Sweep or Be Gone

The Phillies open their most critical series of the season tonight in Atlanta, trailing the first-place Braves by 5.5 games. Three wins by the Braves and 3 losses by the Phillies end Philadelphia's playoff hopes.

If the Phils have any hope at all of October baseball, they need to sweep this 4-game series with the Braves. After Atlanta, the Phils go to Denver to play the Rockies, who are trying to make their playoff dreams a reality as well. The Rockies trail the Dodgers by 2.5 games.

The Braves visit the Mets after this weekend with the Phils, and then the Braves and Phils meet up again at CBP next weekend in what could decide the NL East title. But next weekend might not mean a thing unless the Phils sweep the Braves this weekend.

Pitching matchups are as follows:
Thursday - Vince Velasquez v. Kevin Gausman
Friday - Nick Pivetta v. Julio Teheran
Saturday - Jake Arrieta v. Sean Newcomb
Sunday - Aaron Nola v. Mike Foltynewicz

I expect manager Gabe Kapler to go to his bullpen early and often in this series. Velasquez and Pivetta will be on extremely short leashes and Kapler will probably pull each them at the first sign of trouble. Especially Velasquez, who is 0-4 against Atlanta this year.

I want to be optimistic, but the realist in me says the Phillies aren't good enough to pull this off. The offense and starting pitching (other than Nola) have been way too inconsistent.