The Diamondbacks are in a hotly-contested race with the Dodgers and Rockies for N.L. West supremacy and must keep playing well because the others are, too. The Phillies have dropped to last place in the National League East, as some of their young talent has scuffled this season.
This series will be contested from Friday, June 23 through Monday, June 26, 2017 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
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Pitching Matchups
The Phillies have yet to announce a starter for the first game of the series. The Diamondbacks are expected to send out Patrick Corbin, who is 6-6 on the season with a 5.19 ERA. The peripheral numbers aren’t horrible batters are hitting .300 against him, and that obviously must change.
In the second game of the series, the Phillies are scheduled to start Ben Lively, who is 1-1 on the season with a 3.33 ERA in four major league starts. The D-Backs will counter with star left-hander Robbie Ray, who is 7-3 with a 2.87 ERA. Ray has ridiculous strikeout numbers and has emerged as a top starter.
The Phillies are scheduled to start Jeremy Hellickson on Sunday. He is 5-5 with a 4.61 ERA and will be the underdog with the D-Backs starting ace Zack Greinke. Greinke is 8-4 on the year with a 3.14 ERA, throwing well after an underwhelming first season with Arizona in 2016.
In the series finale, the Phillies are scheduled to start Nick Pivetta. He is 1-4 with a 4.46 ERA and has decent strikeout numbers but must cut down on the walks. The D-Backs are happy to have Taijuan Walker back in the rotation. He is 5-3 with a 3.32 ERA and only gave up one earned run in five innings last time out in his return to the mound after spending time on the disabled list.
D-Backs Look To Dominate Again
These teams met less than a week ago in Philadelphia, where the D-Backs went in and came away with a three-game series sweep. Their pitching was impressive, only allowing an average of three runs per contest.
The Diamondbacks scored three runs in the seventh inning to rally for a 5-4 win in the first game, rode a dominant outing from Zack Godley and a big hit from Paul Goldschmidt for a 5-1 win in the second, and then got a go-ahead homer from Rey Fuentes in the tenth inning to pull out a 5-4 win in the finale.
All of the games were close late, so the D-Backs used some clutch hitting to come away with the wins. Now they get to go home for the rematch, where they have been fantastic on the season and aim to keep it rolling.
Key Stat.
13. That’s the number of losses for Philadelphia in its past 14 games, as the team has gone through a painful lull. It began against the Atlanta Braves when the Phillies lost the final two games of their four-game set.
Philadelphia was then swept by the St. Louis Cardinals before losing three of four to the Boston Red Sox. The Phillies lost the three games to the Diamondbacks and the first two games of their series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Phillies are still in rebuilding mode, and without a dominant starter in the rotation, have had a hard time stopping big losing streaks. They hope to finally put together a winning streak against the D-Backs, but it will be a tough task as they should be the underdog in the majority of the contests.
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