Tonight, the Phillies will look to beat the Cubs, and clinch a series win. The pitching match-up is Cole Hamels (4-13, 3.87 ERA) for the Phillies, and Travis Wood (7-8, 3.05 ERA) for the Cubs.
Cole Hamels has been good against the Cubs in his career, he has a 2.37 ERA against them in 38 innings pitched. He will hope to continue that success tonight. Cole has been fantastic in his last 3 starts, having an ERA of just 2.70. The Cubs only have 4 players that have ever hit against Cole Hamels. Chicago has a very young lineup, consisting of many players that will be hitting against Hamels for the first time, so Cole will look to take advantage of that. I will predict 8 scoreless innings for Hamels tonight.
Travis Wood has really good numbers against the Phillies in his career, he has thrown 15 innings against them recording an ERA of 1.80. That’s really good. I will predict 6 innings, and 2 earned runs given up for him tonight. Based on all of these stats, we should be in for a good old fashioned pitching duel tonight.
May 25th, 2011 was the last time that Travis Wood pitched in Citizens Bank Park. There was some history made that day. That game lasted 19 innings, and Phillies won 5-4 on a Raul Ibanez sacrifice fly. Wood pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 earned runs in that game.
The Phillies will need a good start from Cole Hamels tonight, because Phillies reliever Antonio Bastardo has been suspended for 50 games, and he was literally the only bright spot in the Phillies bullpen. Bastardo was the only person in the Phillies bullpen that I trusted, and now he’s gone. The Phillies bullpen was not terrible to begin the season, but since then, they have lost 4 key relievers due to injuries and suspensions; Jeremy Horst, Michael Stutes, Mike Adams, and now Antonio Bastardo. The Phillies are going to need some young bullpen pitchers to step up and start doing well.
If the Phillies win tonight, then they will win the series against the Cubs, the Phillies haven’t won a series in over two weeks.
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