Fresh off back to back series wins against National League East Division teams Atlanta, and NY; the Baltimore Orioles head to Philadelphia to face the NL East Division leader, and defending World Champion Phillies.
The O’s will enter the weekend series at 29-38 overall, and a abysmal 8-20 record on the road.
Philly is 36-28 overall, and a rather surprising 13-19 overall at-home.
The Phillies have lost 5 of 6, and were just swept by Toronto.
The scheduled pitching matchups are:
June 19th: Hill vs Bastardo
June 20th: Bergesen vs Happ
June 21st: Guthrie vs Hamels
All three Philly starters are lefties.
Rich Hill will be making his 7th start for the Orioles, and more consistent positive results are required.
Hill has been completely hit or miss in his previous 6 starts, with 3 effective starts, and 3 throw-away starts.
Hill is still allowing less than a hit per IP, and nearly has a K per IP – both indications of his stuff. However, he has also allowed 19 walks in just 26.1 innings, which is just killing him.
Bastardo is a 23 year-old that was having a strong year for AA Reading, and earned promotions to AAA, and the Majors this year.
At the AA level, Bastardo had a 1.82 era in 34.2 innings, where he had 39 k’s, 7 bb’s, and just 21 hits allowed.
So far in the Majors, Bastardo has started 3 games, and pitched a total of 12 innings, and walked 5.
Tomorrow, Bergesen will continue to attempt to extend his run of success; where he has allowed only 6 er, in his last 32 innings of work.
Happ was moved into the Philly rotation roughly a month ago, and is 4-0, with a 3.53 era.
In his last two starts, he seems to have lost his control, as he has walked a combined 10 batters.
He must be hard to pick-up, as he has only allowed 38 hits in 51 innings.
Hamels is getting hit with more regularity in 2009, than he had been in the previous two seasons, but he remains one of the stars of the National League.
Hamels seems to be turning it on, as he has allowed just 6 er in his last 20 innings of work.
Position talent wise, Philly is of course lead by the trio of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins.
Former Oriole Draft-pick Jayson Werth mans RF, and their CF Shane Victorino continues to get on-base at a very solid-clip.
Ryan Howard is quoted after last nights loss of saying he is tired of talking about the home-record. I imagine that the Phillies will show some pride in this series and play hard. On the other-hand, the O’s figure to have some fans making the trip up to balance things out.
If the O’s can win tonight, it could be a fun weekend. 1 out of 3 is realistic, 2 out of 3 is the goal.
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.