Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves Series Preview: NL East’s Top Dogs Meet

Two series in the books, and it’s safe to say the Philadelphia Phillies are rolling. After sweeping the Houston Astros with relative ease in the first series of the season, the New York Mets came into town and put up a fight.

After forcing Cole Hamels out of the game early in the first game of the series, the Mets were run down by one of the league’s hottest offenses and of course, Roy Halladay.

Despite winning five of their first six games, there has been a lot of chatter about the Phils’ from the mouths of Major League scouts. After sweeping the Astros, scouts argued that it wasn’t the Phillies who looked good, but the Astros who looked terrible. They argued that the Mets would be a tougher task, and they were.

But the Phils were up to the challenge. After watching Hamels leave having surrendered six runs on Tuesday night, the Phils found themselves with their first lost of the season—against a division rival, nonetheless.

They needed to take the next two games, and through four innings, Joe Blanton looked like an ace in his own right. Though things quickly fell apart for him, the offense was fully supportive, banging out 10 runs in support of their fifth starter.

In the final game of the series, it was all Phillies. After escaping a bases-loaded jam early in the game, you kind of got the sense that the Mets, who have struggled against the Phils’ ace, weren’t going to get much off of Halladay.

In fact, they didn’t score a single run in the series finale, and the Phillies won handily, scoring 11 runs in a rout of the Mets.

Now, after a homestand that saw them win five of their first six games this season, the Phillies hit the road for the first time to face their toughest challenge yet—the Atlanta Braves.

Will the Braves be in a position to get their phenom closer Craig Kimbrel into any of these three games, or will the Phils’ hot offense and trio of aces prevail?

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