The Baltimore Orioles and the Philadelphia Phillies will open a short 2-game series tonight at Citizens Bank Park. Buck Showalter’s squad owns the worst record in baseball at 24-59, and to go along with that, the worst road record in the Majors at 12-30. Alex Cobb will get the call for the Orioles and he has been getting torched. Cobb is 2-9, with a 6.75 ERA, a 1.67 WHIP, and is 0-1 in his last 3 turns with an ERA of 5.30 and a 1.39 WHIP. The Phillies will send Zach Eflin to the rubber and he has been throwing flames. Eflin is 6-2, with a 3.02 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP, and was a perfect 5-0 in the month of June with an ERA of only 1.76. In Eflin’s last turn on Wednesday against the explosive Yankees offense, he pitched 7 scoreless innings in a 3-0 Phillies win. Now that’s impressive. Philadelphia is 28-16 at home and 4-1 in their last 5 at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies are 3-1/2 games back of the division-leading Atlanta Braves. If they want to keep pace, they cannot afford to lose to bottom feeders like Baltimore and they know it.
TONIGHT’S PICK: PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES