{"id":33762,"date":"2014-04-05T08:41:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T13:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=33762"},"modified":"2014-04-05T08:41:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T13:41:57","slug":"mlb-predictions-philadelphia-phillies-vs-chicago-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-predictions-philadelphia-phillies-vs-chicago-cubs-33762\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Predictions: Philadelphia Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies (2-2) and Chicago Cubs (1-3) will continue a National League Series Saturday afternoon, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:20 p.m. ET at Wrigley Field<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Philadelphia Phillies are hoping for a better start from Cliff Lee the second time around<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphia has scored 26 runs and is hitting .300 on the season through three games, as it comes off a 7-2 victory over Chicago as +131 road underdogs, while going UNDER the betting total for the third time in four opportunities to start the 2013 campaign.\u00a0 Dating back to May 1, 2013, leadoff man Ben Revere\u2019s .344 batting average is second to only two-time AL MVP Miguel Cabrera\u2019s .346.\u00a0 Philadelphia is 13-12 as road favorites of -125 to -150 the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee (1-0, 14.40 ERA) won on Opening Day despite giving up eight runs in five innings of work against the Texas Rangers\u2014just the third time in MLB since 2008 that a pitcher has allowed eight runs and picked up a victory.\u00a0 The left-hander is 17-9 with a 2.96 ERA in 39 career outings in April, including a 2-1 mark and 3.03 ERA in five appearances a season ago.\u00a0 In seven lifetime starts versus the Cubs, Lee has put together a 4-0 record and 1.95 ERA, including a 1-0 mark and 2.77 ERA in four efforts at this ballpark.<\/p>\n

Chicago hasn\u2019t scored more than three runs in a game, as it has a team batting average of .201, including a .121 mark with runners in scoring position.\u00a0 The Cubs need Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo to start producing at the plate\u2014combining to go 4-for-34 (.118) with one run scored and just a single extra-base hit.\u00a0 The club had been getting great production out of leadoff man Emilio Bonifacio, but he was hitless in three at-bats Friday after starting off the season 11-for-16 through three games.\u00a0 Chicago is 32-40 as a home underdogs of +100 to +125 since the start of the 2012 campaign.<\/p>\n

Cubs starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija (0-0, 0.00 ERA) didn\u2019t record a decision in a 1-0 road loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates Monday\u2014allowing just five hits over seven shutout innings.\u00a0 The right-hander is 10-21 with a 4.92 ERA in 95 career daytime appearances (34 starts), with opposing hitters batting .268 against him.\u00a0 In nine lifetime outings (three starts) versus the Phillies, Samardzija has compiled a 1-3 record and 10.80 ERA.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Phillies due to their 6-2 record in their last eight meetings in the Windy City<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies (2-2) and Chicago Cubs (1-3) will continue a National League Series Saturday afternoon, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:20 p.m. ET at Wrigley Field Philadelphia Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs\u00a0 Philadelphia has scored 26 runs and is hitting .300 on the season through three games, as it comes off a 7-2 victory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[180,102,325,25,98,1637],"class_list":["post-33762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cliff-lee","tag-jeff-samardzija","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-wrigley-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33763,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33762\/revisions\/33763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}