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The Phillies enter the final weekend of the regular season clinging to postseason hopes as they travel to St. Petersburg to take on the American League East Division champion Rays in a three-game set. Losers of six of their last 10 games, the Phillies urgently need wins in order to qualify for the expanded 16-team playoff format.  The enter the weekend 1/2 game behind Miami for second place in the National League East and they trail San Francisco by 1/2 game for the last NL Wild Card spot.    Read ahead for a rundown of the pitching match ups and other key statistics for this series. Friday, 6:40pm.  Vince Velasquez (1-1, 5.46 ERA) vs. Charlie Morton (2-2, 4.64 ERA).   Velasquez notched a win in his last outing against the Blue Jays, going six innings while allowing one earned run on two hits.  Velasquez is averaging 12.1 K/9 in eight appearances this season.  Velasquez has allowed eight earned runs in 8 2/3 innings on the road this season.  Since his first start of the season in whi

Rafael Marchan, image- Jay Floyd With an injury to J.T. Realmuto , the Phillies were forced to call up a promising young prospect to fill a void on the big league roster.   In his big league debut on Monday at Miami, Rafael Marchan went 1-for-3, as he singled in his first at bat to notch his first hit in the majors. Marchan, 21, was ranked at the Phils' number 16 prospect heading into the 2020 season.    Signed in the same off-season that the Phils dished out a $4 million signing bonus to outfielder Jhailyn Ortiz, Marchan inked a deal for a reported bargain price of $200,000, as a 16-year-old in 2015. Last year, Marchan, a native of Venezuela, played much of the season with Class A Lakewood.  In 63 games, he tallied a .271 batting average with 16 doubles and 20 RBI.  He would miss a few weeks with an injury in May, but bounced back to complete the season, earning a promotion to Class A Advanced Clearwater at the end of July. Wrapping up his 2019 campaign as a member of

Much is being made of the Phillies' upcoming seven-game series at Miami.  A potentially season-defining weekend that will feature two separate double-headers pit the Phils (21-18) against their pesky division rival, the germ sharing Marlins (19-19). The teams will meet for a lengthy series due to both clubs missing considerable time after the Marlins dealt with a coronavirus outbreak when the season got underway in July and the Phillies were the last team they faced.   If the Phillies can't secure a series win against a Marlins team that is in the midst of a rebuild, media types and baseball fans alike have been critical in stating that the big-budget Phils (2020 team salary was slated to be 6th highest in the big leagues while Miami was set to be fourth lowest) likely won't have a place in the postseason.   Read ahead for a rundown of the pitching match ups as well as some key statistics from this series.  Thursday, 6:40pm.  Jake Arrieta (3-4, 5.67  ERA ) vs. Sandy Alcan

The complete version of this post is available over on Patreon.com/PhoulBallz . Recently, I wrote a feature on promising Phillies minor leaguer  Tyler  Burch  and his diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes.  The righty pitcher was an  undrafted free agent signing last year.  To date in 12 professional appearances the 22-year-old holds a 4-1 record with a 1.51 ERA and an 8.6 K/9 mark.   Included below are some excerpts from my  discussion with Tyler in which he offers his thoughts on his own  pitching repertoire, minor league teammates Logan  O'Hoppe and Albertus  Barber , college pal Connor Brogdon and more. Chatting about developing his pitch repertoire from college to the minors... I throw a  four-seam, two-seam, slider, change up.  It's kind of a slurve, it's not  a true slider, but it has a little depth in it. It was more so tweaking my grips to make them more effective.  Hector Berios, the  pitching coach in Williamsport, we worked super hard that summer to work  on my slide

For an extended version of this interview, please consider supporting my work by subscribing to my Patreon page .  Members get exclusive interviews and early access to my other work. Jimmy Smith, image- Jay Floyd Former Phillies minor leaguer Jimmy Smith , along with some family, participated in the recent March on Washington and spoke about his experience at the event and what it meant to him to be there.  The march, set up by Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network, was designed as a way for citizens to stand up to racial injustices in our country. Prior to his release by the Phillies last year, the Central Washington University product tallied a .250/.305/.337 slash line at two levels.  Read ahead for my interview with Jimmy.  -Why was it important to you to be present for this Commitment March, as it was called? It was the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. Growing up, my parents shared how impactful the original March on Washin