Phillies Giants Fathers Day Weekend Series Preview
As the Phillies wrapped up their series with the Dodgers losing their first two games, but salvaged the series in game 3, they travel 383 miles north to San Francisco to play the red hot Giants. San Francisco currently is 44-25, 2.5 games up on the Dodgers for first place in MLB's best division in baseball the NL West and currently have the best record in the National League. This Phillies team has gotten hot themselves winning 7 of there last 10 ballgames and coming off a 6-2 home stand where the lineup finally started to wake up scoring 4 or more runs in 6 of those 8 games. They didn't eclipse that mark in the Dodgers series but tallied 24 hits in those 3 games in LA. If the Phillies are going to take at least 2/3 games vs the Giants they need to hit better with runners in scoring position.
Some positives for the Phils in this series are they get to avoid Kevin Gausman in this series which is huge for this lineup now not having one of the hottest hitters in baseball Jean Segura with a groin injury till at least July. Another positive is it looks like Bryce Harper's back injury isn't serious and expects to play in this series. They also get Vince Velasquez and Aaron Nola for the first 2 games of the series which is huge in a pivotal series such as this one. Both of these pitchers need to have quality starts against this Giants lineup for the Phillies to have a chance to win this series and fly back home on a high note. One more positive to add is this Giants team as good as they have been playing can't be this hot forever. This team is filled with a bunch of veterans out of there prime over performing to what they really are. For examples, Brandon Crawford isn't going to be on pace to have a 30+ home run season forever he's 34 and hasn't done that or came close in his career, Buster Posey wont have an ops at almost 1.000 for much longer as his career ops is at .832, Evan Longoria is on the IL, Brandon Belt's ops won't be in the high .800's all season, etc. At some point this Giants team will come back down to earth and will this series be the start to that?
Lastly, when these two teams matched up this Phillies squad wasn't the same team as they are now. Chase Anderson started the first game of the series, the lineup wasn't as settled in as they are now, the bullpen was still a mess, but in fairness we can say the same about San Francisco as well. These two ball clubs matched up in the early 4th week of the season 15 games in before the first of there 3 game set at Citizens Bank Park it's hard to truly evaluate how last series affects this one. I don't believe it does at all. The Phillies will be pitching 3 new arms the Giants haven't seen this year in Velasquez, Nola, and Howard. Plus for how much the Phillies bullpen gets criticized and rightfully so they are in the top half of major league baseball in bullpen era. I believe that this team gets right back on track,keeps pace with the first place Mets, and wins this series vs the Giants. I believe they take the first two games behind Vinny V and Nola but lose on Sunday on Fathers Day in a packed Oracle Park to end this quick west coast trip 3-3 lets go Phils!