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After sweeping the Marlins in Philadelphia last month, the Phils took last night's series opener in Miami, 6-5. The win was the Phils' third straight overall, which officially qualifies as a "winning streak."
Tonight, the Phillies will send Kyle Kendrick to the mound to face Miami starter Nathan Eovaldi, who is 2-2 with a 3.62 ERA. He's a power right hander who gets a lot of strikeouts, totalling 50 in 54 2/3 innings so far this year. Eovaldi is coming off a sub-standard outing against San Francisco, however, in which he gave up six runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Kendrick, meanwhile, has pretty much defined the term "hapless" as of late. The dude can't buy a win, having now gone 15 straight starts without a victory. He's 0-4 this year, but with a respectable 3.96 ERA. However, the offense just has not scored any runs for him.
Phils have scored 1 run or less for Kyle Kendrick in 8 of his last 15 starts
— John Clark CSN (@JClarkCSN) May 17, 2014
That's not many, kids.
However, the lineup has been solid the last three games, with 26 runs scored and six home runs. Jimmy Rollins is once again in the leadoff spot with Ben Revere on the bench for the fifth straight game. Revere says he's healthy enough to play after being knocked out by the flu, but Sandberg is obviously going with the hot hand here. Tony Gwynn Jr. gets the start, he'll hit eighth. The rest of the lineup is your standard fare.
Miami, by the way, is a tough beat at home. They have a league-leading 17 victories at the quarter-filled stadium with the ugly statue.