Red Hot Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals were quiet on
Thursday afternoon, letting baseball’s non-waiver trading deadline pass
without making a blockbuster move.
They’re hoping they won’t need any help.
The
NL East-leading Phillies will try for their season-high sixth straight
win on Friday when they open a three-game set at Busch Stadium against
the Cardinals, who come in tied for the wild-card lead.
Oddsmakers from SBG Global
have made Philadelphia -130 money line favorites (MLB Odds) for tonight’s game, the over/under has
been set at 8 total runs (Matchup). Current public betting information shows that 29% of bets for this game have been placed on Philadelphia -130 (View MLB Bet Percentages).
Philadelphia
(59-49) has won five in a row to take a one-game lead over the New York
Mets and 1 1/2-game advantage over the Florida Marlins in the East.
Aside
from a left-handed reliever, former Boston slugger Manny Ramirez was
one of the big offensive names linked to the Phillies in a possible
deadline deal, but general manager Pat Gillick decided to stand pat on
Thursday.
"We were talking, and we were involved," Gillick told
the Phillies’ official Web site of the team’s interest in Ramirez, who
ended up going to the Los Angeles Dodgers. "We just couldn’t get where
they wanted to be, and we couldn’t get where we wanted to be."
Philadelphia’s
lineup hasn’t looked like its needed another bat lately, however. The
Phillies have scored 40 runs during their winning streak, which reached
five on Thursday with an 8-4 victory at Washington.
"The way we
went out there playing is very good," said shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who
hit a two-run homer. "We’re getting hits with two outs, runners in
scoring position and we’re getting good quality starts. We’re back to
the way we need to be playing."
Rollins and Shane Victorino are
usually getting on base, but recently they’ve been driving in runs.
Rollins is batting .364 (8-for-22) with two homers and five RBIs in his
last five games, while Victorino is hitting .455 (10-for-22) with two
homers and seven RBIs in the same span.
The Phillies don’t
usually need to score much when Cole Hamels (9-6, 3.27 ERA) is on the
mound, but Hamels’ last start was his shortest of the season. The
left-hander went 3 2-3 innings, giving up nine runs – four earned – on
Saturday against Atlanta, though Philadelphia came back to win 10-9.
Hamels
has gone at least seven innings in 18 of his other 21 starts, including
a seven-inning performance against St. Louis (61-50) on July 8 when he
gave up two runs while striking out eight in a 2-0 loss.
Like the
Phillies, St. Louis didn’t make a deadline deal, but got former Cy
Young Award winner Chris Carpenter back from injury this week, and
expects to get No. 1 starter Adam Wainwright back from the disabled
list in August.
St. Louis, tied with Milwaukee for the wild-card
lead, will send its top healthy starter to the hill on Friday, though
Kyle Lohse didn’t look the part on Sunday. Kyle Lohse (12-3, 3.68) had won
nine straight decisions before allowing seven runs and 11 hits over
five innings in a 9-1 road loss to the Mets.
"Obviously, when you
don’t have your best stuff and you’re facing guys who have seen you
several times … it’s safe to say that’s probably not a good sign,"
Lohse told the team’s official Web site.
Lohse was outstanding in
his lone start against the Phillies, giving up two runs and four hits
over eight innings on June 14 in a 3-2 win.
St. Louis won three
straight in Atlanta after Lohse’s rough outing against New York,
scoring 27 runs, but lost 9-4 to the Braves on Thursday night. It was
the fifth straight start center fielder Rick Ankiel missed with an
abdominal strain, though he hasn’t ruled out a return against
Philadelphia.
"You never know," said Ankiel, who’s hitting .282 with 22 homers and 59 RBIs. "I might wake up feeling good."
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