The Phillies have lost their last five games after winning five straight games. They’ll have one more game before taking on the Atlanta Braves in an essential four-game series.
Will Bryce Harper and the Phillies show up against a talented Braves team at home? Let’s see what the MLB odds tell us at the top-rated sportsbooks!
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The Series So Far
Last weekend, the Phillies’ series against the Braves didn’t go all that well. The Braves swept the Phillies and pushed the Phillies closer to the bottom of the NL Wild Card standings.
The Phillies are up by a couple of games in the final spot in the NL Wild Card. Meanwhile, the Braves have clinched the playoffs but are still fighting for the NL East division.
This series between the Braves and the Phillies will tell us a lot. Players like Bryce Harper need to step up in these big moments.
Harper is hitting .298 with 17 home runs and 57 RBIs. But remember, he missed a large portion of the season after being hit by a pitch from Blake Snell earlier this year. Let’s break down his matchups against the Braves for this four-game series.
Pitchers Harper Will Likely Face vs. Twins
The Braves will likely send Max Fried, Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Wright, and Charlie Morton for the four-game series.
Max Fried
Fried’s allowed a .167 ISO to lefties and usually gives up more hard contact and fly balls to lefties this season.
However, Fried has been one of the more consistent pitchers in the game and continues to get a high amount of grounders while keeping his xFIP low.
Against lefties, like Fried, he’s allowed a high ISO of .167. He’s walking more batters from the left side but has maximized ground balls better against lefties.
Jake Odorizzi
In the second game, it’ll be Jake Odorizzi. Odorizzi has a 4.31 xFIP, but still has high strikeouts and low walks.
Kyle Wright
In the third game, it’ll be Kyle Wright. Wright has a 3.54 xFIP with 24.4% of strikeouts in the last 30 days. He could end up winning 20 games this year. Lefties have hit just a .254 wOBA and ISO of .113 during the previous 30 days.
Charlie Morton
Finally, Charlie Morton will finish things off for the Braves on Sunday. Lefties have a .205 ISO, but if we’re being honest, Morton has been much worse against righties over the last 30 days. Harper still has potential in Sunday’s game.
Bryce Harper’s Splits
In the last 30 days, Harper has hit a .170 ISO with a wOBA of .347 against righties. He’s struck out under 18% of the time and continues to work walks 16.1% of the time. He’ll face three righties after facing Fried in the first game.
His BABIP is sitting at .286 against righties, but his contact hasn’t been superb. He’s hit 56.8% of grounders while only hitting 10.8% of line drives. He’s also only hit 32.4% of fly balls in the last 30 days against righties.
Still, Harper has hit 40.5% of hard contact against righties, and if he gets something good to hit, he’ll capitalize. After all, he’s still hitting .316 against righties on the season with an OPS of .972. Meanwhile, against lefties, Harper has been way worse.
He’s hitting a .120 ISO with a wOBA of .251 over the last 30 days. He’s struck out 41.4% of the time despite walking 13.8% of the time. Harper has also hit just over 69% of grounders against lefties and nearly 31% of line drives over the last 30 days.
Low Performance
He hasn’t hit a single fly ball. It’s just grounders or line drives. Harper has also hit 38.5% of hard contact. Harper has hit just three home runs against lefties this year but still has a .364 OBP.
He’s still finding ways to get on base despite not performing nearly as well.
How Harper Will Perform vs. Braves’ Starters
Harper has been much better against right-handed pitchers. He’ll face three of them through the four-game series. However, when the game gets tighter, the Braves will pitch lefties against Harper in big spots.
That could hurt Harper’s chances of having big games, especially late in the game. But Harper could hit for power against the lefty in Fried and has a great matchup against Jake Odorizzi on Friday. Charlie Morton has also struggled to have consistent success recently.
That’s another matchup where Harper could have success. This is going to be a fun series between these two divisional rivals. This series means a whole lot for both teams, and the stars are going to be the ones to contribute the most.
Harper should be ready when he faces some of these Philadelphia right-handed pitchers. Philadelphia would love to see him breakout to help the Phillies reach the playoffs. Let’s see if he’s got it in him.
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