Wall Of Fame Weekend: Phillies vs. Blue Jays Series Preview, August 7-9

The most historic weekend for each Phillies season takes place this weekend, the Wall of Fame weekend. The weekend the Phillies spend at home honoring the legends that wore the red pinstripes. One of the most exciting times for the Phillies organization.

This year, the man joining the Phillies Wall of Fame, one of the highest honors the organization can award, is none other than the greatest second baseman in franchise history, 2008 World Series Champion, Chase Utley. Utley needs no listing of his accomplishment, his number 26 synonymous with the success of the late 2000s Fightins, and now, will become synonymous with the Wall of Fame.

Fall From Grace

The team the Phillies will be welcoming into Citizens Bank Park for this Hall-of-Fame weekend is the defending American League Champions, the Toronto Blue Jays. What, at the beginning of the season, seemed like a great series between two World Series Contenders has turned into a totally different matchup.

The Blue Jays have been struck by a bad October hangover, plagued by injury and underperformance. The Jays have fallen from the mountain top of the American League, spending the trade deadline as sellers. Now, they are hoping for this season to end and just going through the motions of seeing who could be a bright spot next season.

While the Blue Jays were sellers at the deadline and will not be a Postseason team this year, they still have one of the most expensive rosters in the league, one that took the Dodgers to seven games. The Phillies cannot enter this series with any expectation of a cake walk.

Now with all the festivities and momentum of the series victory of the Washington Nationals, the Phillies could very well come out swinging hard against the Jays.

Where’s The Bullpen?

The biggest issue in the previous Nationals series, and for many series this season, was the bullpen. Now the Phillies were able to win the series, but that does not allow the pen to get off scotfree.

The obvious issue coming in the third game of the series. Due to an injury to Andrew Painter, the ‘pen began their work in the fifth inning. Painter allowed one run in his four innings of work, but the ‘pen then allowed nine runs the rest of the way, with the issue being they could not throw strikes to save their lives. Even if the strike zone was triple its size the Phillies’ bullpen arms were not hitting it, made clear by the seven walks given up by the bullpen.

Now, not every bullpen arm for the Phils was like that. Tim Mayza, Orion Kerkering, Jonathan Bowlan, and Jhoan Duran all had good shutout appearances. However, even those arms have had times this season where they haven’t hit the zone well and struggled to keep guys off the base paths; for example, Kerkering struggled the next day in the series finale.

Very simply, this bullpen needs to perform better on a more regular basis. It’s good that Orion Kerkering pitches a clean shutout inning, but what value is it when Alvarado and Killian come in and give up runs? The bullpen is designed to keep the team in games when down and hold onto leads. The reason this ‘pen struggles to do so is they don’t consistently throw strikes. Being major leaguers paid millions of dollars, they should be able to change that inability. That needs to be done immediately, and since this series is the immediate one, it’s a good opportunity to do so.

Schwarbs?

On the offensive side, the lineup as had a small hot streak. Since Luis Arraez has joined the roster, the team has done a much better job producing, especially when it comes to getting on base. However, there’s someone missing: Kyle Schwarber.

Over his last 30 games, Schwarber has hit below .215 with a measely 4 home runs. The clearest example for Schwarber’s struggles was his late strikeout against the Washington Nationals Wednesday night. In a 10-pitch at bat, Schwarber fouled off five of the nine consecutive sliders thrown to him. He fouled off four of those sliders consecutively, all of which left hanging and begging to be sent into the left field bleachers. The at-bat was capped off by the final slider sending Schwarber down looking, and a bad ABS challenge by Schwarber poured salt in the wounds.

It is most likely not going to be the case that Schwarber is benched for a few games to give himself time off to get his head straight, due to the importance his success is to the success for this team, with part of the reason being that he has the ability to turn it on at a moment’s notice.

Game Times and Broadcasts

Friday, August 7th, 6:40 PM ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia, 94.1 WIP

Saturday, August 8th, 6:05 PM ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia, 94.1 WIP

Sunday, August 9th, 1:35 PM ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia, 94.1 WIP

Pitching Matchups

Game 1: Zack Wheeler (RHP, 10-2, 2.49 ERA) vs. Jose Soriano (RHP, 9-6, 3.29 ERA)

Game 2: Aaron Nola (RHP, 3-9, 5.55 ERA) vs. Max Scherzer (RHP, 1-4, 7.92 ERA)

Game 3: Jesus Luzardo (LHP, 10-5, 3.36 ERA) vs. Shane Bieber (RHP, 3-2, 5.11 ERA)

The Numbers

• Record
• Phillies: 62-54
• Blue Jays: 54-62

• Run Differential
• Phillies: 4
• Blue Jays: -61

• Runs Scored Per Game
• Phillies: 4.39
• Blue Jays: 3.90

• Runs Allowed Per Game
• Phillies: 4.41
• Blue Jays: 4.43

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