Phillies-Rangers 5 things: Phils draw Yu Darvish, strikeout-prone offense

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Phillies (14-21) at Rangers (19-20)
8:05 p.m. on TCN; streaming live on CSNPhilly.com and the NBC Sports App

The Phillies are in Texas for their third-ever road series against the Rangers and first since the opening series of the 2014 season.

Let's take a look at the matchup:

1. Next up: Texas
The Phillies have lost all four of their series this month and have dropped 12 of their last 15 games.

They were competitive against the Nationals over the weekend but again lost a couple close ones. 

The Phils are finally entering a softer portion of the schedule. Their opponents over the next seven series have a combined winning percentage of .458. 

The stretch begins with the Rangers, who have won six in a row after a 13-20 start. Texas' success over the last week has been fueled by the steadiness of Nomar Mazara and Elvis Andrus, as well as some power from Joey Gallo and Mike Napoli.

Texas has also found some late-game stability in the bullpen with Matt Bush, who has three saves and a win in his last four appearances.

The Rangers' bullpen ERA is 5.10; the Phillies' is 4.77.

2. Eickhoff's old team
Just like Zach Eflin in L.A. at the end of April and Nick Pivetta twice this month with Washington, Jerad Eickhoff tonight will face the team that traded him to the Phillies.

Eickhoff is the only player from the 2015 Cole Hamels trade in the majors with the Phillies. Nick Williams and Jorge Alfaro are at Triple A, while Alec Asher was traded to Baltimore (where he's actually pitched pretty well).

Eickhoff never made it to the majors with the Rangers but was close when Texas included him in the Hamels deal. Eickhoff was a pitcher that Rangers GM Jon Daniels did not want to lose but had to.

As a Phillie, Eickhoff has shown why he was so tough for Daniels to give up — in 48 starts, he has a 3.63 ERA with 7.8 strikeouts per nine innings and just 2.2 walks. His run here has been mostly successful, even though some luck-based factors haven't gone his way.

Recently though, Eickhoff has struggled, allowing 14 runs in his last 15 innings and uncharacteristically walking eight.

His last time out, Eickhoff was provided rare run support but couldn't make it stand up, twice losing four-run leads. He just didn't have much against the Mariners, throwing some flat, poorly located fastballs. That big curveball is clearly his best pitch, but Eickhoff needs to command his fastball early to make the curve work best.

This isn't the easiest assignment for Eickhoff against an American League team using the DH in a hitter-friendly ballpark. But the Rangers do have various lineup holes — more on that below — that Eickhoff could exploit. 

Eickhoff is 4-1 with a 4.66 ERA in seven career interleague starts.

He's pitched in an AL park against the DH four times and gone 3-1 with a 3.68 ERA, shutting down the Blue Jays, White Sox and Twins and being lit up by the Red Sox.

3. Phils draw Darvish
The Phillies won't see Hamels this week in Arlington — he's on the DL with an oblique strain that could keep him out through the All-Star break.

They will, however, face Rangers ace Yu Darvish in tonight's series opener. 

The 30-year-old Japanese right-hander has been a workhorse already for Texas, averaging 113 pitches over his last four starts and ranking fifth in the AL in innings. He's 3-2 with a 2.96 ERA this season and has struck out 52 while walking 21 in 51⅔ innings.

For all of his strengths, Darvish can lose the strike zone at times. He's had three starts already with four-plus walks.

Still, he's very difficult to hit. Darvish enters with a .204 opponents' batting average, and he's limited his opponent to two runs or less in five of his starts.

Most American League aces dominate in interleague play and Darvish is one of them. In 13 career starts vs. the NL, Darvish is 7-2 with a 2.26 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 116 strikeouts to 27 walks in 87⅔ innings.

He's never faced the Phillies.

One of the many things that makes Darvish so tough is that he throws eight different pitches, though he uses only five of them regularly. His fastball averages 94.5 mph, but he can also slow it way down with a curveball in the upper-60s and lower-70s. That velocity difference between his fastball and curveball is the largest in the sport.

4. Mid-order success
In April, the Phillies had tremendous production from the 1 and 2 spots in the order. They got very little from their three- and four-hitters, who hit a combined .233/.312/.375 for a .687 OPS, fourth-worst in the majors in April.

One of the only teams below the Phils in that regard in the first month was the Rangers, who had a .683 OPS from the three- and four-spots. 

But while Texas' middle of the order has continued to struggle in May (.617 OPS), the Phillies have been much better, thanks in large part lately to Aaron Altherr and Tommy Joseph.

This month, Phillies three- and four-hitters have an .883 OPS.

Altherr (1.435) and Joseph (1.397) actually rank first and second in the majors in OPS this month.

Until they cool off, there's no reason to switch up the lineup. Maikel Franco is not one of the Phillies' five best hitters right now and he's not going to reclaim the cleanup spot until he earns it.

5. Strikeout-filled lineup
The Rangers are a flawed offensive team with too many holes in the lineup. Carlos Gomez, Gallo and Napoli all have low batting averages and extremely high strikeout totals.

Gomez has improved after a slow start but is still hitting .246 with 44 K's. (Gomez was placed on the DL Monday with a strained hamstring and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.)

Gallo has 12 home runs but he's hitting .195 with 57 strikeouts.

Napoli had a two-homer game last week but is hitting .165 with eight walks and 47 strikeouts.

And second baseman Rougned Odor is at .197.

Altogether, the Rangers have 335 strikeouts compared to their opponents' 252. They've struck out about 30 times more than the league average, which if you think about it, means a team like the Phillies could strike out for all 27 outs tonight and not catch them.

Eickhoff typically has very good control, but this is a night he could benefit from throwing a few more pitches outside the strike zone to try to let the Rangers get themselves out.

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