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PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES @ ATLANTA BRAVES
6/2/04 1:15 PM EST
At the time of this writing the Phillies were two games out of first in the NL East and a game and a half ahead of the Braves. Philadelphia will send Randy Myers (RHP) to the mound, who if you ignore his last outing had gone five straight games averaging at least six and two thirds innings and posting a record of 3-1. Overall he is 3-3 with a 4.24 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. Unfortunately on the last day of May he was pounded in a three inning performance by the New York Mets and took the loss. To put it bluntly, Myers has an electric arm, with a fastball that hits 94 mph, a sweet curve that buckles player’s knees and an ever improving changeup. Randy is a pure power pitcher out of the departed Curt Shilling mode, and seems to improve as he ages and matures. His Achilles heel is occasional lapses of concentration where hew needs to be reminded to pay attention to mechanics. Another bug a boo is the fact that opponents bat .256 against him with the bases empty, but this rises to .296 with men on base.
Veteran Russ Ortiz will start for the Braves, and has a record of 6-4 with a 3.71 ERA. Ortiz is one of the few pitchers who can get by with working up in the strike zone. He really doesn’t have one favorite pitch, and his stuff will not blow pitchers away even though he can go to 92-94 mph on his fastball. Much like the veteran he replaced in the rotation, Tom Glavine, Ortiz is stubborn, never gives in to hitters and would rather risk a walk instead of giving them the pitch they are waiting for. Because of this he has recorded 33 walks and 51 strikeouts in 63 innings of work. In his last five outings he has only failed to get to the seventh inning once, and has registered a 3-1 record during that stretch.
Phillies are led by Jim Thome who ranks fifteenth in the majors as a team in batting versus the Braves in the nineteenth spot. Thome is batting .312 with twelve homers and twenty-six RBI’s. The Braves Jose Estrada is eleventh in the big leagues with an average of .349, only three homers but thirty-three RBI. Because of the pitching styles, this game could go into the high scoring range. More importantly, Phillies have one of the better road records in the NL and combine that with the fourteenth ranked fielding team. Atlanta is a lowly twenty sixth in fielding and Ortiz got rocked the last time at home. RED ZONE SPORTS loves the boys from the City of Brotherly Love and are taking Philadelphia to beat the Atlanta Braves Saturday.
6/2/04 1:15 PM EST
At the time of this writing the Phillies were two games out of first in the NL East and a game and a half ahead of the Braves. Philadelphia will send Randy Myers (RHP) to the mound, who if you ignore his last outing had gone five straight games averaging at least six and two thirds innings and posting a record of 3-1. Overall he is 3-3 with a 4.24 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. Unfortunately on the last day of May he was pounded in a three inning performance by the New York Mets and took the loss. To put it bluntly, Myers has an electric arm, with a fastball that hits 94 mph, a sweet curve that buckles player’s knees and an ever improving changeup. Randy is a pure power pitcher out of the departed Curt Shilling mode, and seems to improve as he ages and matures. His Achilles heel is occasional lapses of concentration where hew needs to be reminded to pay attention to mechanics. Another bug a boo is the fact that opponents bat .256 against him with the bases empty, but this rises to .296 with men on base.
Veteran Russ Ortiz will start for the Braves, and has a record of 6-4 with a 3.71 ERA. Ortiz is one of the few pitchers who can get by with working up in the strike zone. He really doesn’t have one favorite pitch, and his stuff will not blow pitchers away even though he can go to 92-94 mph on his fastball. Much like the veteran he replaced in the rotation, Tom Glavine, Ortiz is stubborn, never gives in to hitters and would rather risk a walk instead of giving them the pitch they are waiting for. Because of this he has recorded 33 walks and 51 strikeouts in 63 innings of work. In his last five outings he has only failed to get to the seventh inning once, and has registered a 3-1 record during that stretch.
Phillies are led by Jim Thome who ranks fifteenth in the majors as a team in batting versus the Braves in the nineteenth spot. Thome is batting .312 with twelve homers and twenty-six RBI’s. The Braves Jose Estrada is eleventh in the big leagues with an average of .349, only three homers but thirty-three RBI. Because of the pitching styles, this game could go into the high scoring range. More importantly, Phillies have one of the better road records in the NL and combine that with the fourteenth ranked fielding team. Atlanta is a lowly twenty sixth in fielding and Ortiz got rocked the last time at home. RED ZONE SPORTS loves the boys from the City of Brotherly Love and are taking Philadelphia to beat the Atlanta Braves Saturday.
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