the phillies are hot
The Phillies are currently on a seven game winning streak while scoring 7, 8, 9, 7, 7 and 5 runs in the last six games. What more can you say. Although they sit right in the middle with an average of 4.5 runs a game, the last two series they’ve been absolutely crushing the ball. They will be facing Andrew Abbott again. He held them to 2 runs through 5 innings of work and the reds ended up taking that game in the 10th. On the flip side, the Phillies will have Cristopher Sanchez on the mound who was the other pitcher in that same game. Holding the Reds to only 2 runs through 5 innings just like Abbott.
can the reds even the series?
This is great spot for the Reds to slow the Phillies down and bring them back to earth. They’ve been playing good baseball lately, with the sweep over the Angels this past weekend and knowing they took the first series from them earlier this season. They’ll definitely be looking to get hot and catch some momentum again. This is a team that’s going to get looked over by a lot of people simply because of the name. They are currently top ten in runs scored with an average of 5.1 which is, yes (only) half a run more than the Phillies. But the bottom line is they’re producing more runs.
prediction
Both of these teams have been playing really well. We also got to see this exact match up not too long ago. If both pitchers can do what their teams expect them to do, the numbers tell us this should be a close game. Yes the Phillies are crushing the ball, but at some point that’ll have to stop. This is also a good spot for Abbott to slow them down while they don’t have Harper in the line up. With both starters and both bullpens pitching well at the moment, I have to lean towards the team putting up more runs. The Reds have also been hitting better at home. If they can get an early lead I think the bullpen can hold it down to even the series.
Reds ML +103