The Red Sox finished the first part of their tour of first place National League teams with a somewhat disappointing 1-2 against the Chicago Cubs. Missing offense on Friday and Saturday meant two solid outings by Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello were squandered. Boston sits at 54-47 (.535) in third place in the AL East. They are five games back of the Toronto Blue Jays and two games behind the New York Yankees. Boston and the Seattle Mariners are tied and occupy two of the three Wild Card spots with a 1.5 game lead on the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Gang Takes on the Phillies
The Phillies are in first place in the NL East with a 56-43 record (.566) and have a 0.5 game lead over the New York Mets. Grimace could not be reached for comment.
With Kutter Crawford and possibly Tanner Houck out for season, it’s a bad time for Walker Buehler to face off against a potential Cy Young winner in Zack Wheeler. What is there to say about Buehler at this point? He held the Tampa Bay Rays to 3 runs in 6.0 innings last time out. Though he also walked more batters (3) then he struck out (2). Wheeler leads the NL in strikeouts (154). He’s allowed four or more runs just four times all season.
Richard Fitts finally got that first pitcher win last time out and will look to overcome a much better Phillies offense than the Colorado Rockies rolled out. Christopher Sanchez has been on a roll, allowing just a single eared run in each of his last five starts. Four of those were at least seven innings while the other was 6.0.
Giolito had his first “down” start in a month against a potent Cubs lineup. He’ll be mastering his takedown of Bryce Harper and Trea Turner in MLB The Show to prepare. The Lizard King, Jesus Luzardo, has bee roughed up by the Angels and Cincinnati Reds recently. The Reds piled on 7 runs in just 3 innings knocking him out of the game. That’s what Boston needs to do. On Nomar’s birthday of all days!
They need four or five wins, ideally, against the Cubs, Phillies, and Dodgers. One is already in the bank. So all the Sox need to do is go .500 over the next six to get to four wins.
Probable Pitching Matchups
Monday July 21: Walker Buehler (6.12 ERA / 5.96 FIP) vs. Zack Wheeler (2.36 ERA / 2.69 FIP)
Tuesday July 22: Richard Fitts (4.28 ERA / 5.20 FIP) vs. Christopher Sanchez (2.50 ERA / 2.75 FIP)
Wednesday July 23: Lucas Giolito (3.59 ERA / 3.69 FIP) vs. Jesus Luzardo (4.29 ERA / 2.87 FIP)
When/Where to Watch
Monday July 21: 6:45 PM ET on NESN
Tuesday July 22: 6:45 PM ET on NESN and TBS
Wednesday July 23: 7:05 PM ET on ESPN
