The Philadelphia Phillies travelled into Chicago to take on the red hot Chicago Cubs in a four game series.
Tonight is the first ever time two starting pitchers with the first name Cole have matched up. The Phillies sit at 28-20 on the season while the Cubs are 28-18.
The Philllies took the first game in a wild finish that saw the umpires give the Phillies new life on a missed check swing that would have ended the game.
The Cubs then came back in the second game after giving up a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning.
Javier Baez, who is due for an MRI today on his heel, slapped the first pitch into the right field corner to give the Cubs a 3-2 walk off win. It was the Cubs fourth walk off win in their last eight games at home.
The Cubs open up as favourites with a line of -145.
The Phillies came into this series with a three game win streak, and pushed that to four games on Monday night. Prior to facing the Cubs, the Phillies swept the Rockies in Colorado. Conversely, they were dominated by the Brewers in the final three games of their four game series.
Even though the Phillies have been up and down this season, they are still regarded as one of the top teams in baseball. Jean Segura is leading the team with a .318 batting average while Rhys Hoskins has hit 11 homeruns and has 36 RBI. Tonight, Cole Ervin takes the mound for his third start of his career. Irvin is 2-0 with a 2.77 ERA this season with just seven strikeouts in 13.0 innings pitched.
After getting off to a horrid start, the Cubs are right back to playing how they thought they would. Since the start of May the Cubs are 13-6 and are 16-6 dating back to April 26th. The Cubs are looking to make this nine series wins in their last ten series and need a win tonight to possibly continue that streak.
The Cubs have Cole Hamels on the mound tonight and he has been dazzling this year. Hamels has a 3.13 ERA on the season with a 4-0 record. He has 54 strikeouts in 54.2 innings pitched. Hamels has gone at least 5 innings in each start this year and has made it 7.0 or more in three of his nine starts.
Whoever wins this game tonight will hold the upper hand in getting the series win. The Cubs are looking to extend their streak of winning series, while the Phillies are looking to not drop another winnable series.
These games have implications come postseason when one of these teams could be battling for a wild card spot. The Cubs and Hamels have been a tough draw this season so far and I don’t think this game is different. Take the Cubs with Bovada.
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