Phillies Braves Preview

This weekend, the Phillies will travek to Atlanta to take on the Braves in their first road trip of the year. After successfully opening the season with a 5-1 homestand, the Phils will look to keep things going against their division rivals.

Phillies Last Series

The Phils took 2 out of 3 from the New York Mets in their second series of the 2011 season. After being blown out in the first game of the series, the Phils responded nicely in the final 2 games, mainly because of their offense. Ryan Howard and Placido Polanco are leading the attack along with Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins. Right now it seems like everyone is hitting the ball which is a very good sign, especially this early in the season. In the upcoming series, the Phils will send Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels to the mound.

Braves Last Series

The Braves boast a solid pitching staff behind a young offense that has a lot of potential. But the Braves are coming off a tough 4 game road series in which they lost 3 out of 4 to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Braves are getting solid pitching, but Freddie Freeman, Dan Uggla and Alex Gonzalez are not hitting well. Brain McCann and Chipper Jones are the only ones hitting above .300 for Atlanta.

What To Look For

Look for the Phils to continue their recent streak of hot hitting. Shane Victorino is settling into his role as lead off hitter nicely, so I expect him to have a big series this weekend. Also Ben Francisco is really stepping up and hopefully he can keep it going. Even when he gets out, Francisco is still hitting the ball hard. On the pitching side, it will be interesting to see how Cole Hamels responds after his disaster against the Mets earlier this week. Hamels needs to regroup, put all distractions aside, and go out there and pitch a solid game and not try to do too much. If Hamels can take the game one pitch at a time, he should be good to go.

Pitching Match-Ups

Friday 7:05 PM Cliff Lee (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs Tim Hudson (1-0, 1.29 ERA)

Saturday 1:10 PM Roy Oswalt (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs Brandon Beachy (0-0, 1.50 ERA)

Sunday 1:35 PM Cole Hamels (0-1, 20.25 ERA) vs Derek Lowe (1-1, 0.77 ERA)

Overall it's going to be a great series between 2 bitter division rivals. I personally feel that it's going to be a 2 team race between the Phillies and Braves for the N.L. East crown, so the Phils need to come out this weekend and set the tone. They need to show the Braves who's boss, and hopefully take at least 2 out of 3.