Brewers-Phillies Game 1
Certainly what should be the most offensive of the four Division Series begins Wednesday afternoon in Philly when the NL East champion Phillies host the wild-card winning Milwaukee Brewers, with the hosts as the favorites on WagerWeb.com.
Milwaukee will start youngster Yovani Gallardo in Game 1 despite the fact he made only four starts this season and that he just returned from a torn ligament last week in his first start since May 1. He allowed one run and three hits while throwing 67 pitches against Pittsburgh.
“That was huge, everything worked for the best and he threw the heck out of the ball,” interim manager Dale Sveum said. “Everything went fine, he recovered and he’s ready to go.”
Gallardo had a 1.88 ERA and no record in four starts this season. He reported to spring training expected to serve as the Brewers’ co-ace alongside Ben Sheets. Only 21 in 2007, Gallardo went 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA in 20 big league games. Seventeen of those outings were starts, and 12 of those were quality starts.
But he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee just before spring training, then hurt his right knee while trying to hurdle a base-runner May 1 against the Chicago Cubs.
Gallardo beat the Phillies in his only career start against them. He was charged with one earned run on four hits in 6 1/3 innings on Aug. 3, 2007, at Miller Park.
The Phillies will start ace left-hander Cole Hamels (14-10, 3.09 ERA) in Game 1. Hamels will be making his second career postseason start: He started and lost Game 1 of the NLDS last season against Colorado.
He finished second in the National League with 227 1/3 innings pitched this season. Only Sabathia, who split time this year with the Cleveland Indians and Brewers, Roy Halladay and Johan Santana have pitched more.
But Hamels will be pitching on seven days rest vs. Milwaukee. He went 1-1 with a 4.73 ERA (seven earned runs in 13 1/3 innings) against the Brewers this season and is 2-1 with a 4.41 ERA (17 earned runs in 34 2/3 innings) against them in five starts in his career.
The Brewers have a right-handed-heavy lineup and hit left-handers well. They hit .269 against lefties, 23 points better than they hit against right-handers. But in Hamels last outing against the Brewers, at Citizens Bank Park on Sept. 13, he allowed six hits and two runs in 61/3 innings in a 7-3 victory.
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