The Phillies return from their successful western road trip tonight to begin a monumental series with the Atlanta Braves. Philadelphia's 21-7 record in the month of August helped them jump back into the race for the National League East Division title, as they will enter this series four games back of Atlanta for first place.
It's been quite a while since these two teams faced each other, as their last meeting came on Sunday, April 26th. That was a 6-2 loss for the Phillies that saw their record dip to 9-19 on the season. It was also Rob Thomson's last game as manager of the Phillies, as he was fired the morning after and replaced with interim manager Don Mattingly. Felix Reyes hit cleanup for the Phillies in that game and Adolis García hit fifth behind him. Nolan Hoffman pitched the final 1.1 in mop-up duty.
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Needless to say, but the Phillies are a dramatically different team than they were the last time they played the Braves. They have won 15 of their last 18 games, their offense is coming off of a month where they had the highest on-base percentage in baseball, and their starting pitching has largely rounded into form outside of the recent rough stretch from Zack Wheeler. Aaron Nola, who allowed six earned runs in that last meeting, has recaptured some of his past form, as he has a 3.43 ERA across eleven starts since the beginning of July. Bryce Harper, who went 0-4 with three strikeouts on April 26th, is riding a 35-game on-base streak and is hitting .368 with an eye-popping .522 OBP over the last month.
This series will be crucial in deciding who will come away with the NL East crown and therefore earn a bye to the divisional round of the postseason and who will be forced to play a three-game Wild Card series. A doozy of a pitching matchup will kick it off, as Cristopher Sánchez faces Chris Sale in the opener of the four-game set tonight.
So, how are you feeling ahead of this series with the Braves?How many games do the Phillies need to win for you to feel that the division is within reach? How many wins do they need in the seven games they will play against the Braves in the next ten days?
