Series Preview: Philadelphia Phillies vs. Houston Astros

Tuesday, August 5^th: Kyle Kendrick (5-11, 4.92) v. Dallas Kuechel (10-7, 2.97)

Wednesday, August 6^th: David Buchanan (5-5, 4.40) v. Brad Peacock (3-7, 4.93)

Thursday, August 7^th: Roberto Hernandez (6-8, 3.87) v. Collin McHugh (4-9, 3.32)

The Phillies are coming off a series loss to the NL East leading Washington Nationals. In that series, the Phillies lost Cliff Lee for the rest of the season due to an elbow injury. In Lee’s place, righty David Buchanan was recalled from Triple-A and will start in his place on Wednesday. Presumably, Buchanan will stay in the Phillies rotation for the rest of the year in order to determine if he deserves a spot in the 2015 rotation.

Thursday’s starter, Roberto Hernandez, is coming off two solid starts. On July 27^th, Hernandez went seven innings, scattering four hits and surrendering two runs. In his next start, against the Nationals, Hernandez managed to complete eight innings of one run ball. There is no doubt that if Hernandez can duplicate these last two starts the Phillies will win at least one game in this series against the Astros.

The Astros’ Tuesday starter, Dallas Kuechel, is having himself a year. Kuechel is coming off a complete game against the powerful Athletics. It will be tough for the Phillies offense to hit Kuechel hard especially with the way he has been throwing.

The Phillies need to give Darin Ruf as many at-bats as they possibly can over the final two months of the season. Ruf has only had 34 plate appearances over 16 games in 2014. He is hitting a horrific .148/.273/.569. Last year we saw what he was capable of over just 73 games. In 293 plate appearances in 2013, Ruf managed a .247/.348/.806 slash line that includes 14 home runs and 11 doubles.

It’s possible that Ruf is the solution at first base but manager Ryne Sandberg seems apprehensive to give him the playing time he needs to produce. Ruf has not had consecutive starts since July 23-July 25 in which he finished out the series against the Giants and started one game against the Diamondbacks. We know what Ryan Howard can and cannot offer. That has been evident since the beginning of this season. It’s time for the Phillies to find out if Ruf can duplicate his success from last year at first base.