Skip to main content

Series Preview: Rockies at Phillies, 5/18-5/19

The Phillies (40-26) return home on Wednesday, to start a brief 2-game series with the Colorado Rockies (22-18) in what will be a clash of two first place teams.

In the series opener, the National League West leading Rockies will send lefty Jorge De La Rosa, who was never beaten the Phillies, to the mound. The 4-time defending East Division champion Phillies will counter with Cole Hamels, who allowed 7 earned runs in 3 2/3 innings in his only previous regular season start against Colorado in 2009.

Last year the Phillies won 6 of 7 meetings with the Rockies, including all 4 games played in Philadelphia.

Read ahead for details on the pitching match ups and plenty more key statistics from this series.


Wednesday, 7:05PM. Jorge De La Rosa (5-1, 3.70 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (4.2, 3.19 ERA). In 6 career games against the Phillies, De La Rosa has a 0-3 record with a 8.78 ERA and a .321 batting average against. In 5 road starts this season, De La Rosa is 2-1 with a 3.82 ERA. Shane Victorino is 4-for-9 (.444 avg) with a homerun in his career against De La Rosa. In 78 career regular season starts at Citizens Bank Park, Hamels has a 3.40 ERA. In his last 4 starts, Hamels is 2-1 with a 3.41 ERA.

Thursday, 7:05PM. Jhoulys Chacin (4-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (1-2, 5.50 ERA). In 3 road starts this season, Chacin is 2-1 with a 5.00 ERA. Chacin has a 2.20 ERA in 6 night starts this season. In his last 4 starts, Blanton is 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA. In 2 career starts against Colorado, Blanton is 1-0 with a 5.23 ERA. Carlos Gonzalez is 4-for-5 with a HR in his career against Blanton.


In 11 career regular season games against the Phillies, Carlos Gonzalez is a .385 hitter with a 1.004 OPS. In 19 road games this year, Gonzalez is batting .186.

Troy Tulowitzki has a .179 batting average with a .590 OPS through 14 games played this month.

In 5 career regular season games against the Phillies, Houston Street is 0-1 with 1 save and a 5.79 ERA. Street's 13 saves this year are second best in the National League.

Shane Victorino's batting average splits vs. lefties & righties- .400/.250.

Ryan Madson has a 3.04 ERA in 14 regular season games against the Rockies. Overall in 16 games this season, opponents are batting .161 against Madson, who has posted a 2-0 record and a 0.56 ERA.

After batting .161 in 24 April games, Raul Ibanez was batting .327 in 14 May games, through games played on Monday. Ibanez is batting .300 with 3 HR and 14 RBI in 19 home games this season.
_________________________________________________

You can follow PhoulBallz on Twitter by clicking HERE.

You can also connect with PhoulBallz on Facebook by clicking HERE.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

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...