Spanish Language)

Game 3 (Sunday)- 1:35 PM, TV: CSN, MLBN, Radio: 1210FM, 94AM, 1480AM (Spanish Language)

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE for South Philly

Tonight

Areas of frost after 4am. Otherwise, mostly clear, with a low around 35. Northwest wind 7 to 16 mph.

Saturday

Areas of frost before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 59. West wind around 11 mph.

Saturday Night

A slight chance of rain after 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming north after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Sunday

Partly sunny, with a high near 64. Northeast wind around 9 mph.

INJURIES