Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
Stars Align for Phillies Pitching Rotation
One thing the Philadelphia Phillies and a badly-painted wall have in common is they're both streaky.
They suffered a six-game losing streak, then won five games in a row, and now have lost the last two.
Six Flags would like a word about this roller coaster.
Now that they're on a road trip and their second game against the San Francisco Giants, they have a chance to stop this ride.
The rotation has aligned, like good chakras or the planets in summer.
Starting Tuesday will be right-hander Zack Wheeler. Taijuan Walker, Ranger Suarez, and Aaron Nola will start the next three games. It's the first time all season that Philadelphia's top four starters lined up like ducks in a row.
Bonus points: Suarez and Nola will start after an extra day's rest on Thursday.
Over 51.0 innings pitched, Wheeler is 3-3 with a 4.06 ERA, 1.196 WHIP and 61 strikeouts.
Remember those control issues that Walker was having in the past six outings? For now, they seemed to have temporarily ended. In his last two outings, both wins by the way, he pitched six innings all walk-free. And his best pitch, his splitter, in those two starts, threw it over 48 percent of the time up from 32 percent.
Coors Field wasn't the BEST place for Suarez to make his return. It did not go well as he allowed eight runs over four innings. 72 pitches were thrown in those four innings and he's going to be pushed to 85+ when he starts over the weekend.
Nola rounds out the mysteriously perfect lineup. The righty sits at 3-3 in nine starts with an ERA of 4.53, a WHIP of 1.11, and 43 strikeouts in 55 2/3 innings pitched. Yet he's showing encouraging signs.
He is durable and one of the best pitchers the team has in its rotation. Nola is throwing a higher rate of curveballs and the fastball is consistently getting about 90 miles per hour.
After their visit to San Francisco, the Phillies play a six-game homestand against the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks.
After that, they leave on a 10-game NL road trip. Time to fix the streakiness.
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