Gamenight: Phillies (44-39) At Braves (40-43)
The Phillies return to National League play, and not a moment too soon. The Phils went a horrible 4-11 in Interleague play, culminating in a lifeless 5-1 loss to Texas. The Phils lost every Interleague series and are now just 0.5 games ahead of the Marlins in the division. Awesome.
Of course, coming back to the Senior Circuit isn’t all fun and games. Now the Phils have to play 10 games against three of the league’s best/most frightening teams: Atlanta, New York and Saint Louis. It starts with a three-game set in Atlanta against Charlie Morton. No, not Charlie Murphy, but Charlie Morton. He’s a right-handed rookie who was lit up considerably in the Minors. His ERA never went under 4.29 (how do you move up with a bad ERA in the GCL?), yet he found his way to AAA and put up a shocking 2.05, putting him in the Majors with the Braves. As usual, the Braves find a guy with a very down-homey name and somehow, he’ll turn in a fine season. He has a 4.24 ERA; oddly enough, he’s the second guy in a row the Phils are facing with an ERA of exactly 4.24.
Kyle Kendrick is coming off possibly his career-best start, an eight inning masterpiece against Oakland, one of the Phils three wins in their last 12 games.
By the way, the whole National League has played poorly lately. Only Saint Louis, Cincinnati and Houston have winning records in the last 10, and barely. Yeah, the AL killed us this year.
Phillies: Kyle Kendrick (7-3) 4.59 ERA
Braves: Charlie Morton (1-1) 4.24 ERA
Gametime: 7:00 p.m. EST
Weather: 81, sunny
Lineup: Rollins/Victorino/Utley/Howard/Burrell/Jenkins/Feliz/Ruiz/Kendrick
Your gamenight beer: Here’s a good summer beer that we might need because it’s strong and will let you forget this team’s really, really poor play. It’s Farmhouse Saison by Hennepin, a New York brewery. This one is delicious. It’s very possible after this game you’ll want to go into some farmhouse and sit alone for hours at a time. Not that I ever did that. ….
Go Phillies!
