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| Photo by Rich Wilkins |
It's time for week three. Two series, two playoff teams from a year ago. We start in Cincinnati-
Monday-Wednesday- Philadelphia Phillies (6-6) @ Cincinnati Red (5-7)
Monday- Cliff Lee (2-0, 1.08) vs. Bronson Arroyo (1-1, 5.25)
Tuesday- Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 5.40) vs. Homer Bailey (1-1, 5.73)
Wednesday- John Lannan (0-0, 2.77) vs. Mike Leake (0-0, 6.75)
On the Reds- The Reds lost the last five games of their road trip and come home with a losing record. They don't get to throw Cueto or Latos at the Phillies, a big plus. With that said, this is a team with the Vottos, Bruces, and Chapmans of the world on it, so this is no easy task.
On the Phillies- They're playing fairly well. They won both series last week, including 4 of their last 5 games. This is the end of their rotation that has been fairly consistent too. They had a lot of trouble scoring in Miami, but I think the lack of home run balls in Miami's cave of a stadium had a lot to do with that.
PREDICTION- This is a trap pick, because the Reds are playing bad and the Phillies are playing good right now. I'm not going to get carried away- PHILLIES 2 of 3.
Thursday-Sunday- St. Louis Cardinals (7-5) @ Phillies
Thursday- Adam Wainwright (2-1, 2.05) vs Cole Hamels (0-2, 7.56)
Friday- Jaime Garcia (1-0, 1.86) vs. Roy Halladay (1-2, 7.63)
Saturday- Lance Lynn (1-0, 4.50) vs. Lee
Sunday- Jake Westbrook (1-1, 0.00) vs. Kendrick
On the Cardinals- You don't go win a World Series and make it to game 7 of the NLCS the next year without being a pretty damn good team, right? They hit, they pitch, they do a lot right. Their bullpen has been their achilles so far this season.
On the Phillies- Well, I guess we'll have a pretty good idea of where they currently are by the end of the week. They have had their past issues with Wainwright and Garcia before.
PREDICTION- This one's a wash. SPLIT.
