Series Preview: Philadelphia Phillies (05/13 - 05/15)

The road has not been kind to our Braves this season, but it's time for them to step up and improve on that account. We might not be as good as we've been in Atlanta and we're certainly not as bad as we've looked away from Turner Field, but which is ultimately closer to the truth will be determined by our performance against our divisional rivals such as the Phillies.

For this series in Philadelphia, we won't have either of our top two starters (Jurrjens and Hudson) out on the mound, but the pitching match-ups don't look all that bad either. Tonight we'll have Reyes going up against Kyle Kendrick. While I'm not sure what to expect out of Jo-Jo, Kendrick has been pretty bad all year, so we should be able to give our guy plenty of run support. Tomorrow night, Glavine faces Brett Myers on ESPN. Tommy has been a bit of a magician this season (making a ton of baserunners disappear before they can score) and Myers has really struggled with his return to the rotation, so I feel good about our chances there. Standing in the way of a potential sweep is Philly ace Cole Hamels, who gets the additional benefit of opposing Chuck James on Thursday night. I don't mean to be harsh, but I've kind of lost my faith in Chucky. Still, if we catch Hamels on an off night and James does his best Tom Glavine impersonation, our line-up should put us over the top.

Speaking of the line-ups, fans of hitting are in for a treat with this series. You'd be hard-pressed to find a weakspot in either line-up on any given night; in fact, if you put these two teams together, they'd give the remaining NL All-Stars are run for their money in the batting cages. Add to that the location of these games - Citizen's Bank Park is a pretty extreme hitter's park - plus the overall quality of the pitching (or lack thereof) and we could be in for quite a show.

I tipped my hand a bit earlier, but I'll go ahead and make my prediction known: the Braves will take the first two and drop the finale. I think we have the slight edge overall in both pitching and hitting, with the exception of Hamels' start to close the series out. As I've said before, what we need to do in May is keep our heads above water and stay within striking distance for the summer. If we can weather this early season storm of injuries and slow starts without falling too far behind, I like our chances to take the division and make a deep run in the postseason. Enjoy the games and, as always, go Braves!