Series Preview: Cubs @ Phils, July 20-22

The Chicago Cubs (47-43) make their only trip of the season to Philadelphia (51-38) starting tonight. The three game series will pit the World Champs against the team many people thought should have been the World Champs.

Below is a look at the pitching match ups for the series and other game notes.

Monday, 7:05pm. Ted Lilly (9-6, 3.18 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Lopez (1-0, 3.18 ERA). Lilly has a 2.11 ERA over his last 3 starts. In 4 career starts against the Phillies, Lilly is 1-3 with a 4.88 ERA. On the road this season, Lilly is 3-5 with a 4.66 ERA in 9 starts. Pedro Feliz against Lilly is 4-for-13 with 2 homers and 7 RBI. RoLo will be making his third start of the season for our Phillies. In 4 2/3 innings (1 start) in his career against the Cubbies (a June 2007 start), RoLo gave up 8 earned runs (15.43 ERA). Alfonso Soriano is a career .343 hitter (12-for-35) against RoLo with 3 homers and 5 RBI.

Tuesday, 7:05pm. Rich Harden (6-6, 5.06 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (6-4, 4.44 ERA). The former teammates with the A's face off for the first time. In 2 career starts against the Phils, Harden is 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA and 16 K's in 13 innings pitched. On the road this season, Harden is 4-1 with a 2.17 ERA in 6 games. Chase Utley, Pedro Feliz, Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Ruiz, Jayson Werth, Paul Bako and Greg Dobbs are a combined 1-for-33 (.030 avg) against Harden. In his last 11 starts, Blanton is 5-1 with a 3.26 ERA. Blanton's ERA in his last 4 home starts is 2.33. Reed Johnson is 5-for-10 in his career against Blanton with a homer and a walk.

Wednesday, 1:05pm. Carlos Zambrano (6-4, 3.36 ERA) vs. Jamie Moyer (9-6, 5.58 ERA). Zambrano has only faced the Phillies once in the past two seasons. In that one start, last season, Zambrano got the loss when he allowed 5 earned runs over 6 innings pitched. In 7 career starts against the Phillies, Zambrano is 3-3 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. Moyer has won 5 straight starts and has a 3.68 ERA in those games. Moyer is 4-4 at home this year with a 6.79 ERA. Aramis Ramirez is 0-for-10 in his career against Moyer.

Alfonso Soriano is a .296 career hitter at Citizens Bank Park with 3 doubles, 5 homers and 8 RBI in 16 games.

The Phillies have not lost a home series to the Cubs since April 2001.

Jimmy Rollins has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games. In that span, Rollins is batting .397 with 13 runs scored.

The Phillies had lost 10 of their previous 11 games prior to their current stretch of winning 12 of the last 13 games.

Cubs team batting average- .250
Phillies team batting average- .261

Sunday School: Phillies History Lesson 71

Gene Kelly was the radio voice of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1950- 1959. Born in Brooklyn NY, Kelly pitched in the minor leagues after graduating from Marshall College in 1941. He would soon experience arm trouble, which ended his playing days. Kelly managed to continue a career in sports by turning to radio. When legendary announcer By Saam, who pulled double duty beginning in 1939 calling both Phillies and Athletics games, moved over to the A's side exclusively, Gene Kelly was the man who would fill the void and took over as the Phillies play-by-play man. The Phillies began broadcasting their games over the air in 1936, but until the 1950's, the broadcasters only attended home games and did not travel with the team. All road games were recreated, on the air, by the announcers who read a Western Union teletype account of the games from the studio in Philadelphia. During the decade of the 50's, Kelly was partnered with several different broadcasters, including Claude Ha...

Jealous Ones Envy

Joe Blanton continues to excel and prove his worth in the Phillies pitching rotation. In his latest outing on Sunday, Blanton threw 8 strong innings, striking out 6, while walking just 1 and surrendering 2 earned runs, improving his record to 7-4. This season in July, Joe is 3-0 over four starts with 22 K's, 5 walks and a 1.21 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Joe's ERA is 1.94. As a member of the Phillies, Blanton has a 3.84 ERA after the all star break with a 5-0 record. The Phillies are 20-12 (.625 winning percentage) in games that Blanton has started, since being acquired last July. Combined this season against other National League playoff contenders St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles, Blanton has a combined 1.67 ERA in 4 starts with a 2-0 record. Blanton is on such a sizzling run that the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a Tampa Bay Rays farm team, will host a Joe Blanton bobble head give away tomorrow. Bowling Green will host Joe's mother, father and sister for the event, as Joe...

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

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