Phillies Host Red Sox as Interleague Play Kicks Off

The Philadelphia Phillies will host the Boston Red Sox to kick off interleague play Friday night. Philly has played well thus far as they are off to a 25-15 record and currently hold a 4 game lead in the weak National League East standings.

The addition of Roy Halladay to the starting rotation has done wonders for this Phillies squad. He currently leads the team in ERA (1.64), wins (6) and strikeouts (58). Cole Hamels hasn’t pitched as well as he’s capable of, but is still off to a solid 4-2 start. Jamie Moyer may end up being the wildcard for Philly as he has had several poor performances early this season. If the Phillies are to live up the oddmakers baseball predictions of repeating as National League Champions, they will need to either get help in the starting rotation or have one of their young prospects like Kyle Kendrick pick up the slack.

Boston is in the toughest division in all of baseball. The Tampa Bay Rays are off to an incredible 30-11 start, and look as though they won’t let up anytime soon. Red Sox nation needs to be concerned about how far behind they have fallen this early in the season. While the defending Champion Yankees are also off to a very good start, they have been plagued by injuries over the last few weeks and look to be falling back to the pack. The Yanks have lost 8 out of 12, and are now just 3.5 games ahead of the Sox.

Boston’s offense may be slightly below last years pace, but not enough to cause this current slide. It has been the pitching staff that has fallen off this year, and things don’t look to improve anytime soon. The Red Sox’s ace Josh Beckett is having by far the worst beginning to a season that he’s ever had. Fortunately, he has just a 1-1 record, but his horrific 7.29 ERA truly tells the story. He left the his last pitching performance against the Yankees with an injury, and may have to miss his next couple starts. Clay Buchholtz, Jon Lester and John Lackey are a combined 13-7 so far this year, and have held down the fort enough to keep the Sox within arms reach of the wildcard spot. Jonathan Papelbon already has 10 saves, but has looked vulnerable at times this season as he has blown a few saves already.

This series may be more important for Boston, but that doesn’t mean that Philly won’t be trying to knock the cover off the ball. Expect a ton or runs as both squads come into this game in the top 5 for runs scored. If you’re looking for a solid MLB pick over this weekend, I recommend the over in all 3 of the games in this series. Good luck!

Related posts:

1. Lee vs. Beckett in Phillies/ Red Sox Showdown
2. Milwaukee and Boston Battle in Interleague Play
3. Red Sox Try to Gain Ground in East against Rays
4. Sunday Night Baseball: Yankees vs. Red Sox
5. Pirates look to Complete Sweep of Red Sox Sunday

Comments