National League Previews from The Sports Network
Thursday, September 2nd
(All times eastern)
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES (75-58) AT COLORADO ROCKIES (69-63), 7:10 P.M.
Probable Starting Pitchers: Philadelphia - Joe Blanton (6-6, 5.15)
Colorado - Jhoulys Chacin (7-9, 3.79)
(Sports Network) - Given how well the Phillies have played out west over the
last week, they certainly won't mind staying there for an extra game. It
doesn't hurt that its a matchup against the Rockies either.
Philadelphia will try to wrap up a seven-game swing with a sixth victory and
also post its fifth win in a row over Colorado tonight in a make up game at
Coors Field.
After a disappointing sweep at the hands of the Astros a week ago, the
Phillies headed out west to San Diego and swept a three-game set from the
first-place club. They then dropped the opener of a three-game series with the
Dodgers, but rebounded to take the final two games of the set.
Philadelphia took Wednesday's rubber match 5-1 behind 6 1/3 solid innings from
Roy Oswalt. The right-hander lost a no-hit bid with two outs in the sixth
inning and allowed just a single hit in addition to six walks.
"I was a little wild and had no command of my fastball. When I got in trouble
I went with the breaking ball. That's the advantage of having four pitches --
when one isn't working you can go to another one. I was able to put enough
movement on the ball to keep them off-balance," Oswalt said.
Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino both hit solo homers and Rollins scored
three times for the Phillies, who have won 11 of their last 13 on the road.
Chase Utley had three doubles and drove in a pair of runs.
The victory allowed Philadelphia to maintain its three-game deficit for first
place in the National League East behind Atlanta as well as a 1 1/2-game edge
over San Francisco for the Wild Card spot.
The Phillies were unable to gain ground on the Giants due to their 2-1 victory
over the Rockies last night. Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez gave up just two runs
on four hits with 10 strikeouts over eight innings, but still failed in his
fifth straight bid to become the NL's first 18-game winner with a fourth
losing decision in a row.
Jimenez was charged with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning on a wild pitch
that allowed the Giants' Darren Ford to race towards third. Catcher Miguel
Olivo tried to gun him down, but the throw to third sailed high and Ford was
able to come home.
Carlos Gonzalez's 30th homer of the season in the fourth inning was the lone
offense for Colorado, which has lost two straight after winning seven of eight
and is 5 1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the Wild Card race.
Gonzalez is hitting .515 (17-for-33) with five homers and 13 RBI over a nine-
game hitting streak.
"As of now we have plenty of games against people we need to catch," Rockies
shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. "We kind of control our destiny, even though
we are making it a little difficult for ourselves."
This will be the last time the Rockies face the Phillies this year and that is
only because the second half of a slated doubleheader on May 12 was rained
out. Colorado won the first game on that day at home, but was swept in
Philadelphia over four games from July 23-26.
Joe Blanton finished off that sweep with six innings of two-run ball in his
first ever appearance versus the Rockies, giving his club 15 wins in the last
18 regular-season meetings with Colorado. The Phils also bested the Rox in
four game's in last year's NLDS.
Blanton will try to duplicate that success tonight and improve on his 6-6
season mark and 5.15 earned run average. The right-hander has won his last
three decisions though and is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA over his last three starts.
After a no-decision versus the Astros on Aug. 23 despite seven innings of one-
run ball, Blanton bested the Padres on Saturday, yielding a run on six hits
over six frames of work.
The 29-year-old is just 2-4 with a 6.06 ERA in 10 road starts this season.
The Rockies will counter with Jhoulys Chacin, who has settled down to win two
straight starts after a rough return to the rotation two weeks ago.
The right-hander was tagged for five runs over five innings of a loss to the
Dodgers on Aug. 17, his first appearance with the Rockies since July 23, but
has posted wins over the Diamondbacks and Dodgers since, yielding just a
single run and seven hits over 14 2/3 innings.
The 22-year-old righty is 7-9 with a 3.79 ERA in 22 games (15 starts) this
season and will make his first career start versus the Phillies tonight. He
has, however, thrown 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief against them over two
appearances.
NEW YORK METS (65-68) AT ATLANTA BRAVES (78-55), 7:10 P.M.
Probable Starting Pitchers: New York - Johan Santana (10-9, 3.02)
Atlanta - Tim Hudson (15-5, 2.24)
(Sports Network) - Offense has been tough to come by for the Mets in their
current series with the Braves. It should be even tougher tonight with Tim
Hudson, the National League's earned run average leader, set to take the hill.
Hudson will try to win his fifth straight start over New York and pitch
Atlanta to its second four-game sweep of the Mets in two seasons tonight at
Turner Field.
The Mets have plated just six runs over the first three games of this set,
dropping last night's contest 4-1. Luis Hernandez drove in the lone run and
Mike Pelfrey yielded four runs on nine hits over five innings to take the
loss, New York's sixth in eight games.
"Obviously I have to get back to executing pitches," said Pelfrey. "That is
the name of the game. I didn't execute very many pitches tonight. That's a
good team over there."
Atlanta, meanwhile, plated nine runs in each of the first two games before
getting two RBI last night out of Martin Prado and another from Jason Heyward,
who finished with four hits to lift his batting average to .536 (15-for-28)
over a seven-game hitting streak with a pair of homers and eight RBI.
Tommy Hanson allowed just one hit and a walk over seven scoreless innings to
pick up his first victory since July 3.
"My pitches felt really good," said Hanson. "I worked really hard in between
starts trying to get my fastball command going. I felt like I did that today."
Atlanta, which maintained a three-game lead over Philadelphia for first place
in the NL East, won a fifth straight game for the first time since June 16-20
and will try to post its first six-game winning streak since a season-best
nine-game run from May 26-June 3.
The Braves, who swept a four-game home set over the Mets on May 20-22 in 2008,
have a good chance of doing so tonight given that they have won 16 of their
last 22 overall versus the Mets and 12 of the past 15 meetings at Turner
Field.
Having Hudson on the mound will also help.
The 35-year-old is 6-0 over his last eight starts with a 1.43 ERA, lowering
his season ERA to a league-best 2.24 to go along with a 15-5 mark. After
posting consecutive no-decisions, Hudson bested the Marlins on Saturday after
giving up just a run on six hits over seven innings with a career-high 13
strikeouts.
His performance caused manager Bobby Cox to throw out some high praise
afterwards.
"Reminded us of old [Tom] Glavine and [Greg] Maddux and Smoltzie [John
Smoltz]," Cox told Atlanta's website.
"He had such great stuff that he wasn't going to give up much no matter what
the score was."
Hudson has beat the Mets both times he has faced them this year, posting a
0.69 ERA. The righty held them to a run over six innings on Aug. 2 to win his
fourth straight start over the club, improving to 12-5 with a 3.43 ERA
lifetime against New York.
The Mets will throw out their best in hopes of avoiding the sweep as Johan
Santana takes the mound. The southpaw has lost each of his last three starts
though despite a respectable 3.91 ERA as the Mets have scored just five runs
in that time.
Santana did allow four runs on eight hits over seven innings of his last
setback, a 4-1 loss to the Astros on Saturday. He fell to 10-9 this year with
a 3.02 ERA.
The 31-year-old lost to Hudson and the Braves on Aug. 2 after allowing four
runs over seven innings with nine strikeouts, falling to 2-6 in 11 career
starts against Atlanta despite a 2.31 ERA.
09/02 10:50:42 ET
| 
