The Phillies open their final trip out west with a three-game set in Arizona beginning tonight. The Phils enter the day 1 1/2 games behind the streaking first-place Braves in the NL East.
With 44 games remaining in the regular season, every game from here to the end carries importance. Luckily for the Phils, seven of their next 12 contests come against the Diamondbacks, who have the worst record in baseball at 38-81.
The Phillies were favored last week to win the division by FanGraphs, thanks partly to an eight-game winning streak and a weak schedule for the remainder of the season. That changed this past weekend when the club dropped two of three to the Reds. The Braves now have a 53-percent expectancy to win the division per FanGraphs, while the Phillies sit at just 40-percent.
“The Braves are gonna keep going, keep playing well, the Mets also," Bryce Harper said following Sunday's series finale loss to the Reds. "We’ve just got to keep winning games, doing our thing, it doesn’t matter what all the other teams do, we’ve got to win games. Of course, you need a little help here and there but we’ve got to take care of business in series.”
Righty Kyle Gibson will start the series opener for the Phils. He's 2-1 with a 4.76 ERA since joining the club at the trade deadline. Ranger Suarez and Zack Wheeler round out the Phils' rotation in Phoenix. The D-backs, meanwhile, have not announced their pitching plans for the series.
Did you hear?
Diamondbacks rookie Tyler Gilbert joined one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball Saturday, tossing a no-hitter in his first career MLB start - just the fourth player in league history to do so and the first since Bobo Holloman in 1953.
Gilbert was a sixth-round pick out of Southern California by the Phillies in 2015. He was traded to the Dodgers in February 2020 and was plucked from their organization by the D-backs that December in the Rule-5 Draft.
Injury update
Rhys Hoskins is eligible to come off the Injured List tonight, but it seems he won't be ready until later in the week. He's dealing with a left groin strain that he sustained in late July.
