The Boston Red Sox get a nice break in their schedule with a home-and-home four-game set against the Philadelphia Phillies opening on Monday. The Phillies come into action with baseball’s worst record. Meanwhile, the Sox are working their way up the AL East standings, trailing only the Yankees. Boston is the clear favorite in the series, but baseball usually has a funny way of keeping teams on their toes, even in series as lopsided as this.
This series will be contested from Monday, June 12, 2017 through Thursday, June 15, 2017 with the first two games at Fenway Park in Boston and the second two at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Thursday’s game can be seen on the MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
Rick Porcello starts the series for the Red Sox. He’s looked like an entirely different pitcher than the one that took the Cy Young Award last year.
He surrendered five runs and eight hits against the Yankees his last time out and has allowed more hits than any other AL starter.
Overall, Porcello is 3-8 with a 4.46 ERA and 1.488 WHIP. On a team with so many offensive weapons his win-loss record should be better, but that’s no excuse. He’s been mediocre at best and the Sox are 5-8 when he pitches.
Boston will have a good chance to improve to six wins with Porcello pitching as they’ll try and get to Jerad Eickhoff. The Phillies’ young right-hander looked great in April, but he’s posted a 6.75 ERA over his last eight starts.
He’s allowing a ton of baserunners and sporting an inflated BABIP against him. Nevertheless, the Phillies are 2-10 in his starts. That’s not very promising.
Moving along, David Price gets the start on Tuesday with Ben Lively starting for the Phillies.
Price hasn’t faced the Phillies in five seasons, but has done well against them. Still, he’s still recovering from injury and hasn’t been great since being back. He had a good start against the Orioles a couple starts ago, but gave up six runs in five innings to the Yankees last time out.
The veteran southpaw’s command is still off as he’s walking more and giving up more homers than usual. Of course, for Price, it’s all about when he gets back to form. He’s an all-star pitcher and even in a down year last year, delivered respectable results.
Lively, on the other hand, is anything but proven. He’s made two starts, but has gone at least seven in each. He’s given up four runs in his 14 innings. He was 6-1 in Triple-A before the call with a 2.40 ERA and 0.941 WHIP. Strikeouts are an issue though. He’s only struck out three in 14 innings, walking five. He had a 7.2 strikeout per nine inning ratio in the minors this year.
When the series shifts to Philadelphia, the Phillies will send their ace to the mound with Jeremy Hellickson toeing the rubber. The Sox will turn to rookie left-hander Brian Johnson.
Hellickson is a once-again a trade-chip, but he’s been struggling. He’s pitched to a 6.43 ERA in his last eight starts. His change up is a huge weapon, but it’s already yielded seven homers this year.
As for Johnson, this will be his first time swinging the bat. We’ll see if that plays into his psyche at all. He’s made three big league starts so far this year and is 2-0 with a 3.44 ERA. He’s given the Sox a chance to win.
To close the series, Nick Pivetta starts for the Phillies. Like most youngsters with some upside, he’s looked good at times and struggled with pitch count and location other times. He won’t go deep for the Phillies so even if he’s throwing well the Sox have a good chance against the Phillies’ pen.
Boston’s start for Thursday is likely Chris Sale. Sale’s last few starts have been more human. He’s given up at least three runs in four straight games, but save for an outing against his former team he’s delivered a quality start in all of them.
Sale has thrown nine or fewer strikeouts in four straight after striking out 10 or more in eight in a row.
Overall, he’s still 8-2 and the Sox are 10-3 in his starts. He’s pitching to a 2.97 ERA and is leading the league with 91 innings, 126 strikeouts and a 1.80 FIP.
Who's Hot?
Andrew Benintendi has seen his power spike over the last week, hitting three bombs, but the young outfielder was batting only .188 with a .569 over his last 25 games heading into Sunday.
While he’s seen a power spike recently other Sox batters have had a longer run of success, including Mitch Moreland and Xander Bogaerts.
Moreland is batting .299 in his last 24 games with six homer, 19 RBIs and a .974 OPS. Bogaerts is hitting .321 in his last 27 games and has 13 extra base hits and a .876 OPS in that time.
Jackie Bradley Jr. is also swinging well lately as the Sox offense is surging despite a still rather low number of home runs.
Obviously, Craig Kimbrel is lights out in the closer role, but Joe Kelly hasn’t allowed a run in his last nine games, going 8.1 scoreless, giving up just five hits and three walks.
The Phillies are getting Joaquin Benoit back off the DL. He’s a big piece of the bullpen and along with Pat Neshek at least gives Philadelphia two good options in the late innings before going to Hector Neris.
So, the bullpen is a positive for this team, provided the starters can at least go six which is far from a sure thing. The rest of the pen is suspect, but at least here’s something positive to say.
As for the offense, Tommy Joseph has shown good power in the last month, but Aaron Altherr’s bat has come back down to earth. He’s got a .709 OPS in the last month.
Who's Not?
Well, we already discussed Benintendi’s low average over the last month and Pablo Sandoval continues to be a major disappointment. He’s hitting .185 since the middle of May. Devin Marrero and Josh Rutledge haven’t proven to be viable replacements.
Third is a massive weakness for the Sox right now, but that’s the biggest hole—at least offensively. Catcher could use an upgrade with Sandy Leon playing more like he did before 2016, but Christian Vazquez is hitting and getting more playing time.
The Phillies’ starters are all struggling so they typically get to the mid-innings with a sizeable lead and the offense isn’t good enough to make that up, regardless of the pen.
Michael Saunders was an All-Star last year, but is a bust for the Phils. He’s hitting .167 with a .553 OPS since mid-May. Mychal Franco has been a big disappointment now for two years running and even Altherr, the team’s bright spot, is sinking back to earth.
To make things worse, Ceasar Hernandez, who can usually be counted on to at least put together a quality at bat, is on the DL now and Odubel Herrera and Freddy Galvis are hitting .232 and .222 respectively over the last month.
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