clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Know Your Foe: Rockies travel to face struggling Phillies

Fresh off a sweep at the hands of the Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies welcome the Rockies to Citizens Bank Park.

Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

After taking two of three from the Reds in Cincinnati, the Rockies will travel to Philadelphia to take on a struggling Phillies squad.

Coming into the series, the Phillies have lost six of their last seven games, dropping two of three to the Nationals and getting swept by the Mets after losing the series finale at Coors Field last week. Philadelphia now sits at 19-30 in 2015, fourth in the NL East.

Hitters to watch

First baseman Ryan Howard is the only Phillies hitter with an OPS+ over 100 at 122. The 35-year-old is hitting .256/.298/.519 with a team-high 10 home runs in 2015. He has, however, struck out 49 times against just eight walks in his first 44 games this year.

Howard's usual partner in crime, second baseman Chase Utley, has struggled this season, hitting just .188/.266/.302 with only 10 extra-base hits in 149 at bats. However, half of those extra-base hits have come in the last two weeks in which he has hit .389/.476/.556, so he seems to be heating up.

2015 hitting stats

Name G PA HR R RBI SB BB% K% ISO BABIP AVG OBP SLG wOBA wRC+ BsR Off Def WAR
Ben Revere 48 197 0 22 15 9 5.1% 8.6% .081 .296 .269 .310 .349 .292 82 0.3 -3.7 1.9 0.5
Odubel Herrera 48 182 1 15 14 6 4.4% 24.7% .106 .331 .247 .285 .353 .281 75 0.9 -4.4 -0.7 0.0
Freddy Galvis 45 180 1 21 12 5 6.7% 13.3% .048 .350 .303 .358 .352 .319 101 1.4 1.5 4.5 1.2
Ryan Howard 44 172 10 16 24 0 4.7% 28.5% .263 .304 .256 .298 .519 .348 120 -0.8 3.3 -3.7 0.5
Chase Utley 44 169 3 14 21 1 8.3% 14.8% .114 .202 .188 .266 .302 .245 51 0.2 -9.4 -1.0 -0.6
Carlos Ruiz 35 131 0 8 8 0 8.4% 15.3% .050 .303 .252 .321 .303 .281 75 -2.0 -5.8 0.5 -0.1
Cody Asche 30 113 2 5 4 0 5.3% 28.3% .104 .329 .245 .283 .349 .278 73 -0.3 -3.9 -1.8 -0.2
Jeff Francoeur 40 110 3 11 13 0 5.5% 18.2% .157 .259 .235 .273 .392 .288 80 -0.5 -3.2 -1.0 -0.1
Grady Sizemore 39 104 0 4 6 0 5.8% 22.1% .051 .320 .245 .288 .296 .262 63 -0.4 -5.0 -4.0 -0.6
Darin Ruf 34 95 3 9 9 0 6.3% 20.0% .174 .242 .221 .274 .395 .290 82 -0.6 -2.7 -1.0 -0.1
Cesar Hernandez 42 94 0 12 8 1 14.9% 14.9% .064 .292 .244 .355 .308 .305 91 -0.1 -1.1 2.0 0.4
Cameron Rupp 15 55 0 1 1 0 9.1% 25.5% .082 .278 .204 .273 .286 .243 49 0.4 -2.9 3.1 0.2
Maikel Franco 13 54 2 7 8 1 5.6% 14.8% .176 .244 .235 .278 .412 .300 88 -0.3 -1.1 -1.7 -0.1
Andres Blanco 25 39 0 2 2 0 2.6% 12.8% .139 .290 .250 .289 .389 .297 86 -1.0 -1.7 0.3 0.0


Pitchers to watch

Unfortunately, the Rockies will see the Phillies' best two starting pitchers, Cole Hamels and Aaron Harang, in the first two games of the series.

Hamels will get the start in the series opener, and the veteran southpaw is off to a strong start this season with a 2.98 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in his first 10 starts. He has walked 24 and struck out 67 in 66⅓ innings. He has a 3.34 ERA in 62 innings in his career against the Rockies.

In his first season with the Phillies, Harang has been even better than Hamels in 2015. He has a 1.93 ERA and 1.03 WHIP this season with 15 walks and 46 strikeouts in 65⅓ innings. He does, however, have a 2.85 FIP and 4.31 xFIP in his 10 starts this year.

2015 pitching stats

Name W L SV G GS IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 BABIP LOB% GB% HR/FB ERA FIP xFIP WAR
Cole Hamels 5 3 0 10 10 66.1 9.09 3.26 1.09 .253 82.3% 47.1% 12.9% 2.98 3.89 3.63 0.9
Aaron Harang 4 4 0 10 10 65.1 6.34 2.07 0.28 .258 76.7% 33.7% 2.3% 1.93 2.85 4.31 1.8
Jerome Williams 3 4 0 10 10 54 5.33 2.67 1.33 .330 69.0% 43.5% 12.9% 5.33 4.87 4.54 0.1
Sean O'Sullivan 1 4 0 6 6 33.2 4.81 2.14 2.41 .252 84.8% 47.0% 22.0% 4.81 6.60 4.82 -0.5
David Buchanan 0 5 0 5 5 24.2 4.38 5.47 0.73 .349 54.1% 48.2% 7.4% 8.76 5.27 5.75 -0.1
Justin De Fratus 0 1 0 21 0 23 8.61 4.30 1.17 .281 67.1% 50.8% 16.7% 4.30 4.60 4.00 -0.1
Luis Garcia 1 1 1 23 0 22.2 7.54 4.37 0.40 .303 78.4% 66.2% 14.3% 3.18 3.48 3.34 0.1
Jeanmar Gomez 0 1 0 18 0 20.1 4.43 2.66 0.00 .338 73.3% 42.3% 0.0% 3.10 3.03 4.95 0.2
Ken Giles 1 1 0 22 0 20.1 8.85 4.43 0.44 .300 65.2% 45.9% 4.2% 2.21 3.27 4.28 0.2
Jonathan Papelbon 0 0 11 19 0 19 10.89 2.37 0.47 .250 91.4% 47.7% 6.7% 1.42 2.65 3.07 0.4
Jake Diekman 0 1 0 21 0 18 12.00 7.00 0.50 .423 61.2% 56.6% 6.7% 7.00 3.85 4.29 0.0
Severino Gonzalez 2 1 0 4 4 17 6.88 1.59 1.06 .421 62.5% 33.9% 8.7% 6.88 3.83 4.19 0.2
Chad Billingsley 0 2 0 3 3 16 3.94 1.69 1.69 .333 59.6% 44.3% 13.0% 6.75 5.25 4.82 0.0
Dustin McGowan 1 1 0 10 1 14 5.79 10.29 0.64 .289 69.9% 37.0% 6.3% 5.79 6.20 6.86 -0.2
Elvis Araujo 1 1 0 8 0 7 6.43 6.43 0.00 .455 80.0% 52.4% 0.0% 3.86 3.84 4.44 0.0


Probable starters

Game 1 (May 29): Chad Bettis vs. Cole Hamels

Game 2 (May 30): Jorge De La Rosa vs. Aaron Harang

Game 3 (May 31): Eddie Butler vs. Jerome Williams