Fresh with his third straight victory, Philadelphia Philos will be without close on Monday when he opens a four-game series against Colorado Rockies in Denver.
Actually, they will last longer than that.
Jose Alvarado was suspended for 80 Games and is disqualified for playoff after positive testing for a substance banned under MLB’s performing drugs policy, the league announced on Sunday. This leaves a large hole behind the bullpen of the Philadelphia and is a blow to its championship aspirations.
“We’ve found to move forward,” Rob Thomson, the manager of Phillies, said after his team’s 1-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday. “It’s so bad, but we have to move forward. We have really good pieces that can pick up slacks.”
It begins on the mound as Christopher Sanchez (4–1, 2.91 ERA) will face Kyle Freeland (0–6, 6.15) in a left-handed matchup on Monday night.
Philadelphia can do something scouting against a Rocky team in Denver this week that can sell parts before the trading deadline. Colorado has already made major changes by firing manager Bud Black, but things have not been much better under the interim manager Warren Shefer.
Rockies fell at a distance of 8-38 in the season after leaving 1-5 on its road trip wrapped in Arizona on Sunday. Colorado had a chance to win its first series of the season when it loaded the hideouts with 1–0 in the ninth place, but a popout and lineout ended the game.
“I felt that we are struggling with this entire road trip,” Shefer said after the loss of the series. “Just a few hits from winning some games, and if we keep playing in this way, Rocky’s fans are watching some win.”
Shefer will begin at home after taking over as interim manager on Monday.
Colorado, which has been closed seven times this season, is only in the pace of winning 28 games. Things become difficult with the next 13 matches against the teams sitting first or second in their respective divisions.
Freeland is coming out of its fourth quality of the season, but it is yet to be converted into victory. One of those quality began on 2 April in Philadelphia, which was his second outing of the season. He allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings in a game. The Rockies lost 5–1.
In nine careers begins against Philips, it is 2–4 with 3.59 ERA.
Sanchez is facing Colorado for the fifth time in his career and is 1–0 with 2.57 ERA. He opened his season against Rockies, a 6–1 Philadelphia win on 31 March, but did not get one-to-union despite allowing one run on four hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Sanchez played at least five out of seven of his eight innings. His smallest outing was in New York Mets on 22 April, when he was released after two innings, which were due to the bitterness of the left and the only loss of the year. He made his next starts eight days later and won the last two decisions.
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