If you exclude the past two weekends, the Phillies have been red hot. However, the New York Mets have been their Achilles Heel. In August thus far, Philadelphia has earned a 12-7 record, with five of those seven losses being to their division rivals. The most recent of those losses was a tough 10-9 loss yesterday, where they blew the lead three separate times (4-0, 7-4, and 8-7).
However, they bounced back yesterday. Despite an hour rain delay before the game began, Philadelphia maintained focus and controlled the game from start to finish last night. Noah Syndergaard went seven innings of immaculate baseball, only allowing one run (a solo shot in the 5th) on three hits.
Ranger Suarez will take the mound and try to replicate Thor’s great performance last night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.
Probable Pitchers:
Phillies Ranger Suarez (8-5, 3.31 ERA, 97 SO) vs. Reds Nick Lodolo (3-4, 4.12 ERA, 72 SO)
Phillies
Ranger Suarez gets the nod for Philadelphia today and is looking for another quality outing since returning to the team. After being put on the IL for back spasms on June 30th, Ranger returned better than ever. Since returning on July 16th, the left-hander has pitched in six games, where he’s gone 5-1 with a 1.02 ERA in 35.1 innings pitched.
The most recent of those starts mentioned was against the Reds last week. The southpaw shut out the Reds in seven scoreless innings, striking out eight. The Phillies offense got shut out, preventing Ranger from the win in a 1-0 loss. Nonetheless, he dominated and will look to maintain that momentum tonight.
Reds
On the flip side, Nick Lodolo will start for Cincinnati today. The rookie was the one who opposed Suarez in the 1-0 shutout win last week. In that game, he carried his weight as well, throwing seven scoreless of his own.
Being that he’s a rookie, there isn’t much on Lodolo against the Phillies other than the game last week. However, the left-hander has struggled at points this year, and Philadelphia has to get to him and continue to gain momentum.
Overall, the southpaw has done very well against lefties, but righties have hit him hard. Right-handed batters are hitting .290 off Lodolo so far in his young career, and all seven home runs he’s allowed have been to righties.
Given this, it’s no wonder that Philadelphia sent left-handed bat Darick Hall back down to the minors, and will likely bring up the switch-hitting Johan Camargo. Hall should get to play everyday with Lehigh Valley and will return when rosters expand in September.
Betting Preview and Picks
Like yesterday, the Phillies need to use this game to continue breaking out of their slump. And when I say slump- it’s more of a mental hurdle. They scored nine runs against the Mets and still lost on Sunday, an unacceptable feat for a team in the midst of a playoff push. They did this well last night, as they overcame an hour rain delay and pieced together four runs on eight hits.
They have one of the hottest lineups in baseball, have scored the eighth-most runs in the entire league (fifth in NL), and have a top-9 team batting average. The team needs to live up to these numbers and get to Cessa quickly and force the Reds to use their bullpen even earlier and more often in this series than they are planning for.
Phillies Lineup vs. Lodolo
As mentioned, last week was the first time Lodolo ever faced the Phillies. This being said, their lineup has a very small sample size against him. The most notable would be Alec Bohm, who is 1-3 against him with a double. That double was the Phillies only extra-base hit last week when facing Lodolo. Bohm to hit a single is pretty much automatic this season, so that could be parlayed with a Phillies win if you’re looking for a confident win.
Bohm is sitting around -300 to record a hit, and the Phillies are currently -210 on the money line to win. Combining those will come out to an estimated -130 line, so a $10 bet would win you about $7.70, so you collect $17.70.
However, let’s continue our hot streak of doubling our money. Yesterday, we did so successfully with that Bohm/Phillies win parlay. Now, I’m looking at Rhys Hoskins instead. Hoskins to record a hit is -175. Combine that with a Phillies win, and you’re looking at +104 odds. In other words, a $10 bet would win you $10.40, meaning that you will double your money.
Given Lodolo’s struggles against righties this season, I wouldn’t mind sprinkling Hoskins to hit a homerun on Dinger Tuesday either. He actually has the best odds among anyone in the game, sitting at +300 to hit one into that stands.
If you really want to go big and are feeling confident, a parlay of Hoskins homer/ Phillies moneyline is +371, meaning a $10 bet would win you $37.10.
All in all, if you do decide that you can join the action, make sure to do so with one of the promo offer links below. Your bets can be risk free!
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Matt Slocum
