Phils & Braves Cuddle-up for Weekend Lovefest

The Phils 3-game weekend series vs. the Braves, which begins today in the city of Brotherly Love, will be their 1st battle for 1st-place since May 9th-11th, when they won 2 of 3 vs. Florida. Of course, the floundering Marlins have since gone South for the summer.

The ever-present Braves, however, lead the season series 5-games-to-4 over the Phils and are now eyeing 1st place, if they can do what they did to Colorado this week: sweep the series.

The Phils enter the 3-game series with a 2 1/2 game lead over Atlanta.

"You can have a 10-game lead right now, and that doesn't mean you're going to go to the playoffs," Phils manager Charlie Manuel said. "We haven't won nothing. We've been winning some games and we have a good record, but the Braves are right there with us. We ain't done nothing yet, really."

The Braves have won 9 of their last 10 games and 14-of-17. They mirror the Phils in pitching-over-hitting strength.

"We're similar in a lot of ways," Manuel said. "If you look at runs scored and hitting, they're a lot like us. They've been doing it mostly with pitching."

The Braves led the Phils by 4 1/2 at the '10 All-Star break, but the Phils came back to win their 4th-straight division title. The Braves hope to do the same this season.

Braves' 6-time all-star 3rd baseman Chipper Jones said, "If you want to get to the top, you've got to beat the best, and they've been the best for quite some time. Every time we play them, it's a measuring stick."

Three key factors in this series:

1) The Phils will be throwing the studs of their rotation against the Braves' 2nd tier hurlers, since Ace Jair Jurrjens and star Tim Hudson have just pitched and will not appear in the 3 games in Philadelphia.

Jurrjens (12-3, 1.87 ERA) has bested the Phils' Cy Young contenders, Halladay and Hamels, thus far. If the season ended today, Jurrjens would be baseball's pitching king.

NL manager Bruce Bochy is presently deciding whether Jurrjens or Halladay will start for him in the All-Star game: "I've got two guys—Halladay with all he's done" and Jurrjens, he said Thursday.

2) Phils' batting leader and newly-named 5th All-Star, Shane Victorino (.303; 1st on Phils, 10th in NL) has just been placed on the 15-day DL for his injured thumb and will not play vs. Atlanta.

3) Phils' closer Ryan Madson is on the 15-day DL, so will not appear vs. Atlanta. Madson is 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA in 31 appearances. He is holding opposing hitters to a .230 batting average and has struck out 34 hitters in 31 innings.

Atlanta leads all of baseball in team ERA (3.02) and Batting Average Against (.229), they're 3rd in Quality Starts (56), 2nd in Shutouts (10) and tied with the Phils for 2nd in WHIP (1.18).

The Phils are 2nd in ERA (3.05), 8th in BAA (.242), 1st in QS (58), 1st in Shutouts (13, 6 by Halladay) and tied with the Braves for 2nd in WHIP (1.18).

Braves' closer Craig Kimbrel threw back-to-back 99-mph fastballs Thursday to collect his 27th save, an MLB record (eclipsing Jonathan Papelbon) for the most pre-All-Star Break saves by a rookie, ever [Picture: left, below].

The Phils and Braves will play 2 series in September and the Phils will finish their season in Atlanta, September 26th-28th.

Game 1, tonight, 7:05 pm EST:

Atlanta: Beachy (3-1, 3.23 ERA) at
Philadelphia: Halladay (11-3, 2.44 ERA)

Halladay is 6-0 with a 2.69 ERA over his last 9 starts.

Game 2, Saturday, 4:10 PM EST:

ATL: Hanson (10-4, 2.52 ERA) @

PHI: Lee (9-6, 2.92 ERA)

The Braves are 6-0 with a 2.08 ERA in Hanson's last 6 road starts.

Game 3, Sunday, 1:35 PM EST:

ATL: Lowe (5-6, 4.21 ERA) @

PHI: Hamels (10-4, 2.40 ERA)

Chipper Jones is hitting .313 against Hamels, lifetime with 2 HR and 4 2B in 32 At-bats (.625 SLG %).

Note:

Chris Ferguson, the Philly native commander of the NASA Atlantis mission that just left for space is bringing Tastykakes with him. Last space mission, he brought his Chase Utley jersey.