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Atlanta Braves Welcome Lowly Phillies to Turner Field

By John Buhler

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The Atlanta Braves host their division rival Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game set this Fourth of July Weekend.  Atlanta has hovered around .500 for most of the season as a middle of the pack National League club.  Philadelphia has the worst record in baseball, the only team to not have a .400 winning percentage or to have won 30 games thus far this season.

-= Related: Freddie Freeman Injury Update: Not Good News! =-

After a tough stretch of series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals twice, Atlanta begins a relatively soft part of their schedule when the Phillies come to town this evening.  To make up ground in the division, Atlanta needs to go at least two for three in their series with the worst team in baseball.

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    • Tonight’s starters are Julio Teheran (5-4, 4.94 ERA) for the Atlanta Braves and Adam Morgan (1-0, 1.59 ERA) for the Philadelphia Phillies.  Teheran has not pitched well at all in his last seven starts for the Braves (1-3, 6.14 ERA).

    Julio has been a terrific pitcher at Turner Field (4-0, 2.35 ERA) but a dreadful road pitcher (1-4, 7.40 ERA).  It has been a Jekyll and Hyde year for Julio Teheran when you look at his home/road splits.  Fortunately for the Atlanta Braves, Teheran gets the start at home tonight.  Let’s hope Julio can capture the magic of his best start on the season (May 21st vs. the New York Mets) in tonight’s series opener.

    Alex Wood (5-5, 3.17 ERA) gets the start for the Atlanta Braves tomorrow against the Phillies’ Kevin Correia (0-2, 3.60 ERA).  Wood had an outstanding last start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, going 7.1 innings of shutout baseball, allowing 5 hits and striking out 8 batters.  Alex has been fairly consistent in his last seven starts for Atlanta (3-3, 2.51 ERA).

    The issue with Wood this year has been that opponents are hitting .287 against him.  He’s at his best when he doesn’t pitch to a ton of contact since Wood doesn’t have overpowering stuff.  Alex doesn’t walk a lot of batters, but a lack of run support and perpetually pitching out of the stretch have hurt the young left-hander in many games this season.  Here’s to a great 4th of July start for Woody!

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    In the series finale, Shelby Miller (5-4, 2.20 ERA) squares off Phillies Ace (for the time being…) Cole Hamels (5-6, 3.22 ERA).  Both pitchers have felt frustration the last several weeks.  Miller had a rough last start against the Nationals Tuesday night, allowing 4 ER’s and raising his season’s minuscule ERA to its highest point of the season.  And Miller still hasn’t won a game for the Braves since May 17th.

    Hamels has grown frustrated with the Phillies inability to compete the last two plus seasons.  An anchor in a great rotation in Philadelphia for many years now wants out of town.  And could you really blame him? He gets no run support and his skipper Ryne Sandberg skipped town earlier this week.

    It’s a tough time for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves should definitely take full advantage of their struggling division rival.  I expect the Braves to win at least two of three, possibly pull off the sweep of the lowly Philadelphia Phillies.

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