Phillies face off against Braves ahead of MLB trade deadline | Extra Innings

Here come the Atlanta Braves, and here comes the Phillies’ opportunity to speak through their actions to general manager Matt Klentak days before the trade deadline.

The last time the Braves were in town, the season was just beginning and the love affair with Bryce Harper was in full blossom. Remember the three-game sweep at Citizens Bank Park that got the Phillies off to a fast start and the entire town excited about baseball again? Since then, the Phillies are 51-48 and the young, talented Braves are 60-40.

The Phillies, 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Braves and one game behind the second-place Washington Nationals, have a chance to cut Atlanta’s lead to 2 1/2 games if they can pull off another sweep this weekend. Lose three to the Braves, and Klentak’s incentive to make a big deal for a starting pitcher could vanish.

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— Bob Brookover (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

Veteran Jake Arrieta will pitch the series opener against the Braves on Friday night in a matchup that favors the Braves.

Arrieta has a 1.69 ERA in his two starts since it was revealed that he is pitching with a bone spur, but he has pitched just 10 2/3 innings in those two starts. It could be asking a lot for more against an Atlanta team that is ranked third in the National League in runs per game and fourth in home runs. In his only start against the Braves this season, Arrieta allowed just one run on three hits in six innings. The Phillies completed the sweep of the season-opening series in that game.

The Braves will counter Friday with all-star rookie Mike Soroka, who is 10-2 with a 2.46 ERA. The Phillies did knock out the right-hander in the fifth inning when he pitched against them on the Fourth of July in Atlanta, but the Braves still won that game, 12-6. That’s the only time Soroka has faced the Phillies.

The Phillies will send struggling right-hander Zach Eflin to the mound Saturday. Since posting a 2.83 ERA through his first 14 starts of the season, Eflin has gone 1-3 with a 9.38 ERA in his last five starts. That includes a three-inning clunker against the Braves in the aforementioned July 4 loss. The Braves roughed him up for seven runs on seven hits, including a couple of home runs in that game. Manager Gabe Kapler insisted Eflin is healthy after the right-hander complained that his body “felt heavy” in his most recent start Saturday at Pittsburgh.

Atlanta will counter Saturday with lefty Max Fried, who is returning from the injured list after missing his last two starts because of a blister on his throwing hand. Fried had a 2.96 ERA through his first 10 starts, but has a 5.51 ERA in his last nine. The Phillies knocked him out in the fifth inning of a June 14 game at Atlanta, but the Braves rallied to win that game, 9-8, by scoring eight times in the final four innings.

The pitching matchup will favor the Phillies on Sunday, with Aaron Nola going against Kevin Gausman. Nola has a 1.51 ERA in his last seven starts and is 9-3 with a 2.26 ERA in 15 career starts against the Braves. He threw eight shutout innings in a July 2 win at Atlanta.

Right-hander Kevin Gausman will pitch the series finale for the Braves. He is coming off a strong seven-inning performance in a win over Washington, but he still has a 10.57 ERA in his last four starts and a 5.51 ERA in three career starts against the Phillies.

The Phillies are 5-4 against the Braves so far this season, and one factor that could help them this weekend is the emergence of the team’s three-headed lefty bullpen monster. Jose Alvarez, Adam Morgan and Ranger Suarez have allowed just one earned run and 12 hits in a combined 26 2/3 innings this month, which computes to a 0.34 ERA. Opponents have hit .141 (12-for-85) against the three lefties, and overall, left-handed hitters are batting .171 (24-for-140) this season against them.

Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis and Josh Donaldson are much less dangerous hitters against left-handed pitching. Markakis is 1-for-19 and Donaldson is 0-for-7 against Morgan. The Braves’ current hitters are batting a combined .156 (7-for-45) against Suarez and Alvarez. So if the Phillies can stay close late into the game, they should have some good bullpen matchups this weekend.

The series against the Braves is big for the Phillies, but the team does not fear the same superstition that haunted the franchise 40 years ago when the team trotted out its infamous/hideous burgundy uniforms that made Greg Luzinski look more like a giant grape than the Bull. An infuriated Luzinski insisted to then owner Ruly Carpenter that the uniforms be banished forever, and they were until now. Matt Breen’s terrific story touts the return of the “Saturday Night Special” uniforms. The story has all the details and a great closing quote from Larry Bowa about bell bottoms.

After finishing Breen’s story, head to this poll and vote for your favorite Philadelphia professional sports uniform of all-time. My personal favorites are the stars-and-stripes uniforms of the early Julius Erving days with the 76ers and the red championship-era jerseys introduced during Moses Malone’s first season in Philly.

If you’re in a 1970s groove after reading Breen’s story, don’t go watch reruns of the Brady Bunch or Mod Squad. Instead, go read Frank Fitzpatrick’s remembrance of the 1977 Phillies, a loaded team that lost a series to the Los Angeles Dodgers that it should have won.

Friday: Jake Arrieta pitches series opener vs. Atlanta’s Mike Soroka, 7:05 p.m.

Saturday: Zach Eflin tries to rebound vs. Max Fried, 7:05 p.m.

Sunday: Aaron Nola pitches series finale vs. Braves’ Kevin Gausman, 1:05 p.m.

Monday: Off day.

Tuesday: Start of a three-game series vs. San Francisco Giants, 7:05 p.m.

At the moment, it appears as if the Phillies’ best chance to reach the postseason is as one of the two wild cards. The Phillies are just one of four teams that has never reached the postseason as a wild card. The other three are the San Diego Padres, the Washington Nationals and the Chicago White Sox.

Six wild-card teams have won the World Series since the wild-card system was introduced during the 1995 season. Six other teams have lost the World Series as wild-card teams, which means 12 of the 48 teams to reach the World Series since 1995 have been wild-card teams.

The Red Sox and Yankees have each reached the postseason as wild-card teams seven times, the most in baseball. The Colorado Rockies have been a wild card five times, the most of any National League team. The Marlins have used the system to their advantage in the best possible way, winning the World Series in 1997 and 2003 as wild-card entries. They still have never won a division title.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @brookob.

Quesiton: Hi, Bob. My question is about Zack Greinke. I keep reading that the Phillies might be interested in trading for him. But the Phillies are on his no-trade list. I understand that those lists are sometimes compiled with a view toward extracting some kind of additional compensation to induce a waiver of the clause. I would like to know what additional compensation could possibly be offered to a player who still has at least $70 million coming to him. And why would he agree to leave Arizona for a team whose chances to make the playoffs are only marginally better than the D-Backs?

— Jim L, loyal reader, via email

Answer: Hi, Jim. Thanks for being a loyal reader and for your question. The Phillies are one of 15 teams on Greinke’s reported no-trade list, and five of the teams would play in the postseason if the season ended today, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, who each have the best record in their respective leagues. The list essentially lets Greinke pick and choose where he wants to go if the Diamondbacks try to trade him. Cole Hamels exercised his no-trade clause when he left the Phillies in 2015, nixing a deal to the Houston Astros before accepting a trade to the Texas Rangers.

Question: As I watch Adam Morgan pitch, I cannot help but think, “What happened to his velocity?” I was accustomed to seeing him hit 95 on the speed gun, but lately, he has become strictly a breaking ball pitcher.

— Jim A., via email

Answer: Jim, you’ve made a sound observation, and I suspect Morgan is relying on his slider and curveball more because he is throwing both pitches well and his fastball velocity has dropped slightly over the last two seasons.

According to FanGraphs.com, Morgan has averaged 92.6 mph on his fastball this season and is throwing it 27.4 percent of the time. Last season. he threw his fastball 34.8 percent of the time and it averaged 94.1 mph. Two seasons ago, he threw it 33.1 percent of the time and it averaged 94.4 mph.

Morgan has used his slider and curveball a career-high 53.6 percent of the time this season. He used those two pitches 49.8 percent last season and only 40.8 percent in 2017. The good news for Morgan and the Phillies is that he is still effective despite the dip in velocity.