Phillies vs. Marlins
1:05 p.m. on CSN; streaming live on CSNPhilly.com and the NBC Sports App
1. Hellickson on a roll
The run Jeremy Hellickson is on likely played a role in the Phillies' pushing back Nick Pivetta's first start until the weekend. Hellickson will pitch tonight with one extra day of rest between starts.
The Phillies' acquisition of Hellickson prior to 2016 is looking like a right place, right time situation. They appear to have landed him just as he was entering his prime and understanding what about his repertoire works and what doesn't.
Through four starts this season, Hellickson is 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 0.71 WHIP. His opponents have hit just .169. And keep in mind that two of those starts were against the Nationals - who own the best record in baseball - and one was against the Reds, who have swung well the entire month.
Hellickson has now made 36 starts with the Phillies and gone 15-10 with a 3.51 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. He's walked just 48 batters in 213 innings.
His changeup continues to be an equalizing pitch, and that should play well against a free-swinging Marlins lineup. Over the last two seasons, Hellickson's opponents are 36 for 233 against his changeup for a .155 batting average. Only Stephen Strasburg, Kyle Hendricks and Michael Fulmer have a lower opponents' BA on their changeup.
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Helly faced the Marlins six times last season (more than he faced any other team), and went 3-1 with a 2.01 ERA. He walked just three batters in 40⅓ innings, which again shows you a little bit about how impatient Miami's lineup can be. The only player in Miami's lineup with above-average plate selection is Christian Yelich.
Current Fish have hit just .206 against Hellickson in over 200 plate appearances. The only players with decent numbers against him are Marcell Ozuna (5 for 20, 3 doubles and a homer) and Yelich (6 for 20). Giancarlo Stanton is 1 for 15 with five K's against Hellickson.
2. A look at Volquez
The Phillies get well-traveled, 33-year-old right-hander Edinson Volquez this afternoon. He's had three rough starts in a row in his first year with Miami, allowing 11 runs in 13⅔ innings.
He's had back-to-back four-walk games and has yet to pitch past the sixth inning.
Volquez is an enigma. He's always had good stuff and he's never allowed many home runs, but his control can go at any time. He had a 3.04 ERA in 2014 with the Pirates and a 3.55 ERA the next year with the Royals, but last season he was downright bad - 5.37 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 76 walks in 189⅓ innings for Kansas City.
As a result, Volquez did not find a long-term deal in free agency, signing a two-year, $22 million contract with the Marlins, who badly needed starting pitching.
Through all of his ups and downs, Volquez has always handled the Phillies. He's 4-1 with a 2.17 ERA and a strikeout per inning in six career starts against them.
Because Volquez hasn't faced the Phils since 2014, only a few players have seen him. The ones that have, though, are 15 for 35 (.429) with five doubles and a homer. Freddy Galvis and Daniel Nava are a combined 8 for 13 and Galvis has two doubles and a longball.
Volquez is a four-pitch guy: sinker, changeup, fastball, curveball. He uses those four pitches about equally against lefties and righties alike.
3. Franco making presence felt
Maikel Franco's month of April hasn't been all good, but here we are on April 27 and only five players in the majors - Daniel Murphy, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Charlie Blackmon and Ozuna - have more RBIs than his 20.
Yes, eight of those 20 RBIs came on two swings, but isn't that also a good thing?
RBIs do not tell a complete story about a player. They are also not completely meaningless the way many baseball fans my age claim. Runs are required to win baseball games. Runs matter. RBIs are rarely a predictive stat, but there isn't a baseball player alive who will tell you they're a useless stat.
Now, to put this in perspective, Franco has had a ton of RBI opportunities so far this season as the top of the Phillies' order continues to get on base. In the National League, only Murphy, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo have had more plate appearances with men on base.
Stats aside, it's been good to see Franco more under control at the plate. He remarked Wednesday that it was the first time he lost his helmet on a swing after doing it 20 to 25 times last season.
The grand slam off Marlins left-hander Wei-Yin Chen was on a 92 mph fastball right down the middle. But you know what? You still have to hit that pitch and Franco hadn't done much capitalizing on mistakes the first few weeks of the season.
4. Today's lineup
An afternoon off for Cesar Hernandez, Tommy Joseph, Cameron Rupp and Aaron Altherr.
Andres Blanco gets his first start of the season.
1. Daniel Nava, LF
2. Freddy Galvis, SS
3. Odubel Herrera, CF
4. Maikel Franco, 3B
5. Michael Saunders, RF
6. Andres Blanco, 2B
7. Brock Stassi, 1B
8. Andrew Knapp, C
9. Jeremy Hellickson, P
5. This and that
• Hellickson's first inning today will be the 1,000th of his MLB career.
• A Vince Velasquez note from last night: His 19 first-pitch strikes on 26 pitches was a rate of 73 percent, well above the 58 percent mark he's compiled altogether as a Phillie. If you're facing 26 batters, that's the difference of starting four more counts 0-1 as opposed to 1-0, which is the most important count differential for pitchers.
• Phillies last April: 3.3 runs per game, .231 batting average, 21 home runs in 24 games.
Phillies this April: 4.8 runs per game, .253 batting average, 22 home runs in 19 games.
