Pirates at Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies have fallen victim to perhaps the convenient narrative of playing down to the competition, with notable losses sustained against teams that are languishing in the standings. The Phillies aim to quell that talk at Citizens Bank Park on Monday when they open a three-game series against the National League Central cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates.
"It's very frustrating," Philadelphia slugger Rhys Hoskins said. "You often hear you're playing against yourself, right? If we play our game, we obviously can beat any team. We swept the Cubs, we swept the Red Sox on the road. Yeah, it's tough." The 26-year-old provided a rare ray of light in what has been a dark month of August (9-for-73, 20 strikeouts) with a two-run homer in Sunday's 3-2 setback to Miami. While the Phillies' struggles have them residing 1 1/2 games behind Chicago for the second wild-card spot in the National League, Pittsburgh plummeted out of contention following a disastrous a 8-30 stretch before posting a three-game sweep of Cincinnati over the weekend. Bryan Reynolds drove in three runs in Sunday's 9-8 win over the Reds and carries a five-game hitting streak into Philadelphia, against which he went 3-for-14 with six strikeouts in the teams' series last month.
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet-Pittsburgh, NBCS Philadelphia
PITCHING MATCHUP: Pirates RH Joe Musgrove (8-12, 4.74 ERA) vs. Phillies LH Jason Vargas (6-6, 3.99)
Musgrove fell to 0-3 with a 7.71 ERA in his last four starts on Wednesday after getting blitzed for six runs (five earned) on seven hits in five innings of an 11-1 setback against Washington. The 26-year-old looks to alter that stretch versus Philadelphia, against which he permitted one unearned run on two hits with eight strikeouts in a 5-1 win on July 20. Jean Segura is 4-for-10 versus Musgrove, however, the right-hander has limited the rest of the club to batting 6-for-52 with 19 strikeouts against him.
Vargas surrendered two earned runs for the second straight outing and third in four starts since being acquired by Philadelphia, but he only has an 0-1 mark to show for it. The 36-year-old's last win came in his final start with the New York Mets on July 28 when he yielded three runs over 5 2/3 innings in an 8-7 victory against Pittsburgh. Melky Cabrera is 11-for-31 with two homers and 10 RBIs in his career versus Vargas.
WALK-OFFS
1. Philadelphia OF Bryce Harper is expected to return from the paternity list on Monday.
2. Pittsburgh 1B Josh Bell is 4-for-38 in his last 11 contests.
3. Phillies OF Corey Dickerson has seven hits and nine RBIs in his last four games heading into a tilt with his former team despite going hitless Sunday.