Colorado at Philadelphia

The Rockies have been a red-hot team, and the Phillies also closed strong. These teams will both turn to their aces to open the five-game series in Philadelphia today. On the surface, this game looks like offense vs. offense, and an initial thought is that game 1 would be high scoring. If you dig a bit deeper into this game, and understand the makeup of the teams, that thought is not an accurate one. The Rockies are the No. 1 ranked team against RHP in all of baseball, outperforming the line by 26.51 units on the season. The Phillies are the No. 3 team in baseball against RHP, as they have rewarded their backers with 12.45 units. Things change dramatically for both of these teams against LHP. The Rockies are 67-49 against righties, but sink to a sub-.500 21-24 against southpaws. The Phillies are no different, as they have gone 62-47 against RHP, but are a mediocre 26-26 against port-siders. Both of these teams have offenses geared to destroy what they see most often and that is RHP, but the strength is turned into a weakness against LHP. Cole Hamels has made 12 home starts, and 8 of the 12 have produced nine runs or less. Francis has had 11 of his last 14 starts finish at nine runs or less, so that is 19 of 26 that don't top this total or 73.1%. These teams have not seen post-season recently, so there may be a bit of pressing early on. This game also fits nicely into a system we have developed for playoff totals that has produced 65% winners in a situation that presents itself here. We will ride the UNDER in this game one in Philly.