Toronto at Philadelphia, May 9-10

Tuesday, May 09 2023 @ 09:37 AM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

The road trip concludes, with a visit to the home of the defending NL champs.

The Jays have played the Phillies quite a bit over the years - more than any other NL team, in fact (we're obviously not counting the Brewers, who were an AL opponent for the first 20 years of the Jays' existence.) It's gone well - the Jays are 42-28 against Philadelphia, which is a nice, tidy .600 winning percentage. The only teams Toronto has beaten more frequently are Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, but the Jays have played just 21 games against each franchise.

Trivia time? So which AL franchise would the Jays have defeated most often? And which AL franchise would they have their best winning percentage against? (In case this question has a different answer, and the fact that I'm bothering to ask probably represents a Great Big Clue that it does...)

The Jays visited Citizens Bank Park just last September, and split a pair of games. The first was that ridiculous 18-11 game; the second was a ten inning affair won by the Phillies when Matt Vierling drove in the Zombie Runner. Kevin Gausman and Zack Wheeler were the starters; they exchanged zeroes for a few innings before turning it over to the bullpens. The two of them have a rematch tomorrow.

The Philles have been scuffling a bit in the early going. Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler - the two starters the Jays will face - have merely been kind of adequate, and Tajuan Walker and Bailey Falter have been downright terrible. They're also not scoring as many runs as they expected , but Bryce Harper is back in the lineup and looks like he intends to correct that all by himself.

Matchups

Tue 9 May - Manoah (1-2, 4.71) vs Nola (2-2, 4.64)
Wed 10 May - Gausman (2-3, 3.86) vs Wheeler (3-2, 4.86)

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