Skip to main content

Weekend Series Preview: Cardinals @ Phillies 7/24-7/26

St. Louis visits Philadelphia for the first and only time of the season this weekend. The Central division leading Cardinals (52-46) will face the East division leading Phillies (54-39) for three games. Pitching match ups and other notes below.


Friday, 7:05pm. Joel Pineiro (8-9, 3.09 ERA) vs. "Jay" Happ (7-0, 2.68 ERA). Pineiro has made 3 career starts against the Phillies and is 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 19 1/3 innings pitched. In 10 road starts this season, Pineiro is 4-5 with a 3.86 ERA. Over his last 3 starts, Pineiro has a 1.56 ERA. In 12 appearances at home this season, Happ is 3-0 with a 4.04 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Happ's ERA is 1.67. Happ as a starter is 5-0 with a 2.74 ERA.


Saturday, 4:05pm. Kyle Lohse (4-6, 4.21 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Lopez (2-0, 2.60 ERA). Lohse returns to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since surrendering the infamous grand slam to Kaz Matsui in the 2007 playoffs. In 7 regular season games at CBP, Lohse is 2-0 with a 3.52 ERA. RoLo has made all of his Phillies starts at home and has still not surrendered a homerun this year. In his career, Julio Lugo is 11-for-29 (.379 avg) with a homer and 3 RBI against RoLo.


Sunday, 1:35pm. Todd Wellemeyer (7-8, 5.68 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (6-4, 4.24 ERA). In 7 career games against the Phillies, Wellemeyer is 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA. Wellemeyer is 3-3 on the road this season with a 6.14 ERA in 9 games. Chase Utley is 4-for-8 (.500 avg) against Wellemeyer in his career with 2 homeruns and 4 RBI. Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth are a combined 0-for-13 against Wellemeyer in their careers. Blanton has two career starts against St. Louis- 13 innings pitched, 1.38 ERA, 0.92 WHIP. At home this season, Blanton is 3-2 with a 4.26 ERA. Blanton's ERA over 6 day starts is 5.80.


Albert Pujols is the Cardinals' stolen base leader with 10. Pujols is just 1-for-8 combined off of the Phillies 3 starters in this series. Pujols is a .367 hitter in 15 career games at CBP with 9 homers and 19 RBI.

Raul Ibanez's batting average is 41 points lower at home than it is on the road (.286/.327) this season. In 13 career games against the Cardinals, Ibanez is a .320 hitter with 2 homeruns and 5 RBI.

Only 1 of Brad Lidge's 6 blown saves was at home this season. Despite that, Lidge's home ERA is 6.86 this year. At 5.87, Lidge's July ERA is his best month of the season thus far.

In 16 career appearances (25 1/3 innings pitched) against the Cardinals, Ryan Madson's ERA is 1.78.

In his career against St. Louis, Ryan Howard is a .376 hitter with 13 homers, 37 RBI and a 1.310 OPS in 27 games.

Cardinals team runs scored- 428
Phillies team runs scored- 503


BallHype: hype it up!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eric B Needs to be Cut (and My Name is Rakim)

While the Phillies are on a hot streak this month, one player on the team is not. Eric Bruntlett is 1-for-12 in July. Since the start of May, Bruntlett's apex in batting average has been .167 on June 14th. Bruntlett's ineptitude can be tolerated no longer. Get rid of this guy NOW! Eric B. is the 2009 Endy Chavez. Remember Endy...the guy who in 2005 managed just 2 hits in his final 42 games played as a Phillie? That is about the sort of output the Phillies are getting from Bruntlett, and it's time to fix this void. Julio Lugo was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox and is expected to become a free agent. The Metropolitans are rumored to be interested. Why wouldn't the Phillies be interested in a guy who could surely outhit Bruntlett? Lugo was hitting .284 through 37 games played this season with Boston. Suspended Lehigh Valley IronPig Pablo Ozuna is eligible to return next Wednesday. Ozuna is batting .294 through 51 games at triple A. Miguel Cairo is also...

5th spot, Wall, Old timers, Links

The race for the Phillies' fifth starter spot is still on. While it's not fully fair to compare Grapefruit League stats, when some of the pitchers have had "B game" and scrimmage outings mixed in, Kyle Kendrick and Carlos Carrasco look to be falling behind Chan Ho Park and "Jay" Happ. Happ added to his solid Grapefruit League stats (2.45 ERA, 1.09 WHIP in 4 games) today against the Rays. Pitching coach Rich Dubee had been displeased with Kendrick even before he surrendered 8 earned runs in 3 innings of work yesterday against the Braves. Park has been working on improving his change up, with (Coach) Jamie Moyer. Park noticed Moyer's location control on his change, so he sought out Moyer to teach him the grip and positioning of the ball. Moyer, of course, feels good about helping anyone on the Phils' staff. Park has been coached by greats like Nolan Ryan with the Rangers and Sandy Koufax with the Dodgers, so Moyer is in great company. Park is working h...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...