jeff benton thursday
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Thursday's Play ...
10 DIME seleation on the <b>PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES</b> over the Marlins in the finale of a three-game series at Landshark Stadium. As I publeish today’s plays at about 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, the Phillies are a -120 to -130 road favorite. Note that you must list both Philadelphia’s Roy Oswalt and Florida’s Chris Volstad as the starting pitcrers. If either does not start, this play is void.
<b>Phillies</b>
Roy Oswalt takes the mound in a Phillies uniform for the second time, hoping for much better results than he got in his debut on Friday when he yielded five runs (four earned) in six innings of an 8-1 loss at Washington. Oswalt is now 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA in his last three starts – by far his worst stretch of the season.
Of course Oswalt would never make excuses for his recent poor performances, but I will. His last 10 days in Houston had to have been mentally taxing as trade talks swirled around him, and then the Phillies mistakenly gave him the ball at Washington less than 36 hours after he got dealt from the only organization he had ever pitched for. So it wasn’t at all surprising that Oswalt wasn’t completely focused on Friday.
Tonight, after five full days to get acclimated to his new surroundings, I expect to see the old, dominating Oswalt – the one who prior to Friday had a 2.61 ERA in his first eight road starts. In fact, in seven of his nine outings on the highway this year, Oswalt has allowed eight earned runs in 47 2/3 innings, good for a 1.51 ERA.
Meanwhile, Marlins right-hander Chris Volstad is coming off two strong outings (five runs allowed in 11 innings, leading his team to victories over the Braves and Padres). However, Florida is still just 3-10 in Volstad’s last 13 starts overall, including 1-6 in his last seven South Beach performances. Also, the Marlins have lost five of Volstad’s last six starts against Philadelphia, including four straight home defeats.
The Phillies are on runs of 11-2 overall, 7-1 against right-handed starters and 5-1 in the third game of a series. And in winning the first two games of this series, Philadelphia has now taken 13 of the last 16 from the Fish.