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Phillies Could Be Locked in Pitchers Duel in Series Opener Against Rangers
By Joe Tansey
Published:
It’s time for Dallas Sucks: Baseball Edition.
Okay, it doesn’t have the same ring to it in baseball since the Texas Rangers are in the American League, but I’m just like Brandon Graham because I’ll say Dallas Sucks whenever I get the opportunity to do so.
Ranger Suarez leads the Philadelphia Phillies out to the diamond to face the Rangers in what is probably the highest-profile midweek series in the majors.
Suarez’s NL Cy Young Award credentials will increase if he dazzles on the bump against the Rangers. I outlined Suarez’s Cy Young case last week before his start against the New York Mets.
The Phillies’ southpaw allowed four or fewer hits in four of his last five starts and he has not given up more than three earned runs all season.
Texas comes into Citizens Bank Park with the ninth-best team batting average in the majors. They’re fifth in road batting average, but only 17th in BA against left-handed pitching.
In fact, the Rangers have the seventh-most strikeouts against lefties and they rank in the bottom 10 of the league in slugging percentage and OPS versus lefties.
Additionally, Texas has struggled over the last 10 days. The Rangers have lost seven of their last nine dating back to May 10th and their offense has not scored more than four runs since May 8th. That’s an insane statistic given the firepower in the lineup and the fact they scored just six runs in three games at Coors Field to start that stretch.
Texas’ pitching staff allowed at least seven runs in four of the last nine, but that streak may not continue with Jon Gray on the mound. Gray has not allowed more than two earned runs since his opening start of the season.
Even though there are tremendous bats in each lineup, and the wind will be blowing out to center and the temperature will be in the 80s, the under seems to be in play.
That number sits at 8.5 and I would look into the first five under of 4.5 as well, should you partake in PA online sports betting or NJ sports betting.
Gray and Suarez have combined to give up six home runs this season, so it may be wise to stay away from this game for FanDuel’s Dinger Tuesday promotion. Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto all have .300 batting averages in over 10 at-bats against Gray, but most of those matchups happened when Gray was in Colorado.
The Phillies offense has been more consistent and Suarez owns better overall numbers than Gray, so the Phillies are probably the pick on the money line, but do not expect to see a ton of fireworks over nine innings.
Joe Tansey writes sports betting posts for Crossing Broad and also covers the Philadelphia Union for his Substack site, Union Soccer Blog.